My Unforgettable Summer Vacation at Sumilon Island

Happy Weekend, Everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. I'm back with another blog, and for today’s content, I’m excited to take you all on a virtual escape to one of the most visited beaches here in Cebu: Sumilon Island, where we spent our memorable summer vacation with my relatives.

Discovering Sumilon Island

Sumilon Island is one of the hidden gems in Cebu. It is located in Oslob, the southernmost part of Cebu. Oslob is well known to tourists because it is the home of the biggest butanding also known as whale sharks. Many tourists do whale watching in Oslob first before proceeding to the island. There you will experience fish feeding while snorkeling. And what's so amazing is that you will get to see the whale sharks up close, only that you are not allowed to touch them and avoid also flashing cameras. For safety purposes, the tourists are encouraged to maintain the necessary distance from whales. By the way, the boats are also equipped with essential gear, such as life jackets, snorkeling gear, and lifebuoy.

According to the latest post of iheartph.com, for whale watching (without snorkeling) plus life vest rental, Filipino tourists pay PHP 500, while foreign tourists pay PHP 1,000. For those who wish to snorkel, the fees are PHP 1,000 for Filipinos and PHP 1,500 for foreign tourists. If you wish to experience whale watching, I would recommend you do it during the weekdays as early as 6 am in the morning, because at around 7:30 it will get more crowded as many tourists will arrive.

Unfortunately, we were not able to experience the whale watching because we arrived late and there's too many tourist when we got there.

How to get there?

Sumilon is just a small island, but it has been so popular with tourists because of its mesmerizing beauty. In order for you to get into the island, you need to ride a boat for about 15-20 minutes, which costs 1500 PHP per boat and another 50 PHP per person for an environmental fee. Of course, before anything else, there will be a tourist guide that is assigned to give an orientation to everyone before going into the island. They will discuss with you the dos and don'ts, the safety precautions, the fees, and how to become a responsible traveler. They also offered a Go Pro, which you can rent for PHP 500, but I would suggest that it's better to have your own because I think it's quite expensive. Also, I would suggest that it's more practical to bring your own food because the foods there are also expensive.

Snorkeling

For our snorkeling experience, at first, I was really terrified because I'm not a good swimmer, and that’s really crazy. Thank God I have lifevest because the water in Sumilon is really deep because of its strong current. However, it was really a fun experience because I got to enjoy myself while feeding the fish, and it was so satisfying to see them up close. We were so excited back then knowing that we could do snorkeling because we hadn’t experienced it before.

A Journey Worth the Distance

Our travel from home to Oslob took us for about 6 hours to reach there since we lived in the northern part of Cebu. We started traveling at 2 in the morning to make the most of our day, arriving early enough to have plenty of time on the island. It was indeed our memorable summer vacation, not just because of the things that we got to experience but also the memories that we had with my cousins and relatives. I was so happy that we got to spend a moment together despite their busy schedules. This trip is trully one of the books!

Thanks for reading, everyone! have a blessed and productive day ahead.

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