Bantayan Trip 2025: Part 1

Good day, Hive Community! Welcome to my first travel content featuring one of the known islands in Northern Cebu, the Bantayan Island! Come with me as I share with you all our 3D2N trip with my high school friends 😊.

Last December 2025, when we met with my high school friends as a mini reunion, we decided to meet-up again for an out-of-town trip and Bantayan Island was unanimously chosen as our desired destination. The trip was initially scheduled on June 20 to 22 but was finally pushed through on June 27 to 29, 2025, Friday to Sunday.

We decided to set the assembly time at 5am at North Bus Terminal on June 27. We were complete an hour later and headed to the aircon bus that will take us to the port to Bantayan Island.

For everyone who doesn’t know about the island, Bantayan Island is one of the famous islands in Cebu located in its Northern part. It showcases beautiful white sand beaches and a favorite summer destination for locals and tourists. It has three municipalities namely Santa Fe, Bantayan, and Madridejos. The port is located in Santa Fe and where the finest beaches are found. Bantayan is considered the town center where an old church from the 15th century is located. The island is also known for its sunset view and can be fully seen in Madridejos.

DAY 01: JUNE 27, 2025

The trip took 5 hours from the North Bus Terminal at SM City Cebu to the Medillin Port/Kawit for Php 280.00. It made a quick stopover at Bastap Carmen before going all the way to the port and arrived by 10:30am. We boarded the barge by 11:00am for Php 250.00 and took some good photos with the beautiful view of the seas and my friends.

_{upper left to lower right: bus aisle, port view, barge entrance, Cebu Island}

We arrived at 12:00nn at the Santa Fe Port and dropped at the guest house owned by my previous workmate’s family. The name of the accommodation is Aleya’s Guest House which is a two-storey house with a living room, a bathroom, and a bedroom on the first floor. The second floor showcased a loft type kind of design with two double beds and an extra bed.

_{upper left to lower right: upper view of the living room, two king-sized beds and an extra bed, first floor bedroom, stairs to the loft, high ceiling with chandelier}

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out for lunch and looked for a restaurant offering seafood. When we went outside, there were tricycles parked and inquired about their daily rates. However, it was already expensive for the current quality of the vehicle.

We ordered a platter of seafood, chicken, lumpia, and rice. Since we are in need of easy and convenient transportation, one of my friends looked up online and found an e-bike rental shops around the area. Fortunately, it was located near the restaurant so while waiting for our orders, he went there and rented a 5-person e-bike for Php800/day.

_{upper left to lower right: back view of the ebike, lumpia and adobong manok, seafood and chicken platter, adobong nokus, baked scallops, side of the e-bike}

After lunch, we proceeded back to our accommodation, changed to our swimming attires, and headed our way to one of the most popular beach resorts in the island with the beach accessible to the public, the Kota Beach. With a gloomy weather, the beach brought waves after waves and was a tad bit packed with other tourists. We stayed for an hour and a few minutes. When it started drizzling, we went back to the accommodation, freshened up, and prepared again to go outside to buy some dinner and do some quick groceries.

_{snippets from Kota Beach}

We ended the first day by watching a movie from Netflix called KPop Demon Hunters paired with new ice creams from Selecta called Langkasuy and Vanilla Toffee Caramel Bites.

_{Netflix and Ice Cream}

1st half of DAY 02: JUNE 28, 2025

The next day, I woke up around 7am and since our accommodation was located by the beach, I decided to take a stroll and took in the early rays of the Sun. The sea looks so calm and the sands are white but there were dead seaweeds washed ashore. Nevertheless, the scenery looks calm and quiet. My friend decided to join me after a few minutes.

_{morning by the shore snippets}

For our breakfast, we ordered from our accommodation and paid Php 100/meal. The itinerary for the day is to go visit places from the Bantayan Proper back to Santa Fe and wait for the other friend who’s travelling late since she wasn’t able to go with us during the first day.

We left our accommodation around 10am and traveled all the way to Bantayan Proper. We passed by the Bantayan airport which offers a popular, expensive tourist activity called Skydiving by Skydive Cebu. Located in the heart of Bantayan is the oldest church in Visayas and Mindanao, the St Peter and Paul Church. The paintings by the ceiling were so astonishing that I can’t stop looking up. We paid respects by praying inside and by the “Dagkutanan”.

After which, we took our lunch at one of the famous cafes in Bantayan, the Kermit’s Café. They have a branch in Cebu City so we pretty much have an idea already on what’s on their menu. However, there is always a novelty feeling when you get to eat at the original place. I ordered their signature Three Cheese Burger with a super creamy and cheesy sauce and flavorful and thick beef patty. Of course, we didn’t skip on their best part which are their popular, delectable cakes! We had Ube Regular, Pistachio Chocolate, Very Berry, and Mango Overload. Each slice had its own distinct, scrumptious taste but the one thing that stood the most for me was the Pistachio Chocolate (although might be bias since this chocolate has been all over my social media timeline).

_{all the food we ordered}

After the mouthwatering lunch, we traveled back to our accommodation and waited for our arriving friend. Our driver friend picked her up since our accommodation is just near the port. When she arrived, we wasted no time in changing to our swimming outfits and headed to our next destination.

We went to one of the popular tourist attractions in the island which is called The Ruins. It is a German Ruin and Cliff that was known due to a German who built a house and left his property after a few years for unknown reasons. Since then, tourists flocked the area, vandalizing the walls, and jumping off the cliff to its beautiful waters. We took pictures and had some grilled banana cue with margarine and white sugar paired with coconut drink and meat as afternoon snacks.

_{German ruins and cliff}

After half an hour, we proceeded the 20-min trip going to the Sandira Beach or also known as the Paradise Beach. It’s a secluded pristine white sand beach graced with the presence of corals and school of fishes. There were warnings pasted about black jelly fishes and we sure did encounter quite a few of them. The waters here are calmer compared to the ones in Kota Beach. Good thing we were geared with snorkeling goggles and snorkel kits because we were able to view tons of various fishes. I felt so great that I had to lay my back and float to feel the serenity that the ocean gives.

The group spent 2 hours by the Sandira Beach until we were the only ones left. On the way out, the sky started to get dark and since we were riding an open e-bike in a mountainous terrain with big, tall trees, I started to get scared plus my friends were teasing me about it already hehehehe.

And that's it for the first part of this trip! Thank you for making it until this part and stay tuned for the second half :)

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