The Visayas Sea Loop: Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Dumaguete Without Flying

Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor and Dumaguete form a closed loop you can ride entirely on ferries, and the whole circuit costs less than one domestic flight. Four islands, four crossings, no airport queues. The catch is that one operator carries most of it, publishes no static fare table, and runs a timetable that decides your itinerary rather than the other way round.

Here is the loop in the order that works, with what each leg takes and what it costs as of November 2026.

The transit matrix: every link between the four islands

Four islands make six crossings, and they are not equal. Two run all day, two run once or twice, and two only connect through Bohol. The matrix shows the fastest scheduled sea option for each pair; tap a square for every way across, including the slow boats and the flights.

The shape of it

Cebu to Tagbilaran, Tagbilaran to Siquijor, Siquijor to Dumaguete, then back to Cebu by land and a short strait crossing, or by air in under an hour. Counterclockwise works too, but this direction puts the two long sea legs early while you are fresh and leaves the easy 25 minute crossing for the end.

OceanJet carries three of the four sea legs. That is a convenience and a single point of failure, and it is worth knowing before you build a schedule with no slack in it.

Leg one: Cebu to Tagbilaran, Bohol

About two hours. OceanJet runs about 13 crossings a day each way, the first from Cebu around 5:10 AM and the last at 6:40 PM. The last boat back from Tagbilaran leaves at 6:30 PM.

Tourist and Open Air have run ₱800 to ₱920 across 2026 as the fuel surcharge moved up and down, and Business costs more. OceanJet does not publish a static fare page, so the price on its booking engine the day you book is the price.

Sail from Pier 1. This matters. Several booking sites list OceanJet’s Tagbilaran service at Pier 4. OceanJet’s own site says Pier 1, Warehouse Building, North Reclamation Area, and the operator is the one that decides. The Cebu port guide has the rest of the terminals.

Leg two: Tagbilaran to Siquijor

About two hours, OceanJet, twice a day at most. The 8:20 AM from Siquijor has held through 2026. The afternoon departure from Tagbilaran has moved, running at 2:40 PM and at 3:20 PM at different points this year, so check it the day before you sail. Tourist ₱800 to ₱950.

Two sailings a day is the tightest link in the loop. Miss the afternoon boat and you are in Bohol for another night, which is not the worst outcome, but it is the leg to build a buffer around. Give Bohol two nights minimum and this stops being a risk.

Leg three: Siquijor to Dumaguete

The short one, and the only leg with real choice. OceanJet crosses in 40 to 45 minutes for ₱350 to ₱420 Tourist. Montenegro runs a fastcraft at ₱455 and a RoRo to Larena at ₱234 that takes about an hour, six times a day from Dumaguete. Between them there are about ten sailings a day. Siquijor collects a ₱50 tourism ecological fee from most passengers on the way out.

This is the cheapest sea leg on the loop by a wide margin and the one that makes the whole thing work. Siquijor deserves two nights and rewards three.

Leg four: Dumaguete back to Cebu

Two honest options and they suit different people.

By sea and road. Cross the Tañon Strait from Sibulan to Liloan Port in Santander, at Cebu’s southern tip. Maayo Shipping runs it in about 25 minutes, eleven times a day from Liloan and nine from Sibulan, from 04:30 to 19:30. Passenger fare ₱130. Cuadro Alas runs the same crossing about twelve times each way at ₱150. Motorbike ₱380, big bike or ATV ₱546, and a sedan, SUV, van or pickup ₱1,320. Then it is a long drive or bus north up the Cebu South Road.

By air. Cebgo flies Dumaguete to Cebu in about 55 minutes on an ATR 72, somewhere between seven and fourteen times a week depending on which schedule you read. Cebu Pacific’s mainline service on this route ended on 7 June 2026 and the flying moved to Cebgo, so a 5J flight number you booked from an old guide is not a thing any more.

The sea route is cheaper and slower and it lets you break the drive at Oslob or Moalboal. The flight is the answer if the loop was the point and Cebu is just where the trip ends.

What the loop costs

Sea fares only, one person, cheapest class, November 2026: ₱800 to ₱920, plus ₱800 to ₱950, plus ₱350 to ₱420, plus ₱130 to ₱150. That is roughly ₱2,100 to ₱2,450 for the whole circuit, before the ₱50 Siquijor exit fee, before terminal fees, before the road leg home, and before the tourism fees each island charges once you are on it. Those are collected separately and are covered in the tourism fees guide for exactly these four places.

How to actually ride it

• Book the two-a-day legs first. Tagbilaran to Siquijor sets the shape of the whole trip. Everything else has enough sailings to bend around it.
• Nine nights is comfortable. Two in Bohol, three in Siquijor, two in and around Dumaguete, two of slack. Six is possible and rushed.
• Do not plan a same-day double crossing. Tagbilaran to Siquijor to Dumaguete in one day is technically possible on paper and miserable in practice.
• Check in early on OceanJet. Thirty minutes is the published cut-off and a confirmed seat can be forfeited after it.
• Carry small bags. Fast craft run a 10 kg Tourist Class allowance and enforce it on dimensions.
• Watch the season. These are inner-sea crossings, sheltered compared with the west-facing routes, but a Coast Guard suspension during habagat still shuts them. August 2026 saw multiple waves of cancellations across the Visayas.

Suroy Wear

Four islands, one archipelago.

Ride the loop and the country stops being a map. The Archipelago Tee carries every coastline that made it. ₱999.

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