This trip came together as a family reunion of sorts — my sister-in-law's family was already travelling in Asia, and we wanted to meet up for the long Chinese New Year weekend. With only a few days together, we needed a direct flight and somewhere easy to just land, unpack, and properly catch up. No big itinerary, no ambitious plan. Just a nice beach, a pool, and enough going on to keep three kids happy. We settled on Mactan Island, just outside Cebu City, for four days.
Nothing too intense — which was exactly the point.
Getting There — A Note on the Flights
We flew with Scoot from Singapore, which at just under four and a half hours is a very manageable direct flight. In theory. We had specifically booked flights with good timings — arriving around lunchtime on the Wednesday and departing mid-afternoon on the Sunday. In practice, both flights got moved at the last minute to the middle of the night. We arrived at 5:30am on day one after a broken night, and flew home at 1am on the return, landing back in Singapore at 4:30am.
If flying Scoot to Cebu, keep a very close eye on your flight times in the days leading up to departure. Communication around schedule changes was poor and the timing shifts significantly impacted the first and last day of our trip. Worth factoring in when planning young kids' sleep and energy levels on arrival.
Costabella Tropical Beach Hotel
We stayed at Costabella Tropical Beach Hotel, which sits at a more mid-range price point compared to the big-name resorts on Mactan. We were a group of four adults and three kids — two girls aged four and a boy of eight — and it worked really well for us. The rooms were spacious enough to add an extra bed and fit four comfortably, and being right on the beach was a big plus.
The beach itself is in between two piers, which created a naturally contained, shallow bay. What looked like a minor quirk on the map turned out to be one of the best things about the hotel for the kids. The water was very shallow, especially at low tide, and full of small sea life — sea stars, baby puffer fish, crabs. The three of them spent entire afternoons there, ankle-deep in the water, completely absorbed in trying to catch fish. They couldn't really wander anywhere, and soon made friends with other kids in the resort, which made it easy for the adults to relax on the sun loungers nearby.
Beyond the beach there was a pool with a water slide, a tennis table outside, a small kids' club with arts and crafts, and a bar with a pool table and darts for the evenings. The food across the two restaurants was good. At one point we couldn't find the kids anywhere, and eventually discovered that the staff had put a movie on in the kids' club — all three were sitting together watching it quietly. We decided to grant them their screen time and ourselves our relax time.
One afternoon we also rented kayaks and paddled around just in front of the hotel. If you looked straight down into the clear shallow water you could spot fish and sea stars below. Good easy entertainment in between beach and pool time.
The Snorkelling Day Trip
Although the beach in front of the resort was great for playing, it was not the best for swimming and snorkelling. We therefore decided to do one full day out on the water, booked as a private outrigger boat through the resort. Being seven people, having our own boat made sense and gave us full control over timing and pace. We headed to the San Vicente Fish Sanctuary for snorkelling — clear water, colourful fish, and calm enough for the younger kids. We had picked up our rental gear in the morning from the small shop at the resort's beachfront.
We also stopped at Caohagan Island, a small palm-fringed island where you can rent a beach table for a few dollars and have lunch. We'd asked the hotel restaurant that morning to pack us some fried rice and chicken as takeaway — they wrapped it perfectly and it cost a fraction of what the boat-plus-lunch package would have been. The resort offered a full "Boat Tour" package including lunch and marine park entrance fees, but at over SGD 400 for the group it was more than double the cost of booking just the private boat (SGD 140, excluding marine park fees and snorkel rental). Bringing your own food is an easy way to save significantly.
We just asked the restaurant to pack us some fried rice and chicken for takeaway. They wrapped it perfectly — and it was a fraction of the all-inclusive tour price.
The real highlight of the day was completely unexpected. We had originally looked at going to Moalboal, which is known for its sardine run, but it's four to five hours away and felt too far with young kids. It turned out there's a sardine run right in the harbour, barely five minutes by boat from Costabella — in actual viewing distance from the resort. You don't see anything from the surface, but the moment you put your head underwater, it's there: enormous swirling clouds of sardines, silver reflections catching the light as they move together. The kids were mesmerised — and so were we.
The sardine run. We had written it off as too far away and didn't expect to see it at all — and then there it was, five minutes from our own pier. We put our heads underwater and it was like a completely different world — a silver storm of thousands of sardines swirling and shimmering just below the surface.
A Day in Cebu City
We spent one day across the bridge in Cebu City, which was a nice contrast to the beach days. We started at Fort San Pedro, a well-preserved triangular bastion fort built in the mid-1500s. You can walk the full stone ramparts and look out over the cannons, and there are tropical gardens and a small museum with old weapons and artefacts inside — the kids actually found that bit quite interesting to explore. There was also a blind musician from the Cebu Blind Acoustic Group playing live in the courtyard, which created a really nice atmosphere. The kids were a bit shy at first, but they all ended up putting money in the donation box. From there we went to the Carbon Market — a proper local wet market, very colourful, very lively, piled high with tropical fruits. We went inside for lunch and ice creams, my son especially intrigued by all the lechon pigs on display in many of the stalls.
We also stopped at Magellan's Cross — this marks the spot where Magellan first landed in the Philippines in the 1500s and held the first Catholic mass. It's a large cross housed in a small rotunda between the town hall and the Basilica of Santo Niño, with a wooden casing built around the original to protect it from souvenir hunters over the centuries. Historically interesting, though we were all not especially moved by it. We had planned to visit the Basilica next door, but something was happening that day and it was quite busy. The kids were also running low on sightseeing patience by that point, so we decided to head back to the resort for the late afternoon, and enjoy the beach some more.
Overall, it was a great long weekend getaway with enough to do to make it feel like more than just beach time, while also having time to relax and let the kids play freely for hours without a busy schedule to chase.
What We Skipped and Why
- Moalboal sardine run: At four to five hours from Mactan, it was too far for a short trip with young kids — and as it turned out, completely unnecessary given the sardine run right in the harbour.
- The big resort hotels on Mactan: We were deliberately more budget-conscious this trip, and Costabella delivered on everything that mattered. For a relaxed long weekend with kids, you don't necessarily need the Shangri-La price tag.
- The Basilica Minore del Santo Niño: We wanted to go, but it was busy and the kids were done. Worth a visit if the timing works, but not worth forcing it.
Planning a Trip Like This
- Is Mactan Island worth it for a long weekend from Singapore?
- Yes, at under four and a half hours it's one of the more straightforward beach getaways from Singapore. Direct flights make it easy, and the pace of Mactan suits a short trip well — there's enough to do without needing to rush around.
- Do you need to stay at one of the big resort hotels?
- Not necessarily. The big names like Shangri-La are on Mactan, but mid-range options like Costabella offer beachfront access, pools, and plenty for kids at a significantly lower price point. If a relaxed beach holiday is the goal rather than resort facilities, it's worth considering.
- What's the best time of year to visit Cebu?
- The dry season runs roughly February to May, which is the most reliable time for good weather and calm seas. We went in late January — just at the tail end of the wetter months — and only had one rainy afternoon, so it's not always as clear-cut as the seasons suggest.
Trip taken January 2025.