Cebu walvishaaienontmoeting, Moalboal Sardines & Tumalog Falls

My best friend and I have been friends for over 30 years. Now that she has finished raising her children, we decided to celebrate this new chapter of life with a girls’ trip to Cebu. We hesitated at first because visiting Oslob takes almost a whole day, but then we said, “We have to swim with whale sharks together at least once in our lifetime!” Just two days before our trip, we asked Chappy for advice, and he recommended this tour. Booking this tour was one of the best decisions we made! Our driver picked us up from our hotel at 4:30 a.m. Since it was the low season, we were the only guests that day, so we unexpectedly enjoyed a private tour. We felt so lucky! 1. Monkey Watching The monkeys were wild, yet surprisingly friendly! It was so much fun. We enjoyed it as adults, but next time we’d love to bring our children because they would absolutely love this experience too. 2. Whale Shark Watching The whale sharks were enormous! We were amazed that we could get so close to them. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. My advice is to leave your bags and phone with your guide and simply enjoy the moment. We are not very confident in the water, but the diving guides took such great care of us. They used their GoPro to capture incredible videos that we could never have taken ourselves. Thanks to them, we can relive these unforgettable memories forever. 3. Moalboal Sardines & Turtle Watching The diving guide was absolutely amazing. His guiding skills and underwater videos were outstanding. You don’t need to bring your phone or camera at all. He captures everything for you, and honestly, the quality is far better than anything we could have taken ourselves. Instead of worrying about taking photos, I highly recommend putting your phone away and simply enjoying the breathtaking underwater world with your own eyes. We were lucky enough to see three sea turtles! Since we aren’t able to dive very well, the guide even gently helped us get closer to one of the turtles so we could take a wonderful photo together. Thank you so much for your kindness and patience! Finally, I would like to give a very special thank you to our guide, Eller. He is an excellent driver, and his vehicle was so comfortable that we were able to relax during the long journey. Along the way, he shared so many interesting stories about the Philippines, its culture, and family life, making the drive just as enjoyable as the destinations themselves. I was also surprised to learn that he worked as a chef at a five-star hotel for around 20 years! Thanks to his experience, he recommended many fantastic local dishes and restaurants for us to try. My best friend and I are already talking about coming back to the Philippines someday. Before then, we’ll practice our swimming and diving skills so we can finally take a cool photo with the whale sharks instead of looking so clumsy! 😂 From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to the entire team for making this one of the most unforgettable trips of our lives. We will treasure these memories forever, and we hope to see all of you again in Cebu!

Eller and company made sure we had fun time. They took good care of us and were very trust worthy. Worth time and money!

This was a great tour, we started early morning 4:00 am arrived back to Cebu City around 6:00 pm. If we didnt have such a good driver ( Eller ) it would of been 8:00 pm. We pretty much circumnavigated the Island from Cebu City to Oslob to Moalboal and back. If your on the fence about swimming with the Whale Sharks you can stay in the boat and still see these remarkable creatures. The Tumalog water fall and Moaboal sardine run are also not to be missed. Pick this Tour and you wont be disapointed. Ask for driver Eller, I have been around the world a few times and this guy can drive!!!

I highly recommend this experience. Each spot is unique & worth the drive. Our driver & tour guides were amazing & very helpful.

This tour was the highlight of my Cebu trip! Although we unfortunately didn’t get to see the whale sharks, our guide, Eller, did his best to ensure the rest of the tour was enjoyable. At the waterfalls there were long queues to take photos and Eller, helped to queue while we enjoyed the water. The snorkeling was great and the team were really dedicated to taking photos with their underwater go pro to capture you swimming with sardines and turtles. This was super helpful because I could leave my belongings behind and just enjoy the moment.

it was beautiful from swimming the whale to the turtles to the waterfall everything. was majestic and worth it

It was a great experience, very hospitable tour with a beautiful itinerary. I love seeing marine life and could not ask for a better tour. Had the best time with the family and would love to comeback in the near future.

it was a fun experience i would recommend ot to anyone. the team took care of me and made the experience smooth

Driver did not show up. We flew here specifically to do this tour. Very disappointed and angry. We got up at 3 am to meet our driver at 4 am. By 5:30 am we gave up after not being able to contact anyone to help us.

This was not at all what I expected particularly the whale shark encounter. I was picked up 30 minutes late (booking said 4am), so I could have got a little more rest before the long day. There was no guide to explain how the tour would run and the driver didn’t tell us anything until we stopped at the 1st stop to see the monkeys. This was a fun little stop that was supposed to be for 1 hour but 30 minutes was more than enough. When we arrived at Oslob we were met by a local guide who instructed us to get changed into our swimsuits and bring only a towel and shoes. There was nowhere to store our bags, wallets, phones and valuables. The guide agreed to hold my backpack when he saw how stressed I was about leaving my belongings unattended. He then walked us down to a beach that was full of people and said that we would only be going about 200m offshore to find the whalesharks. Then we were handed a mask with no snorkel or flippers. Use of snorkeling equipment was supposed to be included. So i had to wear my shoes in the water. We were given life jackets and then told to get onto a canoe style boat with a whole group of other people and the guide handed me a go pro and told me to give it to one of the boatmen. Use of the GoPro was included but I never got to use it during the experience. Instead the boatman simply held it in the water and told us to swim towards the boat so he could film us. This was impossible because the waves were rough and I had to try not to get hit on the head by the wooden frames that stuck out from the side of the boat. And there was just too many people in the water so i had to swim away because people kept kicking or bumping into me in the water. There was also a smaller boat in the water going back and forth and I realised that this guy was throwing food into the water to entice the whale shark to follow him and come close to us. This presented a whole other problem because you are supposed to stay at least 4m away from the whale shark but there is no room to move away between the feeder boat and the row of tourists boats and dozens of swimmers in the water. It seems this whole situation is based on getting as many people in the water and too close to the whale shark for photos and no consideration given to the welfare of the whales. This constant barrage of people getting in their faces as well as the constant supply of food to keep them in close to the beach is not natural and will have a detrimental impact on their natural life. I was very unhappy to be involved in this commercialised exploitation of these gentle giants of the sea. After getting back to shore I saw the guide sitting in the waiting area with my backpack left on a chair while he played on his phone (i’m sure he would not have noticed if someone picked up my bag and took it). we were then told to get changed again but when i came back to where the guide was supposed to be he had walked off. I had to go back and forth to the road and look in all the shops trying to find him and this wasted valuable time and had me worried that he had left without me. Eventually I spotted him at a counter where a lady was downloading the GoPro to our phones. Unfortunately there was mainly footage of people swimming and distant shots of the whales. We then continued on another long drive to Moalboal for the sardines and turtle snorkeling and were met on arrival in a parking lot by another local guide. Instructed to get changed again and then leave all our belongings in the minibus that thankfully the driver was going to stay in until we got back. This time we were given a proper snorkel but no flippers and then walked down to the beachfront. This guide at least explained what was going to happen and forewarned us that visibility would be poor because the water had been churned up by the typhoon. Although I am a good and confident swimmer I always rely on flippers to keep moving and buoyancy in the water, particularly when removing the lifejacket to be able to dive down to see the one turtle and trying to avoid another group that just barged in and swam over the top of us fighting to take selfies close to the turtle who also seemed distressed being surrounded by humans. Again the guide held onto the GoPro so i couldn’t get any footage of the sardines. This guide however did make an effort to get some photos of us close to the sardines when he could. Getting back to the shore was difficult without flippers but thankfully this guide tried to be helpful and make sure none of us slipped or fell. We then got changed and taken to a nearby cafe to have something to eat. We had not had any breakfast or lunch and it was already 2.30pm. We had not been given any coffee/tea or snacks that was supposed to be included and were not given any choice of places to eat. The guide had disappeared with the GoPro and he did not return until we finished our meals. But at least he made sure that this footage was also downloaded before we left. Then the guide left so that it was just the 3 of us and the driver for another 3-4 hours drive back to Cebu City. I am seeking a partial refund from Cebu Southern Tours for the inclusions that were not provided. I would highly recommend that travellers be forewarned about what this tour actually does and that it is not the special wildlife encounter that it suggests.