Carabao Island is a small but beautiful island just a boat ride away from Boracay Island. However, it is nothing like Boracay and is very low-key. There aren’t many tourists and equally as few tourist ‘attractions’. However, there are two awesome cliff jump spots on Carabao Island. One of them is Koding Koding cliff jump, which you can read about here. The other is Cathedral Cave, which is one of the coolest coastal cliff jump locations I have ever been to.
CATHEDRAL CAVE LOCATION ON CARABAO ISLAND
Cathedral Cave is located on the east coast of Carabao Island, which is in the Romblon Province. It is the island next to Boracay but much, much less touristy. In fact, we didn’t see more than a handful of tourists in the three days we were on the island!
I suggest visiting Cathedral Cave and Koding Koding cliff jump on the same day if you have the energy as they are both nearby and definitely worth visiting!
Carabao is a small island so you can probably walk to Koding Koding cliff jump depending on where you are staying or you can hire a motorbike for about 500 pesos give or take depending on your negotiation abilities.
There are tables inside little huts to chill and take cover from the sun after cliff jumping. Food and drinks are also available but nothing too extensive just basic snacks.
BORACAY TO CARABAO ISLAND DAY TRIP
The most popular way to visit Carabao Island is from Boracay. Many visitors to Boracay will book a day trip tour to Carabao Island. This day trip involves several of the best cliff jump sites and a beach hangout. You will get to visit the diving boards at Koding Koding and also the BIG cliff jumps of Cathedral Cave. Exploring those caves is worth the trip alone as they are insane! Currently, there are no sites to book online and you will need to find a vendor on Boracay who offers the day trip.
CATHEDRAL CAVE CLIFF JUMP
From the road, we found the small Cathedral Cave sign and walked down the winding, muddy trail through all of the trees. After a few hundred meters we reached the entrance and paid 100 pesos to enter. That is just $2.50 USD. There has been a lot of bamboo construction of walkways and diving boards so you aren’t just paying to jump off a regular cliff, which justifies the fee.
There are two areas to jump at Cathedral Cave. We first visited the site on the left. Here there are two diving boards, which are about 3 meters and 5 meters. A bamboo walkway winds across the roads leading you out to the ocean. The water was insanely clear and blue, it was such an epic spot and we actually had it all to ourselves for most of the time.
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Along the boardwalks, you can stop off to the sides and explore the caves. The water glows and small fish are swimming about. If you are game there are several small tunnels and caves within the caves to explore.
The other side is where the big caves are and also where you will find the big cliff jumps. You can take a guided tour inside the caves to see all the natural formations. They make you wear a helmet and it’s quite an interesting cave to check out.
We were there for the cliff jumps so I was stoked to have a diving board, which was roughly 8-10m high directly above the crystal clear water. I sent way too many backflips as we watched on as the local visitors built up the courage to jump.
Some of the local kids, however, were pros. They were jumping from the highest cliff, which had to be at least 20 meters. I decided to give it a crack and join them for a jump.
From the top, it looked even higher but I managed to pull it off safely and get through the fear factor!
MORE ROMBLON TRAVEL GUIDES:
- Tablas Island: 20 AWESOME THINGS TO DO ON TABLAS ISLAND
- Sibuyan Island: 9 AWESOME THINGS TO DO ON SIBUYAN ISLAND
- Carabao Island: 5 THINGS TO DO ON CARABAO ISLAND
- Romblon Island: 17 THINGS TO DO ON ROMBLON ISLAND
- Cresta de Gallo Island: CRESTA DE GALLO ISLAND, ROMBLON – EPIC DAY TRIP
- Hiking G2 (Guiting Guiting): TREKKING MT GUITING GUITING (G2)
