If you’re exploring the Philippines, it’s likely that the gorgeous island of Cebu is on your list. Famous for whale sharks, snorkelling and beautiful waterfalls, Cebu Island is a must do for everyone exploring the Philippines islands. Found at the bottom of Cebu Island, Oslob is a popular spot for travellers. This is primarily due to the whale sharks; however, many people also have Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu firmly at the top of their Philippines list. In fact, for me, Tumalog Falls was the reason why I visited Oslob after seeing a picture of this beautiful waterfall on Instagram years in the past.
What the Tumalog Falls ‘Complete Guides’ Miss Out
When planning my Philippines trip, I read a lot of articles and blogs online and thought I had everything planned out. However, I almost missed out on seeing Tumalog Falls in Oslob because none of the guides, blogs or Philippine articles mentioned that Tumalog Falls actually closes for one day a month. Unluckily for me, this one day a month that Tumalog Falls in Oslob closed for… was the one time I had to see the waterfall.
What day of the month does Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu close?
Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu closes for the entire day on the second Wednesday of every month. This is what I was told when I arrived at the entrance to Tumalog Falls on the second Wednesday of the month.
This date may change so it is worth asking your accommodation, tour or anyone you can ahead of time to confirm this or leaving two days to visit Oslob (one morning for the whale sharks and one morning for the falls) like I did and finding out on arrival which day is best to do which (which is not what I did and hence why this became a problem finding out that Tumalog Falls was actually closed for the day about 3 hours before I was supposed to leave Oslob).
You can also Google ‘Tumalog Falls closure’ to see if any notices come up. But I wouldn’t rely solely on this as you can see the top two results I got were from the month before and the year before, rather than the date I experienced or any other future notices.
What are the opening times for Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu when it is open?
Tumalog Falls is open from 7am-4pm each day, with the last entry permitted at 330pm.
When is the best time to visit Tumalog Falls?
Most of my answer here is based off logic as my experience was unique (more on this below). Tumalog Falls is located close by to the Oslob whale sharks. The whale sharks starts very early in the morning and many tours combine the whale sharks and a visit to Tumalog Falls in their itinerary. When I did the whale shark experience we were out of the ocean and back on shore by about 645am in the morning. Therefore, the earlier the better to visit Tumalog Falls without the crowds. When you visit the waterfall you can see from the set up that the area clearly gets a large number of people.
Tumalog Falls also closes quite early in the afternoon (last entry permitted at 330pm and everyone needs to leave at 4pm). So, if you try to wait out the tour groups and visit at the end of the day (another popular way to try and beat the crowds) you may still be quite unlucky and still be visiting Tumalog Falls with crowds. This is why I chose to spend two nights in Oslob rather than the usual one – so I would have the maximum chances of visiting the waterfall without crowds of people. Of course, this article is written because this almost all went completely wrong.
So… How did I get photos at Tumalog Falls if it was closed?
I mean, I am not telling you to what to do. But I arrived at the waterfall very early in the morning at about 6am. This was when my driver (you have to visit via scooter – more on this below) asked someone who lived next door and found out it was closed today for cleaning. He told me that the people coming to clean up the area were expected to arrive about 630am.
Tumalog Falls wasn’t even open for the day yet. I arrived before 7am because my previous experiences visiting waterfalls in Asia (from Leke Leke Waterfall in Bali to Kuang Si Waterfall in Laos) arriving before opening time didn’t really matter as there would already be people there to take payment (because, yes, Asia loves to charge to view a waterfall). So, I decided to just walk down… I figured it was either miss out on the main reason I had come to Oslob in Cebu, or walk down to the waterfall and apologise if someone got mad. Spoiler alert: I saw people working there and they did not care. In fact they were so chatty asking if I enjoyed the waterfall and if the two random puppies that followed me along the walk down were my pets.
Personally, I do think it is very good that they are taking cleaning seriously because not only is the natural environment is immensely important but as their biggest tourism drawcard if they don’t look after it, it’ll impact them economically as well. However, the waterfall does close early each day so the clean up could happen each afternoon. I was also pretty happy that I didn’t actually find Tumalog Falls to be particularly dirty at all when I visited the very morning of the all-day clean up. I’m definitely not complaining they are cleaning the waterfall, I just wish this pretty essential bit of information of Tumalog Falls closure dates was more publicly available.
How to get photos at Tumalog Falls (especially as a solo traveller)?
It’s very easy to get photos at Tumalog Falls. Next to the waterfall and pool of water is a pretty steep incline and on the incline there is a flattened area you can put your camera and tripod on that perfectly looks out over Tumalog Falls. By jumping in the frame yourself like I have done in my pictures you can give a great size perspective to your photos of the beautiful Tumalog Falls.
How to get to Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu?
Tumalog Falls is located in the Oslob region, closer to the whale sharks than Oslob itself. You can find it on Google Maps here.
You need to be comfortable getting on the back of a scooter or motorbike to go to Tumalog Falls as the tricycles (used to get around in Philippines) don’t go up the road that actually gets to the waterfall from the turn off. Arranged completely by my accommodation, a tricycle to the road turn off where there was a guy on a scooter waiting for me who took me to the entrance to the falls.
From the entrance you’re still a little bit away from the actual waterfall. So, you can get on another scooter that will take you down to the waterfall but as I visited before opening this wasn’t available and I walked down. The walk was fine but it was very steep. Despite the steepness, both the road to the entrance and the path down to the actual falls are very well maintained (I wasn’t expecting this given I was told tricycles can’t make the journey). You can even see the waterfall as you walk (although I didn’t realise that on the walk down, only on the walk back up).
I was charged 400 peso ($11AUD/£5.65) for the return journey to Tumalog Falls and back to my accommodation (including waiting time). I knew I could’ve very likely to have gotten a better price but I organised it through my accommodation for convenience. I didn’t know at the time that this also included the second scooter down from the entrance to Tumalog Falls but when I returned to my accommodation afterwards I was actually refunded 100 peso ($2.75/£1.40) by the driver because I wasn’t able to get the second scooter from the entrance to Tumalog Falls itself. So, that was a nice bit of honesty because I really wasn’t expecting anything back at all!
Should you visit Tumalog Falls in Oslob, Cebu?
Yes. I loved it. Even though I was there for quite a short time. I was lucky to have the whole place to myself. When I visited (March) there was not a lot of water and the waterfall wasn’t really flowing but it was still worth it like it was. The water was very shallow – the photos are a bit misleading it came up to just a bit higher than my knees so not really swimmable but I am still very glad I visited.
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