How To Get From Cebu City To Moalboal (Quickest & Cheapest!)
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Moalboal is situated 90km south of Cebu City and an up and coming coastal resort with plenty of incredible activities. It’s a great base location for exploring the south of Cebu island including Kasawan Falls and Oslob.
Moalboal itself is actually a town on the highway, 6km off the coast (where you’ll be dropped off when coming to Moalboal by bus) – It’s probably not the place you’ve seen the photos of when planning your trip to the Philippines.
Instead, the area you’ll be looking at staying at is either White Beach (a much larger beach than Panagsama Beach) or Panagsama Beach (famous for the sardine run) however, everyone just calls the entire area Moalboal.
The cheapest way to get from Cebu to Moalboal is by bus. Buses leave the Cebu bus station regularly and you can buy tickets online or in person. Tickets cost 127PHP per person with an additional 20PHP for air conditioning (totally worth it!) the journey takes around 4 hours in total.
This also covers how to get from Cebu City to Badian. Badian is the municipality or district in which Moalboal is situated.
If you are looking at coming to Badian but not to Moalboal specifically then you’re still able to follow this guide and simply adjust the final endpoint of your trip to your location within Bardian.
| Transport | Duration | Cost | Book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bus | 4 hours | 127PHP | Book Online |
| Taxi | 4 hours | 2,200PHP | Book Online |
Bus
We originally planned to get from Cebu to Moalboal on the bus because it’s was the cheapest option at either 116 pesos or 127 pesos per person (the price difference is based on air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned buses)
So, we headed to Cebu City South Bus Terminal.
Whether you’re going from Cebu Airport to Moalboal or Cebu City to Moalboal, you’ll need to head to the City South Bus Terminal if you plan to travel there by bus.
We’ve found the easiest way to get to the South Bus Terminal is by taxi. Personally, we booked a Grab to pick us up from our hotel and drop us off at the terminal.
It costs an extra 10 pesos for taxi drivers to enter the bus terminal grounds to drop you off. It’s not necessary, but on a day when it was heavily raining and we had all our bags, it was very much worth it.
The bus terminal can be a little chaotic but there are signs above to point you in the right direction for the bus you’re looking to catch and plenty of staff around to assist you should you require it.
The bus terminal has toilets which are available to use at a cost of 5 pesos per person. There’s also plenty of places selling food and snacks either for the wait in the bus station or on the bus during your journey.
The bus from Cebu City to Moalboal costs 116 pesos for no-air conditioning and 127 pesos for air conditioning.
The bus takes around three to five hours depending on the number of stops it makes and the traffic (particular in the first 15km as you leave Cebu City) on that day.
The bus drops you off at the Moalboal bus terminal which is located around 4km from Panagsama Beach or White Beach.
You won’t struggle to find habal-habals or trikes upon arriving at the station, there’s plenty waiting for tourists to arrive.
To get to Panagsama Beach or White Beach from the Moalboal bus terminal you’ll want to hire a trike or habal-habal. The fare is around 100 pesos – Be sure to negotiate if you find the fare is significantly higher than this.
Taxi
As I mentioned above were looking at taking the bus from Cebu South Bus Station in the City to Moalboal. However, it seems that the day after the Sinulog Festival in Cebu City everyone else had the same idea.
Tourists began forming groups and going off to haggle a price for the journey with a taxi, and we were lucky enough to partner with someone from the USA and someone from the Czech Republic in a taxi.
We haggled the price down to 2,200 pesos but heard of other groups paying up to 3,200 pesos for the same journey with four passengers just like us.
Helen and I along with our newfound backpacking friend clambered into the backseats of a white taxi for the four-hour fifteen-minute drive (I watched almost every second pass by on the taxi metre) it wasn’t exactly luxurious but it certainly got the job done.
If you want a little more space, I suggest either getting the taxi to yourself or partnering up with some other travellers and getting a minibus instead.
Private Hire
If you’re able to plan your trip to Moalboal a couple of days in advance, then consider booking a private hire car for the journey.
We would have usually gone via Grab but they don’t operate on such a long journey so instead, I recommend making the booking via Klook. You can get a variety of different car sizes to suit your travelling needs.
You’ll tend to find a private hire car for the journey between Cebu and Moalboal is much more luxurious and safer than a standard white taxi and of course, you won’t need to haggle with the driver as the price is already pre-arranged.
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Thanks for stopping by! Do you have experience with this trip or want to share some of your own tips? We’d love to hear about it! Comment below and let’s chat!