Getting there · Bantayan Island
Leave at 4 AM. Ferry by 8. Bantayan by 10.
The whole route from Cebu City to Santa Fe — every fare, every fee, and the one decision that ruins the day if you get it wrong.
It’s 6:40 in the morning and you’re stopped in Consolacion. The bus hasn’t moved in nine minutes. Hagnaya Port is still three hours north, and the ferry you planned the whole day around is loading without you.
That’s the version of this trip that goes wrong. It goes wrong for one reason, and the reason isn’t the ferry.
You left too late.
Bantayan isn’t far. Two legs and a boat, about seven hours from your door to Santa Fe. But the first leg runs straight through the worst traffic in northern Cebu, and everything after it — the crossing, the check-in, whether you get an afternoon or lose one — hangs off when you clear that stretch.
Here’s the whole route, with what it costs.
01
Cebu City to Hagnaya Port
It starts on land. Hagnaya Port sits in San Remigio, right at the top of Cebu, and there are three ways to get yourself there.
Ceres Liner bus
₱260 to ₱300 air-conditioned · 3 to 4 hours
Leaves from the Cebu North Bus Terminal on the SM City Cebu grounds, every 20 to 30 minutes. Most legroom, most reliable, fewest surprises.
V-hire (passenger van)
₱300 to ₱350 shared · 2.5 to 3.5 hours
Same terminal, or the SM City Cebu V-hire bay. Faster than the bus because it stops less. Vans leave when they’re full rather than when the schedule says, and the legroom is what you’d expect for the price. A private charter runs about ₱3,500 to ₱4,000.
Your own car or motorcycle
2.5 to 3.5 hours · Central Nautical Highway
The road is well paved most of the way up to San Remigio. You’ll then have to decide whether the vehicle comes across with you, which is section 02’s problem.
The 3 AM to 5 AM rule
Leave Cebu City between 3:00 and 5:00 AM. Any later and you inherit the Consolacion–Liloan–Compostela bottleneck, which turns a three-hour drive into however long it feels like taking. An early start also puts you on a morning ferry instead of an afternoon one, and that’s the difference between arriving with a day left and arriving in time for dinner.
The 24-Hour Clock — a rental day is exactly 24 hours from handover, not a calendar day
This matters more on the Bantayan run than anywhere else we rent to. Catching a 4 AM bus means picking the kit up the evening before, so the first ten hours of your rental are spent asleep and on a highway. That’s the real cost of an early departure, and it’s better to know it now than at the counter.
Rentals of 1 to 3 days are pick-up only. Book 3 days or more and we can meet up instead. The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 kit is ₱450 a day, ₱400 from the fourth day onward, applied automatically when you book.
02
Hagnaya Port to Santa Fe
Before you board, there’s a ₱25 terminal fee per passenger at Hagnaya. Two shipping lines run the crossing, with trips almost every hour from 1:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and the sea crossing takes 1 to 1.5 hours.
| Shipping line | Regular adult | Student / senior |
|---|---|---|
| Island Shipping | ₱370 | ₱214 – ₱296 |
| Super Shuttle Ferry | ₱392 | ₱264 – ₱314 |
If you drove up, the RoRo will take the vehicle too. Freight is charged separately from your own ticket, and the driver’s passenger fare is sometimes on top of the rate below — ask at the counter rather than assuming.
| Vehicle | Estimated freight rate |
|---|---|
| Motorcycle | ~₱870 |
| Standard car (sedan or hatchback) | ~₱1,906 |
| SUV or pickup truck | ~₱2,776 |
Leaving it behind is usually the better maths. Secure overnight parking near Hagnaya Port runs ₱100 to ₱150 per day, and Santa Fe is small enough that you’ll want a scooter or a tricycle over a car anyway.
An hour of open water off the bow of a RoRo is the first part of this trip that actually looks like something. It’s also the part most people miss, because they’re below deck with the bags and their phone is already down to 12 percent. If you’re carrying the Ace Pro 2, this is the leg where the floating hand grip in the kit stops being a nice extra — spray, wind, and one hand permanently on the rail.
03
Santa Fe, and the ₱30 you can’t skip
Everyone arriving on Bantayan pays a local environmental and eco-tourism fee. It’s ₱30 per person, and it’s collected on arrival at Santa Fe Port.
Off the ferry, follow the covered walkway to the Tourism Office booth and settle it before you leave the port. It takes a minute and there’s no way around it.
04
What it costs, one way
| Ceres Liner, Cebu City to Hagnaya | ₱260 – ₱300 |
| Hagnaya terminal fee | ₱25 |
| Ferry, Hagnaya to Santa Fe | ₱370 – ₱392 |
| Santa Fe environmental fee | ₱30 |
| Total, one way | ₱685 – ₱747 |
Filming this one? The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 kit is ₱450 a day, picked up in Lapu-Lapu the morning you head north. See what’s in the kit
Double it for the return. Take a V-hire instead of the bus and add roughly ₱40 to ₱50 per leg.
Fares move, though. Ports adjust them, shipping lines adjust them, and a guide written today is a guide written today. Treat the numbers above as the shape of the cost rather than a quote, and carry a few hundred more than the arithmetic says you need.
Bantayan is the easy part. Getting there is the part with a schedule.
Weighing up the other northern island? Getting to Malapascua from Cebu City runs the same highway to a different port — but no RoRo, so your vehicle stays on the mainland.
Rent the kit
Going north in the next few weeks?
The Insta360 Ace Pro 2 rents as one full kit — camera body, extra battery, 3-slot charger, Type-C cable, 256GB high-speed microSD, USB card reader, waterproof case, protective frame, floating hand grip, selfie stick and tripod combo, mount adapter, chest strap, grip kit with neck and wrist straps, lens cover, microfiber cloth and carrying case. Dive housing is optional if Bantayan is only your first stop.
₱450 a day. ₱400 a day from the fourth day onward.
- ₱1,000 security deposit, collected at pickup and refunded in full when the gear comes back undamaged. Any damage forfeits the whole ₱1,000.
- 50% downpayment locks in your dates, and it’s strictly non-refundable. The balance is due before handover.
- A rental day is exactly 24 hours from handover, not a calendar day.
- 1 to 3 days: pick-up only. 3 days or more: pick-up or meet-up.
- Changing your schedule needs at least 12 hours’ notice. Inside 12 hours, the booking is final.
- Late returns are ₱50 an hour, so the kit is ready for the next adventurer.
- GCash, Maya, GoTyme and QRPH. No cards, no cash-on-delivery, no instalments.
Pickup
Eriksson’s Apartments, Humay-Humay Road, Gun-Ob, Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu 6016 (Google Map 8X55+43V) — the small road right across from the entrance of Lapu-Lapu Public Cemetery.
Or call or text +63 966 231 8079 to lock in your dates.
You get yourself to the port. We’ll have the kit charged and waiting.