Moalboal : Where To Start Your Philippines Tour
Welcome to Moalboal, where diving, canyoneering and cheap eats all meet
Snorkel the Sardine Run
The Sardine run happens just off the shore of Moalboal, so many folks just snorkel out to it. The Scuba diving is great here too with a very impressive wall. When the sardines swim over you, expect the lights to dim. It’s incredible. Fins and masks can be rented from many shops, and dont forget you’ll need money for the marine fee of 100 pesos
The arrow above points to where the sardines are swimming
Canyoneering
You can’t walk more than 5 feet without someone offering a canyoneering tour. Again, choice here can be overwhelming. The street tours are offered for 1800 pesos, online they can go for a lot more. For safety we went for an online outfitter where reviews were easy to see. It was 2000 pesos per person.
Canyoneering at Kawasan Falls is the most popular option
The tours pick up at 6am, 9am and 12pm. Our outfitter picked us up and we drove to their office site where you could lock up your bags. Then a drive to the Badian Canyon (which is the same river that flows into Kawasan Falls). We had 15 people in our crew, and 8 guides. So once we started the guides split the groups up. There were lots of cliff jumps (all skippable), and rope swings too. Along the way several vendors sell snack and drinks too. At the end a very good meal was provided. I would highly recommend going with PH Kawasan Canyoneering.
Diving in Moalboal
Moalboal is famous for several things, but diving is the top of the list. We stayed here for 7 days to get ourr diving certificate and I would highly recommend you do the same if you have the time
Open Water Course
This course (offered through Padi) has eLearning you can do ahead of time, followed by a 3 day course (most websites say 3-5 days just incase of weather of other factors). In Moalboal there are an overwhelming number of diveshops. So to keep it simple I’d recommend Cebu Fun Divers. We took our course here and they have a great setup with there pool to start you diving off. One other bonus of taking you dive course in Moalboal is typically 1 training dive will be at the sardine run!
Pescador Island
This is one of the top dive spots in Moalboal, a short 10 min boat ride will bring you to the island where a wall drops off around 15 meters. What makes is unique is that there are a number of small caves and overhangs you can easily maneuver into and explore. The current here is a medium and on rough days the coast guard will shut down tours, so pick your days wisely. Cost with equipment 2500 pesos
Waterfalls
Waterfalls of Cebu are quite stunning, and once again the paradox of choice hits hard here. So we did two. Kawasan (typically included with canyoneering tours) and Inambakan Falls, a recommendation from our scuba instructor.
Inambakan
By scooter be ready for at least 90 min ride (all depending how fast you go) down the coast through some really scenic area. Upon arrival there are two entrances where one parking is 20 and the other is 70 pesos, Im not sure how to get to either. Both have guides that offer you a tour for around 400 pesos (park fees included). To note you can easily do this hike on your own to all the falls, but the money goes to locals and they can get some good photos of you too.
The 1st of 7 falls
This was the 3rd falls and a little hidden too, we had this spot to ourselves