Caohagan Island: Mactan Island Hopping 2020 Travel Guide

by | Feb 1, 2020 | Backpacking, Cebu, Island Life | 0 comments

caohagan island

Among the Olango Island group, you can find Caohagan Island. During low tide, you’ll find its white sandbar peeking out.

From Mactan, Caohagan island is around 30 minutes away and is one of the most popular destinations during summer.

Planning to visit? Here’s everything you need to know about this small island.

Important Things To Know About Caohagan Island

ATMs on the Island: During our visit, we didn’t see any ATMs on the island. Bring enough cash especially if you’re planning to eat here.

Languages Spoken: Most locals can speak Bisaya, Tagalog, and English.

Best time to visit: Best months to visit would be February to May for the least rainfall. But know that the island can get crowded during summer since it’s one of the easiest islands to visit from Mactan island.

We went in October and it was drizzling in nearby islands but there were only a handful of tourists.

Rates and Fees: Upon entering the island, you’ll be asked to pay the entrance fee of P200 (4 USD) per person. It is quite expensive. And if you want to stay for a few hours, you can rent a cottage for P300 (6 USD).

Top Things To Do in Caohagan Island

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Eat Seafood

Caohagan is famous for its fresh seafood. If you joined a Mactan island hopping tour, they’ll usually bring you here for lunch. However, with the freshest seafood comes high prices. But you can’t find any seafood fresher than those in Caohagan island.

They have live fishes, lobsters, prawns, crabs, and so on in big basins displayed near the sandbar. Upon inquiry, we learned that the large lobsters are priced at P3,500. Good thing, we ate our lunch before going here.

Snorkel

Caohagan has a Marine Sanctuary that’s approximately 3 kilometers long which means there’s a lot to see.

The waters around the island are crystal clear which makes it more enjoyable to explore the underwater beauty of the island.

caohagan
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Swim

Traveling with kids? They’ll love Caohagan island. The surrounding waters at the sandbar are only about 3 feet deep. Plus, there are no sharp rocks under the water – only pure soft sand.

For people like me who can’t sweep waters, Caohagan island is bliss!

How to Get to Caohagan Island

If you’re in Cebu City, travel to Mactan island.

Travel Tip: Check schedules and availability of buses, ferries, taxis or flights to Cebu to book online with 12Go Asia.

In Maribago, Mactan Island, you can hire a boat to bring you to Caohagan island. You can also opt for a tour package (which is what we did).

mactan island hopping
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Where to book the Mactan island hopping tour?

For your Mactan island hopping tour, we recommend Endez Island Hopping Mactan Cebu.  We met the owner himself during the trip. He was very friendly and accommodating.

Budget Tip: Upon learning that we had a travel blog, he offered to provide you guys with a freebie when booking. To claim, simply mention WANDERERA and get a maximum of 3 free usage of snorkeling gears for your island hopping experience! With this, you can save P300 (since snorkeling gears are rented at P100 each)! 

Endez Island Hopping Mactan Cebu offers several packages for the Mactan island hopping trip.

Just choose three islands from this list: Caohagan, Hilutungan, Sulpa, Nalusuan, Olango, Pandanon, & Cabul-an

Tour Rate

  • For 15 persons – P4,500 (that’s P300 per person)
  • For 20 persons – P5,000 (that’s P225 per person)
  • For 25 persons – P5,500 (that’s P220 per person)

For our trip, there was only Ryk and I. We had the big boat all to ourselves for only P3,500! We loved it since other Mactan island hopping tours usually provide small boats for 2 persons.

Usually, the tour consists of three islands but during our trip, we challenged ourselves to go to all islands. (Spoiler: We failed since we had to race against the low tide and some islands are really far.)

Note: The Mactan island hopping tour is a whole day activity. You’ll start at 8:00 AM and end at 4:00 PM.

How To Book

Here’s how to book a Mactan island hopping tour with Endez:

  1. Contact them on Facebook and let them know how many persons are in the group and when you’re planning to travel.
  2. Mention the code WANDERERA to get free usage for up to 3 snorkeling gears! Wooot! Woot! You can also opt to bring your own snorkeling gear.
  3. Pay the downpayment to reserve the boat. You’ll be asked to pay P1,000 via BPI. The rest of the payment will be paid during the trip itself.

And that’s it!

Inclusions:

  • Life Vests
  • Grillers – if you want to cook on the boat

Exclusions:

  • Food
  • Snorkeling Gears – rental is at P100 each

Budget Tip: Bring your own food. Most of the restaurants in the islands are expensive. However, if you’re lucky, you’ll come across fishermen who sell their fresh catch for the day. We saw some at Pandanon Island.

Contact

  • Contact Numbers: Smart: 09474674684 | Sun: 09257348292 | PLDT: 349-2220

You can watch our island hopping here:

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Where to Stay in Mactan

Since you’ll be starting the trip early, I’d recommend booking a place to stay at Mactan.

Airbnb Mactan

You can also look for other accommodations on Airbnb.

Budget Tip: Here’s a P2,200 ($44) Airbnb travel credit card for you to use on your trip when you sign up here.

Get your P2,200 ($44) Airbnb discount here!

What to Pack

Related Article: The Only Travel Packing List You’ll Ever Need (Trust Me)

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