Batangas to Calapan Ferry

25 sailings a day cross the Verde Island Passage from Batangas to Calapan, making this the busiest ferry corridor in the Philippines. Four operators share it, and they are not selling the same thing.

Two products, not one route

The single most useful thing to know before booking: two of the four carry vehicles and two do not.

• Montenegro Shipping Lines and FastCat run roll-on/roll-off ships. You drive aboard; the crossing is scheduled at two hours.
• OceanJet and SuperCat run passenger-only fast craft. No vehicle deck at all — quicker, but you arrive on foot.

If you are bringing a car, a motorcycle or freight, only half the timetable is available to you.

Montenegro runs a clock, the others run a schedule

Montenegro alone accounts for 12 of the 25 departures, and they are laid out as a grid: every two hours on the hour, from 00:00 to 22:00, seven days a week. Nothing to memorise and nothing to miss by much — the next one is never more than two hours away. It is the reason the corridor works around the clock, and it reflects a fleet of roughly 59 vessels.

The others fill the gaps rather than compete with the grid:

• FastCat — six sailings at 01:00, 06:00, 09:00, 13:00, 15:00 and 21:00
• OceanJet — four at 07:40, 11:00, 14:20 and 17:40
• SuperCat — three at 09:30, 13:30 and 17:30

The night hours belong to freight

Departures at 00:00, 01:00, 02:00 and 04:00 are not there for tourists. Mindoro has no bridge, so everything the island consumes and everything it sends to Manila crosses this strait — and Batangas Port is the gateway to the Luzon expressway network. The overnight grid is the island's supply line.

What it costs, by operator

Fares are close enough that the choice usually comes down to timing and whether you have a vehicle:

• OceanJet: ₱600 tourist or open-air, ₱850 business
• SuperCat: business ₱660, students ₱525, seniors and PWD ₱470, children 3–11 ₱330
• FastCat: economy ₱686, premium economy ₱755, business ₱832 — students 20% off, under-fours free

Bringing a vehicle

FastCat publishes its rolling stock tariff in full, and the range shows what the corridor actually moves: ₱419 for a bicycle, ₱1,678 for a motorcycle, ₱3,357 for a car, ₱4,194 for a van or SUV, ₱10,068 for a bus, and ₱31,881 for a 40-foot container. Vehicle space on the RoRo sailings sells before passenger seats do, so book the vehicle first and fit your travel time around it.

Before you go

Check-in rules differ by operator: OceanJet requires 30 minutes and states that a late arrival may forfeit a confirmed seat outright. Baggage allowances differ too — OceanJet caps hand baggage at 10 kg, SuperCat allows 15 kg free with excess at ₱15 per kilo. FastCat lists a direct mobile number for the Batangas terminal (0961-827-6932) rather than routing you through a call centre.

The return leg

Calapan to Batangas runs the same 25 sailings with the same four operators. See Calapan to Batangas for the northbound times.