Cebu's Paradise: Malapascua Island

Karlee
May 13, 2018
3 min read

Updated: Dec 13, 2019

Our first stop on our journey in the Philippines was to head out of Lapu lapu and make our way to the beautiful island of Malapascua in Cebu. To get to Malapascua is a bit tricky from Cebu City. You must take a very long bus ride and a few taxi rides or a very expensive Grab or private taxi ride for 4-5 hours. After an extremely few stressful days of traveling and some bumps in the road, we decided to suck it up and pay the 50 US dollars for the private grab ride. We left extremely early, so we could beat the crowds and guarantee we get on the boats going to the island since they stop running at 5pm.

Once we arrived by boat we met an awesome filipino family that ended up staying in contact with us and inviting us on a private sunset snorkel trip! We settled into our adorable guest house ran by lady boys called the Romantic Place Guest House. It was super cute, and the staff was so kind to us! There are no motor bikes or cars for rent on Malapascua so you must walk, ride a bike, or take motor bike taxis. They are cheap so its convenient way to explore the island. We walked everywhere because the island is small.

Some of our days were spent relaxing on the white sand beaches and soaking up the sun. Some days we rented a boat and driver and they took us on a boat tour around the island. This was a super fun day we had a boat to ourselves and got to snorkel in many different places, snorkeled at a Japanese ship wreck, and he even took us to the famous Lapu Lapu jumping cliff. The cliffs were scary to me but of course sawyer had no problem doing backflips and ganors off the highest point. It took me a about twenty minutes till I finally decided to jump! It was scary but so fun!! The snorkeling wasn’t the best but there was a lot of beautiful fish to be seen and A LOT of starfish! We also went diving, but we learned the hard way and it can be hard to find a dive shop that has availability. Luckily, we found one. It was our first dive after eight months of not diving and it was amazing! The reef and corals were so colorful, and the fish were plentiful! If I ever came back I would spend a lot more time diving than snorkeling. Unfortunately, I ran into some ear problems after diving, so I was unable to do the 5 am, thrasher shark dive with Sawyer but he had quite the experience. Besides being busy with other divers, the sharks were beautiful and majestic and well worth getting up at the crack of dawn for! Plus, who doesn’t like watching the sunrise over the ocean on a boat.

If you are looking for delicious authentic Filipino food, check out Anns Eatery! Not only is she a great host and cook, she is now a friend. Her veggie curry is so yummy, I could eat it every day (which I pretty much did). If you’re lucky, she will take a photo with you for her wall J! Sawyer loved her adobo, and her juices are also a must!

Our favorite beach was bounty beach and the beautiful Langub. Langub is picture perfect with white sand and of course…. Palm trees and blue water! The best part is nobody is there, probably because it is off the beaten path but those are the best finds! If you want to enjoy a beautiful island sunset check out Barrio Beach! The sunsets were incredible and we spent almost every night enjoying them. Malapascua is a beautiful paradise and worth making the adventure too. The night life is mellow but there are a handful of bars that get wild when the sun goes down. My favorite part of the island was how local it felt, we got to watch a basketball tournament with hundreds of locals rooting of their favorite teams. It was great fun!