San Vicente Marine Sanctuary — Attraction in Lapu-Lapu

A great place to escape the city life for just a few minutes of boat ride away from Lapu Lapu City. Entrance is Php 75 and that includes the swimming fee. You also need to pay Php 100 for the table use. You can rent snorkling gears here. At the entrance you can find a few cottages, souvenir shop selling shell ornaments, shower area, and a convenience store. Getting to the sanctuary, you'll start with quite a long boardwalk. Passing through mangroves then towards the sanctuary. Half of the boardwalk has it's foundation cemented at the sea floor while the other half is just supported by floaters, so expect it to be a wavy walk if it's on a high tide.

The Marine Sanctuary Cottage has a toilet, dressing area, some tables, and life vests hanging around. Outside Food is allowed. The sea has some fishes swimming around the area and some coral reefs as well. If it's on high tide, the waves can be a bit strong. If it's on low tide, you can't swim well but you can see the fishes and corals without the need to dive.

Remember to come here during the High tide as swimming and entry is not allowed during low tide in order to protect the marine creatures especially the corals. The area can be crowded and noisy especially on weekends as groups tend...

I started at a hotel on Mactan Island and asking how to get here was not resulting in much info. So I took on the adventure. Packed my snorkel gear, grabbed a taxi to the harbor, hopped on a ferry to Olango Island for 40PHP. Had some delicious coconut juice for 25 PHP on the way and arrived where many trikes were waiting. for a not so cheap price, I was dropped at the Sanctuary. I then walked and walked after paying the 180 PHP for entrance along a very rickety walkway to a platform...with tables and such. Offered a boat to go out since its better at high tide and being low tide, i was far from "swimming" anywhere. 500 PHP for an hour and taken out to where i could snorkel at the edge between shallow and deep. Caught a glance at some beautiful colored fish...but pretty basic ocean floor. Had a great time and came back into have a coconut and regroup to walk back. Bring small change. showers are hand scooped but nice to get the salt water off back at the entrance station. Headed back to the trike to the harbor to a taxi and back to the hotel...I was gone about 5 hours and in the ocean for about 2. Bring small money. Go at high tide. island hopping also available. Birds at...

San Vicente Marine Sanctuary is a good place to stay if you want to connect with nature. You can do camping, snorkling, boating and etc. The place is not like a beach setting, what will you see there is a place with mangroove forest and a board walk going to the sanctuary. The place was relaxing because only few tourist travels there and most of them are divers who wants to experience the place. In our case we had our overnight stay and only paid 200 pesos each person to avail all the amenities of the place like the toilet, wash area, cooking area, life jacket, cottage, boat, paddles, and a spot for our tent. The staffs were very accomodating and polite. In order to go there you need to ride a jeepney at parkmall going to movenpick hotel at punta engaño that will cost 15 pesos. Once you arrive at the Hilton port beside the hotel the boat ride going to Olango will cost 20 pesos including the terminal fee. When you arrive at Olango port, a side car ride going to San Vicente Marine Sanctuary would cost 20 pesos per person. Better go there in...