Cebu To Bohol By Ferry – Everything You Need To Know!

Bohol is one of those magical areas in Cebu that you have to visit. Most of us, ourselves included visit Bohol after arriving in Cebu City.

As Bohol and Cebu are two separate islands, you’ll have to take either a flight or ferry between the two. In this case, ferries are the cheapest, most direct, and often the quickest way of getting between the two locations.

The majority of both tourists and locals take the ferry, as a result, we will only be focusing on this method of travelling from Cebu and Bohol only in this article.

How To Get To Cebu Ferry Port

The easiest way to get to the Cebu ferry port is via taxi. The taxi will drop you off just outside the terminal.

You are able to buy your tickets for the journey online in advance, or upon arrival at the terminal – the price is no different either way.

Due to the number of tourists who travel on this route every day, you’ll find the process to be relatively straightforward and well signposted.

There are multiple different companies that offer ferries from Cebu to Bohol. We personally recommend; Supercat Fast or Ocean Jet.

Upon arriving at Cebu ferry port we simply looked at the two boards and determined which ferry would be leaving soonest and chose to travel with that company. Both of these companies run ferries to two different ports in Bohol; Tagbilaran and Tubigon.

The Tagbilaran route is more popular as this is seen as the central location within Bohol. It’s perfect for tourists who are looking at visiting the Chocolate Hills, Tarsiers etc.

Ferry Classes

There are two ferry classes that both Supercat Fast and Ocean Jet operate on this route.

Tourist Class – The cheaper class of the two (and the class we choose to travel in) you’ll have less legroom and be sat on a half open-aired deck.

Business Class – More expensive than the two you’ll have an air-conditioned seating area with more space.

How Much Does The Ferry From Cebu To Bohol Cost?

Tourist class tickets between Cebu and Bohol cost us 800 pesos.

However, on top of this charge, there’s also a compulsory terminal fee of 25 pesos per passenger with an additional charge of between 50 and 100 pesos per piece of luggage. The exact price of your luggage depends on the weight and size.

The Journey From Cebu To Tagbilaran

The journey between Cebu and Tagbilaran in Bohol will take around two hours on one of the fast ferries and around four hours on one of the standard ferries. All ferries have a safety instructional video prior to departure.

Onboard there’s a small range of facilities and services including male and female toilets as well as a small snack bar where you can buy food and drink.

There’s no time in which you’re confined to your seats, so you are free to get up and walk around as and when you wish to do so which in our case proved to be incredibly valuable for three reasons;

• Our assigned seats were separate, I was upstairs, while Helen was situated downstairs.
• Helen’s seat was situated next to the boiler room which was incredibly noisy.
• It was hot. Incredibly hot.

As a result, we spent a lot of time out on the front of the deck watching the world go by. Just be sure you’re topped up with suncream as it was an incredible suntrap.

Arriving In Tagbilaran

Once you arrive in Tagbilaran you’ll walk towards the terminal exit. Here you’ll no doubt be greeted by many taxi and habal-habal drivers looking to take you to your accommodation while in Bohol.

These tend to be overpriced (although you could easily haggle down the price should you wish to do so), instead there’s a licensed taxi departure location just outside of the terminal.

If you choose to go to the licenced taxi departure location you may find yourself queuing and waiting for a taxi. Especially if your location isn’t a desirable one.

Our hotel was just a five-minute drive from the terminal and nobody wanted to take us as other passengers were travelling to beach resorts further away which meant more money for the driver.

We probably could have walked to our hotel, but it was so hot and we’d not bought a sim card for Google Maps (get a Simcard, they are super cheap and make life much easier!) so risked easily getting lost.