CEBU · PHILIPPINES
Whale sharks, blue canyons, white-sand islands.
Oslob whale sharks, Kawasan canyoneering and the Moalboal sardine run. Island hopping off Mactan, the old Spanish city, and the long road down the south coast.
Only here
Three days you can only have in Cebu.
Plenty of coasts hand you a snorkel and an island to hop. Finning beside the Oslob whale sharks, canyoneering the blue Matutinao down to Kawasan, and dropping into the Moalboal sardine wall belong to this one island.
The world’s biggest fish
Swimming With Whale Sharks
Off the village of Tan-awan in Oslob, butanding (whale sharks) cruise the shallows close to shore almost every morning of the year. You slip off the outrigger and fin alongside an animal the length of a bus, close enough to count the white spots. Nowhere else are they this reliable, or this near the beach.
- 1 Cebu City: Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering
- 2 Cebu: Oslob Whale Sharks, Tumalog Falls & Sardine Snorkeling
- 3 Cebu: Whale Shark Swim and Kawasan Canyoneering Tour
Jump the blue water
Kawasan Canyoneering
Above Kawasan Falls in Badian, the Matutinao river runs an impossible turquoise through a jungle gorge. You spend a morning working down it: leaping off ledges into deep pools, sliding the worn rock chutes and swimming the narrows, before the river spills over the three tiers of Kawasan itself.
- 1 Cebu City: Whale Shark Swimming & Kawasan Falls Canyoneering
- 2 Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch
- 3 Canyoneering Experience in Kawasan Falls with Lunch
A living tornado
The Moalboal Sardine Run
Just metres off Panagsama Beach, millions of sardines knot into a single shifting wall that blots out the light and turns with you as you swim. It runs all year, in water shallow enough to reach on a breath, which is why snorkellers and divers come back to Moalboal for it again and again.
- 1 Cebu Moalboal: Kawasan Canyoneering Adventure with Lunch
- 2 Cebu: Oslob Whale Sharks, Tumalog Falls & Sardine Snorkeling
- 3 Cebu: Oslob Whale Sharks, Moalboal Sardine Run & Turtles
Start with the big one
The day most people book first.
If you’ve only got one big day on the south coast, this is the run more travellers pick than any other.
The classics
Cebu's Most Popular Tours
Oslob whale sharks, Kawasan canyoneering, the Moalboal sardine run and the Mactan island hop. The days most people come to Cebu for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Cebu trip is built around.
Whale sharks at Oslob, the canyons at Kawasan, the sardine run at Moalboal, island hopping off Mactan, the old Spanish city and the sandbars down south. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The south-coast run
Down the south coast, stop by stop.
Cebu’s best days line up along one road south of the city. Here’s the order most people drive them, from the Oslob whale sharks to the Moalboal sardine run, with a stop at every blue pool in between.
- 1 ~3 hrs south Oslob Swim with whale sharks at first light off Tan-awan, then cool off under Tumalog Falls. 55 tours →
- 2 Off the south tip Sumilon A shifting white sandbar and a clear-water lagoon just offshore. 20 tours →
- 3 Over to Badian Kawasan Canyoneer the blue gorge down to the three-tier falls. 46 tours →
- 4 Up the west coast Moalboal Fin into the sardine run straight off Panagsama Beach. 45 tours →
Cebu City
The oldest city in the islands.
Cebu City is where Spain made landfall in 1521. Magellan’s Cross still stands in its little kiosk, the Santo Niño basilica keeps the country’s oldest relic, and Fort San Pedro guards the old harbour. Climb into the hills and the Temple of Leah and the Sirao flower gardens look back over the whole bay, with a plate of Cebu lechon waiting at the bottom.
Read the guide: the best Cebu City tours →Under the surface
The other half of Cebu is underwater.
Slip below and the island opens up. Green turtles grazing the Moalboal reef, the sheer Pescador wall dropping into the blue, thresher sharks off Malapascua at first light, and easy house reefs straight off the Mactan resorts. Some of the warmest, best-value diving and snorkelling in Asia, on tap all year.
See the snorkel & dive trips →Moalboal
Millions of fish, one breath away.
Off Panagsama Beach a permanent shoal of sardines knots into a single silver mass that bends and folds around you as you swim. No boat ride, no deep dive: it sits in waist-to-chest water a few fin-kicks from shore, and it is there every day of the year. Snorkel it on a breath or drop in on scuba and let it close over you.
The Moalboal sardine run →Across the strait
A whole other island in a day.
A fast ferry from Cebu City puts the island of Bohol within a day trip. The Chocolate Hills roll to the horizon, wide-eyed tarsiers cling to the forest, and lunch drifts down the Loboc river on a floating restaurant. The full countryside loop, there and back before dark.
- 1 Cebu City: Bohol Countryside Tour with Loboc Cruise Lunch
- 2 Bohol Countryside Day Tour From Cebu City | Lunch at Loboc River Cruise
- 3 Bohol Day Tour with Round-Trip Transfers from Cebu
By gear
Pick your day, by how hard you want it.
Cebu does every setting. A slow sandbar afternoon, the classic giants-and-falls day, or a full-send morning jumping into a canyon. Choose your gear and the island delivers.
Take it easy
Sandbars, boats and lechon.Island hopping off Mactan, a slow lunch on the Sumilon spit, and the city’s roast-pork trail when the sun is high.
The classic day
Giants, falls and reef.Swimming with the Oslob whale sharks at first light, the Tumalog Falls curtain, and the Moalboal sardine run an arm’s length offshore.
Full send
Jump the blue canyon.Leaping and sliding down the Kawasan gorge, the Pescador wall on scuba, and the dawn scramble up Osmeña Peak.
Badian
Jump, slide and swim down a blue gorge.
Above Kawasan Falls the Matutinao river runs an unreal turquoise through a jungle canyon, and the only way down is through it. A morning of leaping off ledges into deep pools, sliding the polished rock chutes and swimming the narrows, helmet on and guide in front, ending at the three blue tiers of Kawasan itself.
See all 46 canyoneering trips →By region
One island, top to tail.
Cebu City for the forts and the lechon. Mactan for the reefs and the resorts. Oslob for the whale sharks. Moalboal for the sardines. Badian for the canyons. Bantayan for the white sand up north.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Mask on for the whale sharks and the turtles. Helmet on for the canyon. A boat out to the islands, a tank for the wall, or a slow morning of forts and food in the city.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on the island? Here’s a long weekend that hits the giants, the canyons and the city without a wasted hour.
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