Hotels near Bantayan Island

Bantayan Island has the whitest, finest sand in the province and almost none of the development that usually follows it. Sugar Beach and Paradise Beach on the southwestern shore run for kilometres of shallow, warm, waist-deep water with no coral underfoot, which makes them unusually good for children. The island is flat enough to cycle end to end in a day. Motorbike rental costs about PHP 400 (EUR 6) daily and bicycles roughly half that. Paradise Beach charges PHP 100 (EUR 1.60) to enter and earns it through sheer emptiness.

Santa Fe is the arrival town and holds most of the food and evening life. Inland, the Saints Peter and Paul Parish Church in Bantayan town dates to 1580 and ranks among the oldest in the Philippines. Holy Week is the single period to avoid: the island's Semana Santa processions pull in tens of thousands and every room sells out months ahead. The rest of the year Bantayan stays quiet even in high season, which is exactly why it belongs on this list.

Pro Tip: Take the 5:30am bus from Cebu North Bus Terminal to make the 10am ferry from Hagnaya. Miss that sailing and you wait until early afternoon, by which point the building wind makes the crossing noticeably rougher.