Ferries from Bulalacao

Bulalacao sits on the southeastern corner of Mindoro, and its ferry link runs east across the Sibuyan Sea to Caticlan — the back way to Boracay, and the route that avoids Manila entirely.

The crossing

Bulalacao to Caticlan takes about 3 hours 30 minutes, with 2 sailings in our timetable, operated by FastCat. 4 active sailings across the port in both directions.

⚠ Two sailings, and no realistic alternative

This is a single roll-on roll-off link with a handful of departures. If it is cancelled — and weather in the Sibuyan Sea cancels it — the alternative is a long backtrack up Mindoro to Abra de Ilog and across to Batangas, then round by land and sea from Manila.

That is a two-day detour. Treat the schedule as the constraint it is.

Why the route exists

It closes a gap. Without it, travelling between Mindoro and the Western Visayas means going back north through Luzon. With it, the two islands are half a day apart, and the whole Mindoro–Panay–Boracay circuit becomes possible without repeating a leg.

For overland travellers working south through the archipelago, that is the difference between a route and a dead end.

The town

Bulalacao is a small municipality in Oriental Mindoro with a scattering of offshore islets, quiet beaches and very little tourism infrastructure. It is a place people pass through rather than stay in, and the port is why anyone knows the name.

Season

Year round in principle. Typhoon season from roughly June to November brings suspensions, and the vehicle backlog after one takes days rather than hours to clear on a route with two sailings.