First Day in Cebu: Kawasan Falls Edition

First Day in Cebu: Kawasan Falls Edition

The Philippines had been on my bucket list for a long time and the reason is Instagram. The beautiful pictures of the white sand beaches, beautiful sunsets and joyful people, intrigued me.

I usually base my vacations on the flight that is on sale and to my surprise a flight to Cebu was a little over $400 per person. WHAT A DEAL!

Due to civil unrest and high terrorism alert, we could not visit some of the best islands in the Philippines (Palawan and Siargao). I found that out after I bought our nonrefundable tickets. The only places we could go were Cebu and Bohol.

In this post I will talk about Cebu and more specifically Moalboal which was our first stop. I will give you some tips on how to avoid some mistakes that we made when we first got to Cebu.

Tip 1. Buy a sim card. You will have internet everywhere which is important because relaying on wifi is just not option. We used it mostly for maps and figuring out where to go since we mostly got around by renting our own scooter. We got ours at the airport but they sell them everywhere!  

Tip 2. The taxi drivers WILL TRY AND SCAM YOU. Do not be fooled. Do not get in the cab without setting a price to begin with or make sure the meter is working. We ended up paying 600 pesos EACH. I am still mad thinking about it. I wish I could go back and change it but I unfortunately cannot so it is what it is.

Tired after 20+ hour flight and riding on our first bus

We made our way to the bus station and catch the bus to Moalboal. Famous for the Kawasan Falls! I was so excited to start this adventure.

 When we first got to Moalboal about twenty people tried to give us a ride but we started walking. We wanted to experience the Philippines and our hotel was close enough. On our way to our hotel a couple of kids started following us and started singing and I was singing with them and they asked for money lol 

Tip 3. Do not give money away because it will lead to more and more people begging for money, so just keep walking.

 After we rented a bike, we started our day going to Kawasan Falls but ended up canyoneering instead. The experience was really fun and exciting but it was a little weird since the other groups kept going and we stopped. Instead we started hiking to where we would get picked up and dropped off to our bike.

The guides were extremely friendly and took some awesome pictures and videos but every other group got to see the falls with their canyoneering tour and we didn’t. The weird part is that we paid more than those people so I am not sure what happened there. In their pictures they also showed the actual falls so I don’t know. Make sure you get to see the actual falls as well.

We used 7H Canyoneering Adventure

Tip 4. Bargain, Bargain, Bargain. I cannot stress this enough. If you do not bargain people will take advantage of you. They really spiked up the prices for foreigners so do not be afraid to bargain. We literally became pros by the end of this trip. I wish we had done it sooner. Even if they say no that’s my final price, tell them okay and walk away. Every time they chased us down and accepted our price!

After canyoneering, we decided to go riding up to Osmena peak and hit the falls on our way back. It started down pouring so we decided to turn around because it was getting unsafe and we were freezing.

Tip 5. It may start to rain so get a dry bag for your phone before you go to the Philippines, that way your phone will be safe.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Kawasan falls and although it was absolutely gorgeous, crystal clear water, we were sharing it with MANY others. It was so frustrating to see man made facilities in such a beautiful gem of nature.

Tip 6. Get to Kawasan early in the morning to avoid the hundreds of people. Everyone comes after their canyoneering tour so if you go early you should be fine. There will always be people there but hopefully not as many.

Non Edited picture so you can see what the water actually looks like AMAZING!

Tip 7. People are really nice. They will often wave at you, so wave back!

I will attach my itinerary for day one. Although we didn’t do all of it because of the rain we encountered going to osmena peak, it should help you be more prepared than we were.