Philippines ferry schedules — every island route & operator

Four boats, 7,600 islands, one lifeline

Spread a map of the Philippines on a table and you are really looking at water with land in it — more than 7,600 islands scattered from the Batanes in the north to the Sulu Sea in the south. There is no bridge long enough to stitch that together, so the boat does the stitching. But there is no single kind of Philippine ferry. There are four, and knowing which one you actually need is half the battle. Giant overnight inter-island ships haul you across whole seas while you sleep. Roll-on/roll-off RORO ferries turn the ocean into a driveable highway. Fast craft and catamarans dart between neighbouring islands in an hour or two. And the little wooden outrigger bangka pump-boats putter across the short hops nothing bigger bothers with. Browse every Philippine ferry route to see how the whole web fits together.

Sleeping your way across the sea: 2GO and the overnight ships

2GO Travel is the name most Filipinos say when they mean "the big ferry" — the long-haul overnight ships that link Manila's North Harbor with Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Iloilo, Bacolod, Zamboanga and beyond. The classic run, Manila to Cebu, is roughly a 22-hour voyage: you board in the evening, eat dinner on deck, wake up somewhere in the Visayas, and dock the next day. These vessels sell berths by the bunk across a whole ladder of comfort — from open fan-cooled economy decks with double-deck bunks, up through air-conditioned tourist and business tiers, to fully enclosed private cabins and staterooms with en-suite showers. Meals are typically bundled into the fare on these longer sailings. Other lines fill out the network: Cokaliong Shipping and Lite Ferries run the Visayas and Mindanao overnight circuits out of Cebu, often at friendlier prices, if with plainer accommodation.

The nautical highway, where buses cross the water

The single cleverest thing about Philippine ferry travel is the RORO system — officially the Nautical Highway, launched in 2003 to let vehicles simply drive on and off across a ramp instead of being craned aboard. It knits Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao into continuous driveable corridors, and hundreds of RORO vessels now work the connections it spawned. In practice this means a long-distance bus — Ceres, Philtranco, ALPS, Bachelor Express — can board a ferry with you still in your seat, cross a strait, roll off the far ramp and keep driving. Backpackers exploit exactly the same trick with a motorbike or a rented car. Montenegro Shipping Lines and FastCat (the country's catamaran-hulled RORO operator) are the workhorses here, running the short vehicle straits like Batangas–Calapan, Matnog–Allen and Dumangas–Bacolod.

Fast craft country: the one- and two-hour hops

On the busiest short crossings, speed wins, and this is where the sleek catamaran fast craft take over. Cebu is the undisputed capital of them — from its piers, OceanJet, SuperCat and Weesam Express fire off frequent daily departures to Tagbilaran on Bohol (roughly two hours, though the fastest services trim it well under that), plus runs to Ormoc, Dumaguete, Siquijor and Tagbilaran's smaller neighbours. Over in the Western Visayas, the Iloilo–Bacolod dash across the Guimaras Strait is a fast-craft duel between OceanJet, Weesam and Montenegro, with the quickest boats crossing in about an hour. Fast craft usually offer just two or three seating classes — an open-air deck and an air-conditioned cabin — and no vehicle deck. They are the everyday commuter option, not the scenic cruise.

Ferry type	Best for	Feel of it
Overnight inter-island (2GO, Cokaliong, Lite)	Long hauls like Manila–Cebu	Bunks to cabins, meals aboard, sleep through it
RORO / nautical highway (Montenegro, FastCat)	Crossing with a car, bike or bus	Drive on, drive off; road trips that don't stop at the coast
Fast craft / catamaran (OceanJet, SuperCat, Weesam)	Busy short routes, Cebu–Bohol, Iloilo–Bacolod	Quick, frequent, air-con or open deck
Bangka pump-boat	Island-hopping, remote short hops	Wooden outrigger, open air, salt spray

The little wooden boats that go where ships can't

For the last mile — the beach with no pier, the sandbar, the island too small for a schedule — you take a bangka. These narrow wooden hulls braced by bamboo outriggers are the country's true workhorse, doubling as fishing boat, cargo hauler and island-hopping taxi. In El Nido, Coron and Honda Bay a chartered bangka is how you reach the lagoons; on countless local runs it is simply the ferry, boarded off the sand with your shoes in your hand. There are no cabins and rarely a printed timetable — you turn up, you pay the boatman, you go.

Typhoons, tickets and turning up

One thing shapes every Philippine sailing between roughly June and November: the weather. When a storm approaches, PAGASA issues gale warnings and the Philippine Coast Guard suspends departures — smaller vessels and bangkas first, then the bigger ships if conditions worsen — and boats do not move until it is declared safe again. Suspensions can strand hundreds of passengers at short notice, so in storm season build slack into your plans and check with your operator before heading to the pier. Tickets are sold three ways: at the terminal window, through travel agents, and increasingly online — 2GO, OceanJet, FastCat and aggregators all sell digital tickets now. For popular fast-craft slots and holiday sailings it pays to secure a seat ahead; for a bangka hop you simply walk down to the water. You can compare every Philippine ferry route to plan the chain of boats your trip needs.

What Philippine ferry tickets cost

Philippine ferry fares split cleanly into two worlds. The short island crossings that stitch the Visayas together are astonishingly cheap — Cebu City out to Lapu-Lapu is around ₱35, and the Dumaguete–Oslob and Sibulan–Liloan hops across to Cebu about ₱130 — and you simply pay at the pier. At the other end sit the long inter-island voyages, like 2GO’s multi-day Manila–Cebu sailings, where an economy “tourist” berth costs far more and a private cabin more again. Between the two, the fast craft (air-conditioned, reserved seats) always cost more than the RORO on the same water, buying you an hour or two rather than sea breeze on an open deck.

Two things shape the final figure. Craft: an open-deck RORO economy seat is the floor, a fast-craft aircon seat costs more, and a 2GO cabin on the long hauls costs the most. Vehicles: only RORO ferries take cars and motorbikes, and they are ticketed on top of your own fare — a motorbike is modest, a car a real line item. Terminal fees are usually small and paid separately at the port.

Crossing	From (one-way)	Typical time
Cebu City → Lapu-Lapu	₱35	30m
Dumaguete → Oslob	₱130	~1h
Sibulan → Liloan	₱130	25m
Ormoc → Camotes Island	₱150	2h
Zamboanga → Isabela	₱198	~1h 30m
Iligan → Ozamiz	₱230	2h