Tulang Island

Tulang Island is a small islet in the Camotes group, off Cebu’s northeast coast, reached by boat from the nearby coastline rather than by any regular ferry route of its own. It’s best known for a sandbar that turns the approach from open water into ankle-deep walking at low tide, connecting the islet to a stretch of exposed sand that isn’t there a few hours later once the tide comes back in. The comparison to Boracay’s white sand comes up often in how the island is described locally and in tour listings, though the scale is a fraction of Boracay’s — this is a swim-and-sandbar stop measured in an hour or two, not a resort strip with its own infrastructure.

Fishing remains the main livelihood on the Camotes islands outside the tourism season, and Tulang’s economy runs on the same pattern: the boatmen who ferry visitors out to the island are often the same households that fish the surrounding waters for a living, and the seafood served on the beach here usually comes off boats that went out that same morning rather than anything brought in from elsewhere. Because Tulang has no permanent settlement or resort of its own, nearly all the tourism income tied to the island — boat hire, grilled lunch, gear rental — flows to operators based on the mainland shore of Camotes rather than staying on the islet itself.

Coral gardens sit close enough to the shore to reach by swimming out from the beach, without needing a boat trip further offshore, which makes Tulang one of the more accessible snorkeling stops in this part of Camotes for visitors who haven’t snorkeled much before. The reef here, like reef systems across the group, sits close to shore in shallow water, which makes it more exposed to damage from anchors, careless fin kicks, and sunscreen runoff than a deeper offshore reef would be. Local boatmen have increasingly taken to anchoring away from the coral itself and asking visitors to avoid standing on it while wading between the sandbar and the beach, part of a broader shift across Camotes toward protecting the shallow reefs that both tourism and local fishing depend on.

The sandbar’s appearance and disappearance on the tide schedule is the detail that shapes most of a visit here: arriving at the wrong point in the cycle means either a swim rather than a walk to reach the exposed sand, or missing the sandbar’s dry stretch altogether. Checking the tide schedule before setting out, rather than relying on whatever time a boat operator suggests, is worth the extra step for visitors who specifically want the walking sandbar rather than just the swim.

• The sandbar connecting to the main islet is walkable at low tide — check the tide schedule before planning the crossing.
• Fresh catch grilled on the beach is the standard lunch; expect whatever came in that morning rather than a fixed menu.
• Bring your own snorkeling gear — the coral gardens sit close enough to shore to reach by swimming out.
• Avoid standing on the coral while wading between the sandbar and the beach; the reef here sits close to the surface and damages easily.

Explore More in San Francisco (Camotes)

• Cebu Nature Park
• Ultimate Cebu Island Travel Guide: Plan Your Perfect Trip
• JRG Halad Museum