After Manila we took a flight to Cebu city, which is an island south of Manila (£32 per person one way including 20kg of luggage). The airport is Mactan Cebu International Airport. The best way to get around the Philippines is either by boat if the weather and schedule permits. The other option is flying, which is a bit more expensive but incredibly quick so it all depends on your budget and time constraints. We took a mixture of boats and flights throughout our trip around Philippines.

The low cost carriers around the Philippines include:

• Cebu Pacific Air
• Philippines Airlines (PAL)

They always have promotions now and again and sometimes the fare can be dirt cheap so it’s worth looking back at their websites from time to time. The Philippines Airlines isn’t specifically a low cost carrier but prices are sometimes the same as Cebu Air.

Another thing to note is everytime you leave an airport you need to pay a ‘departure tax’. This could be anywhere from 400 Pesos to 1300 Pesos. However if you book your flights online you will likely have already paid the fees as part of your overall airfare.

Cebu city was a stopover for us so we could explore the southern tip around Boljoon and Oslob (whale sharks!). You can sightsee around Cebu city but it was very crowded and busy. There are a few churches nearby.

We stayed at Le Village Guesthouse and from there we took a taxi (70 pesos + 10 pesos entrance fee into the bus terminal?! – yes very bizarre). There are lots of buses departing and different types of buses. Some have no aircon whilst others have aircon. As it is not a lot more expensive we opted for the aircon bus as the journey was at least 3 and a half hours dependant on traffic. It does make stops on the way to drop off and pick up passengers. The fare was 120 Pesos.

At Boljoon we stayed at Noordzee hostel on the main road. All the bus drivers know this place so you tell them you want to go there and they know when to drop you off. Boljoon is a really small town and we only stayed here for the hostel as there is only one in the area. It is a good location to go to see the whale sharks from here and less expensive than the hostel where the whale sharks are.

Dorms began at 400 pesos each. Here is our review.

Here you can do the following activities:

Oslob town is famous for swimming with the whale sharks:

We arrived there early to avoid the crowds. We woke up at 5am and got the bus at 5:30am. There isn’t a bus timetable so you holla at a bus signposted for Oslob and tell them you are going to whale sharks. It takes around 30 minutes before you get off and head to one of the stands. For half an hour of snorkelling it is 1000 pesos which includes life jacket and snorkel equipment. There is also a 100 Pesos entrance fee. You then get on a boat to the briefing place where they tell you not to feed the  sharks, to maintain a 4m distance and not to wear sunscreen etc

Then we headed out into the sea, which is not really that far. We swam with 3 of the whale sharks. Most of the time they were feeding as the fisherman would throw chunks of food for them. It was so surreal, there are huge around 12m long!! There’s nothing really to be scared about and we also hired a go pro, as mine had broken, for 500 Pesos which we shared amongst 3 of us. It’s amazing that this place has these gentle giants. When they open their mouths it feels like you might get sucked in!

Afterwards you can use the showers and the one and only toilet.

Lockers are also provided so bring a padlock to store your valuables before you head out as the all you will be taking is yourself and your waterproof camera and snorkel out with you.

We then decided to walk to the Tumalog Waterfalls, a 3 tiered waterfall that I had seen online and off we went. Just ask someone for the directions because it is not far. At first they may offer to give you a ride for a fee – 120 pesos  but we decided to do it the backpackers way and walk it. The first part is fine and very flat, but then the road got steeper and steeper. 3km took us almost an hour and sucked the life of of us. One of us nearly gave up but we just kept pushing and thinking about swimming afterwards in the waterfall and pool. It did not disappoint and the water was so cold! Everyone was having a blast! We got some really nice pictures.

Then headed back for hostel to nap zzzzzzzz. There are other activities you can do, which were provided for by our hostel. Read here for more information.

After swimming with whale sharks we heard about turtles on another nearby island so we headed out again for our next trip.

We arrived at Cebu Airport and then took a metered taxi from the entrance of the building. The total fare does vary because there are lots of traffic jams in Manila. We hadn’t really experience any in Manila but we were thinking how great it was to get a metered taxi and not having to barter with the fare and getting ripped off. However we were so wrong. The sat in a traffic jam all the way from the airport into the city. At one point it was 45 minute and all you can do is hope that the cars start moving. There was a lot of road works at the time but mainly because there were too many cars. The total fare amounted to 350 Pesos when actually it would have been a lot less as it was only 20 minutes away.

The hostel is nice with tables at the front to socialise and relax with. There is also a pool table and a free beer or soft drink for staying the night. There are a lot of dorm rooms here and we stayed in a what seemed to be a recently refurbished room. However the second time we stayed in the room next to the reception and it was terrible – noisy and smelly as it was attached next to the bathroom and you could smell the sewage. We did get use to the smell and it was only for one night so try to get the dorms away from the reception.

The dorm beds are nice, basic and clean. Not all of them have power sockets that were working. There was a big cabinet to store our belongings and also lockers near the bathroom to lock away valuables. Note that the lockers are very small. The aircon worked really well too. The bathroom was basically 3 showers and 3 toilets all lined up next to each other in a big room. Sinks are available on the other side. The one problem was the flushing situation as Cebu was experiencing a draught you could only flush the toilet using a bucket and pail, which was really annoying because a trickle of water would come out to refill the bucket and many people did not flush the toilet properly. I don’t think the staff cleaning the toilets would have been happy.

Other things to note:

• The wifi is okay (although to be fair it is slow anywhere in the Philippines!). You can only access it in the reception or outside seating area.
• There is 2 ATMs nearby – BDO, which charges a 200 Peso fee for a withdrawal and the Metrobank further down the road, which doesn’t charge.
• Sometimes the electricity goes out (again, common throughout Philippines).
• The lockers are small and they have a key provided already.
• They do cooked food and cold drinks and a free water dispenser. You can use the kitchen area but it is self service only.
• There are also food shops nearby and a fruit shop right outside.
• Taxis cost roughly 70 Pesos to the bus terminal if you are catching a bus to Boljoon.

Overall for the price of 450 Pesos it was a good nights sleep and we learnt a lot of places and things to visit by talking to other people, who also stayed there.

Noordzee Hostel is situated in Boljoon, which is in the south of Cebu city. This hostel is a very popular stopover for backpackers who have come to visit the whale sharks in Oslob. Another reason is because there are no other hostels in the area like many other places in the Philippines!