Cebu to Bohol by Ferry: All 7 Port Pairs Compared (2026)

There is no such thing as “the Cebu–Bohol ferry.” There are seven working port pairs across the strait, run by nine carriers, and they differ from each other more than most travellers expect: the cheapest ticket is ₱230 and the dearest is ₱1,410, the quickest crossing is an hour and a quarter and the slowest is four hours, and the landing points are spread across a hundred kilometres of Bohol coastline.

Picking the wrong one is the single most common planning mistake on this route, and it is rarely a mistake about the boat. It is a mistake about the drive at the other end. A cheap crossing that lands you three hours from your hotel is not a cheap crossing.

The short version: Tagbilaran for Panglao and the south, Getafe if you want the fastest water time, Cordova if you have just landed at Mactan airport, Tubigon if you are counting pesos or heading northwest, Talibon or Ubay for the north and east coasts, and Loon only if you are moving a vehicle. The detail is below.

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The seven port pairs, compared

Fares and crossing times verified against 12Go on 2026-08-20. Confirm live figures for your date.

Correcting the record on speed

Two claims about this strait have circulated long enough to be worth addressing directly, because both are out of date.

The first is that Tubigon is the fastest crossing, on the strength of a roughly 45-minute fast-craft time in the port’s own record. That service is not currently sold. Every bookable Tubigon sailing in August 2026 runs about two hours — the same as the Tagbilaran fast craft. Tubigon’s real advantage is price: at around ₱530 it is the cheapest way across, and it lands closest to Bohol’s northwestern towns.

The second is that Tagbilaran is the quick option. It is not, though it is the busy one. The genuinely fastest crossings are to Getafe — OceanJet covers Cebu Pier to Getafe in 1 hour 15 minutes, and Sunriser Cordova runs Mactan to Getafe in 1 hour 20. Tagbilaran’s two hours is mid-pack; what it wins on is thirteen sailings a day and a twenty-minute taxi ride to Panglao at the far end.

Where each port actually lands you

Tagbilaran is the provincial capital and the default. The Philippine Ports Authority rebuilt its passenger terminal in 2021, adding a dedicated fastcraft berth alongside the RoRo ramp — which is precisely why OceanJet can run a near-hourly schedule here and nowhere else. Panglao and Alona Beach are 30 to 45 minutes on; the Chocolate Hills about 1.5 hours.

Tubigon is a commuter port on the northwestern coast, with sailings from 01:00 to 22:00 and no pretence of tourist infrastructure. Carmen and the Chocolate Hills are about an hour away — shorter than from Tagbilaran. Panglao is about an hour via Tagbilaran, which erases the saving.

Getafe, at Bohol’s northern tip, is the one to know if your destination is Anda, Talibon, or the northern hills viewpoints, because it removes a 70–90 km drive back up the island. Its pier is exposed and cancels more readily in the June–November habagat, so book mornings in that window.

Cordova is a Cebu-side distinction rather than a Bohol-side one: the pier is on Mactan, twenty minutes from the airport, so the crossing skips Cebu City entirely. Vehicles carried, one operator only.

Talibon was built by the PPA specifically to relieve Tagbilaran, and it does that job on the north coast. Two sailings a day now — a 12:30 that lands in daylight and a 21:00 overnight — with the cheapest cabin ladder on the strait. It is 90 km and two and a half hours from Tagbilaran, so it is a northern port, not a southern shortcut.

Ubay faces east and is really a corridor node: Bohol’s link to Hilongos in Leyte from the municipal pier, and to Bato from Tapal Wharf 7 km east of town, plus the overland route north. Four to five hours to Cebu from about ₱330. Use it for Anda and the east coast, where it saves half a day over crossing to Tagbilaran.

Loon takes vehicles from Argao in southern Cebu on a Lite Ferries RoRo — three to five sailings a day, from ₱230 on foot, ₱500–800 for a motorbike and ₱1,500–2,200 for a car. It is walk-in ticketing at the pier and scheduled around cargo, but it is the cheapest crossing on the strait.

What every crossing has in common

No Grab in Bohol. Ride-hailing does not operate anywhere in the province. Ground transport at every one of these ports is tricycle, habal-habal, van-for-hire, or a transfer arranged through your accommodation — and at the smaller piers, arranged in advance rather than found on arrival.

Terminal fees are cash. They are collected at the pier and are not part of the online fare. Carry small bills at both ends.

Print the ticket. Several operators here, Lite Shipping among them, still decline a phone screen at the gangway.

Weather is the real variable. The June-to-November habagat brings delays and cancellations across all seven pairs. Operators generally rebook onto the next sailing rather than refund, so keep the rest of the travel day flexible if you are crossing then. The exposed piers — Getafe especially — cancel sooner than the enclosed terminals.

Book the trunk corridors online; buy the secondary ports at the counter. This is the single most useful rule on the strait, and it saves money as well as confusion.

Tagbilaran, Tubigon and Getafe are trunk corridors: OceanJet, FastCat and Lite Shipping list them on 12Go, they genuinely sell out at peak, and booking ahead is worth doing. Ubay and Argao–Loon are not. Those are counter-ticketed routes on regional lines — Cokaliong, Medallion, J&N, Lite Ferries — that either run on legacy inventory systems or partner with Barkota, the domestic aggregator, rather than the international booking sites.

The consequence is a pricing trap. Where a third-party agency does list one of these local routes manually, it tends to bundle its own booking fee and convert at a static exchange rate. That is how a ₱330 Ubay crossing surfaces online as roughly US$24 — about three times the counter fare, for the same ticket. Every peso figure in the table above is the terminal base fare; treat an online quote for the secondary ports as a ceiling, not a price.

Two related caveats. SuperCat, Trans-Asia and 2GO appear on Cebu–Bohol schedule boards without selling through the aggregators, so a name on a signboard is not a booking option. And the full channel map — which operators sit on 12Go, Barkota, their own portals, or nowhere but the pier — is on the Bohol transport hub.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the fastest ferry from Cebu to Bohol?

OceanJet’s Cebu-to-Getafe fast craft, at 1 hour 15 minutes. Sunriser’s Cordova-to-Getafe run is close behind at 1 hour 20. Tagbilaran and Tubigon both take about two hours.

What is the cheapest way to get from Cebu to Bohol by ferry?

Argao to Loon, from about ₱230 — though it is a vehicle RoRo ticketed at the pier rather than online, and only useful if southern Cebu and western Bohol are your actual endpoints. Of the mainstream crossings, Tubigon is cheapest from around ₱530, with Talibon close behind from ₱470.

Which port should I use for Panglao and Alona Beach?

Tagbilaran. It has the most sailings and the shortest onward drive — 30 to 45 minutes. No other port gets you there faster even when the crossing itself is quicker.

I am flying into Mactan airport. Which crossing?

Cordova to Getafe if you are heading for northern or eastern Bohol — the pier is twenty minutes from the terminals and skips the city. For Panglao, it is still usually quicker to go into Cebu City and take a Tagbilaran fast craft.

Can I bring a car or motorcycle?

Yes, on several pairs. FastCat carries vehicles to Tubigon, Sunriser to Getafe from Cordova, and Lite Ferries runs a dedicated vehicle RoRo from Argao to Loon. Book the vehicle slot ahead and arrive an hour early — vehicles load first.

How far ahead should I book?

For ordinary dates, a day or two is enough on the high-frequency corridors. For Holy Week, Sinulog, Christmas and the New Year stretch, book weeks out — the Tagbilaran fast craft sells out and the smaller ports have no spare capacity to absorb the overflow.

Related

• Port of Tagbilaran — the main terminal, rebuilt 2021.
• Port of Tubigon — the commuter crossing.
• Port of Getafe — northern Bohol’s gateway.
• Bohol transport — flights, ferries, and getting around the island.

Schedules, operators and fares verified against 12Go on 2026-08-20; port infrastructure detail from PPA records and the Bohol Tourism Profile. Confirm live schedules and fares before booking.