How to Visit Samal Island
Samal Island, also known as the Island Garden City, is located off the coast of Davao City. Measuring about 34 kilometers (21 miles) in length and 15 kilometers (9 miles) in width. It is a huge island, with a lot of stuff to explore.
We visited Samal Island by taking a jeepney to the Samal Ferry Wharf (Davao City Port) to catch a ferry to the island. The ferry runs frequently throughout the day from 5:00 am-9:00 pm and only cost us 30 PHP per person. The ferry only took about 20 minutes to reach Samal.
Once at Samal there are a lot of tuk-tuk drivers you can hire to drive you around. Our Airbnb was about 8km (4miles) away and the tuk-tuk drivers insisted the cost would be 250 PHP ($4.50) to take us there. That was way more than I was expecting to pay so we decided to walk down the road a little bit to see if we could get a better deal.
As we were walking a guy approached us to rent a motor bike from him. He would rent us his bike for 700 PHP ($12.50). All he wanted was a picture of a driver’s license. I can not say I recommend this method, however, it worked out surprisingly well for us. We gave him the money and he gave us the bike and we were off.
Having the bike gave us a freedom to explore the island on our own terms. I would recommend having a bike while on Samal. There was a small bike shop, however, it seemed closed when we drove by. Another option since the ferry is a hop-on, hop-off ferry you can rent a bike in Davao City and drive it on the ferry and have it for your time in Samal Island.
The island is huge! We were only had one day to visit Samal Island and I can say without a doubt in my mind you can easily spend at least a week in Samal. There are so much to do here and since it is not a main touristy island in the Philippine the atmosphere was my favorite.
We were able to make it to the Giant Clam Sancturary. Yes you read that right a giant clam sanctuary! I was blown away by seeing these massive clams, it feels like you are in another world. They have thousands of clams including seven out of the nine species of clams worldwide.
We drove our bike to the Adecor Barangay Hall area and was able to rent a boat to take us to the sanctuary and where we met a guide who took us around and showed us the massive clams. The whole experience including the boat ride took about 2 hours.
That was just one of the many things you can do on Samal Island. There’s beaches, cliff jumping, snorkeling, beautiful view points, bat caves, a vanishing island, an aqua park, and so much more. We just loved driving around and seeing the landscape and communities. Would highly recommend Samal Island!
