Going to Bantayan Island The Convenient Way

Bantayan Island is located in the northern part of Cebu.  To get there, if you are from Manila, you will be using all modes of transportation: via air, land and sea.  You will need to book first a flight from Manila to Cebu.  Then from Cebu, you will ride a jeepney or a cab from the airport to go to the bus terminal where it is headed to the Hagnaya port where you will ride a ferry going to Bantayan Island.  If you compute for the time in all these modes of transportation, it will take you about 8 hours just to get to Bantayan Island.  This includes waiting time from the airport (about 2 hours).  Once in Cebu, travel time takes about 5-6 hours including waiting time.

An easier way to go to Bantayan Island is via rented van, private vehicle or taxi.  Of course this will entail additional and more expensive cost.  But if you are a group, the share of expenses will be lighter.  And if you are press for time with no worries about additional cost, then you can opt to ride these.

Getting a taxi or rented van will take you only 2 hours travel time from the airport to the port.  Another 1 hour for the ferry ride going to Bantayan Island.  All in all, that's only 3 hours!  Aside from you will get there easily, you will not also feel tired.  Its just like traffic in Manila, haha!

Anyway, I made this separate post particularly in getting to Bantayan Island the convenient way is because I wanted to share the contact details of our taxi driver.  I prearrange taxi transport service with Anika Island Resort (where we stayed in Bantayan Island, blog post to be uploaded soon) as they provided the cheapest taxi transport service I found.  Normally, the cost is Php 3,000 per way from Mactan Airport to Hagnaya port.  Some even charge as high as Php 4,000 (according to ad post in olx.com.ph).  The lowest I inquired was at Php 2,800 then I found Php 2,500.  Finally, Anika Island Resort told me that their charge is Php 2,000 only per way and payable to the taxi driver directly!  That's already cheap!  At least for us.  Because Air Asia moved our flight to a not so early morning, we wanted to maximize our time and at least arrive in Bantayan Island by lunch time.

Mr. Jimmy Pacifico is our taxi driver.  We learned that he not only caters transport service to Anika Island Resort's guest but to several resorts and hotels as well.  He can even take the passengers to Maya port (pickk up point going to Malapascua Island) at a cheap rate of Php 3,000 one way and even to the port going to Camotes Island.  He's a very jolly man and with safe driving skills.  We never encountered any problems while riding his taxi.  He does not own the taxi but I'm not sure until when will he be driving it since we learned that his son will soon be working in Singapore and part of their plan is to have their own taxi company so maybe later on he will no longer be the driver but the owner of the taxi.

Just to know how affordable his Php 2,000 rate is, he turned on the meter reading on our way to Hagnaya port.  The meter read Php 1,100+, not a lot difference from his rate to think that he will still go back to Cebu City with no more passengers.  We also asked him to fetch us from Hagnaya port going to Shangri-la Mactan on our 3rd day in Cebu.  Again, he turned the meter on.  Once in Shangri-la, it read Php 1,500+.  Again, he has no passengers on the way to Hagnaya port.  So we thought, his rate was really reasonable.  We handed him a tip for a very safe and convenient ride.

You may contact him at 09176961523.  Just tell him that one of their passengers from Anika Island Resort last October 24 recommended him to you.  I'm not sure if still remembers us but for sure we will never forget him.  We will get his service again on our next trip to Cebu, maybe going to Malapascua Island.