How do I get to Simala Shrine from Cebu City?

Simala Shrine is open daily from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and entry is free. Because the drive from Cebu City is 1.5-2 hours, leaving much after 3:00 PM risks arriving to a closed gate - a weekday morning departure around 6:30-7:00 AM gets you there near opening, when it is quietest.

There is a mass at 12:00 noon every day. Saturday, Sunday afternoon and the 13th of each month run to a different schedule, and published sources disagree on the exact times, so confirm with the shrine if you are travelling for a particular mass - we will time the car around it.

Yes, and it is enforced at the gate: shoulders and knees covered, for men and women. Shoes come off before the adoration area. Photography is fine outdoors but not inside the chapel or during mass.

About 55 km south, in Barangay Lindogon, Sibonga - roughly a 1.5-2 hour drive each way. Traffic is heaviest on weekends and on the 13th of each month, when pilgrim numbers rise.

One place, several names. Formally it is the Monastery of the Holy Eucharist, also known as the Our Lady of Lindogon Shrine, and it is commonly called either the Simala Shrine or the Simala Parish Church - so "Simala Church" and "Simala Shrine" are the same building. It stands in Barangay Lindogon in the municipality of Sibonga, which is why an address says Sibonga while directions say Simala: they are the same stop on the southern highway.

Yes - Carcar’s heritage streets and lechon are on the way back, making a relaxed south-Cebu half-day. We’ll quote a private car with the stops you want.

No entrance fee (donations welcome), but the dress code is a real condition of entry: shoulders and knees covered, checked by security at the gate, and visitors in sleeveless tops or anything above the knee are refused. Shawls and wrap skirts are rented at the entrance for about P20 if you need one. Worth knowing before a 2-hour drive south.

Start from the drive: 1.5-2 hours each way is 3-4 hours in the vehicle for the round trip, before you have spent a minute at Simala Shrine. Add however long you want there and you have your finish time. We do not fix it for you: tell us the time you need to be back by when you request the quote - there is a "Back by" box on the form for exactly this - and we work the pickup back from it, or say plainly if what you want does not fit in one day. The car and driver are yours for the whole day either way, so waiting while you are out costs you nothing extra.

Yes - the same private car and driver, Simala Shrine back to Cebu City over the same ~55 km. Ask for both legs in one quote request and we price the round trip together. If the way back ends somewhere other than where you started, say where in the Anything else? box on the quote form and we quote that leg instead of the reverse of this one.

The quote is one fixed all-in price for the trip, agreed in writing before you travel, and fuel, tolls and parking are inside it - along with any waiting time or extra stops you tell us about when you ask. What stays separate is what you would choose anyway: entrance, activity and boat fees at the places you stop, your meals, and your accommodation. We do not invent activity prices, so those you pay directly on the ground.

One fixed all-in price for the journey, agreed in writing before you travel, with fuel, tolls, parking and waiting time already inside it. If it would help you decide, ask and we will also quote the alternatives next to it - a larger vehicle against two smaller ones for a group that is on the edge of a van, or the road leg quoted on its own where part of your journey crosses water you are booking yourself. On a trip of several legs we will price them individually as well as together if you want to see where the cost sits. Entrance, activity and boat fees at the places you stop stay outside our figure and are paid locally, and we never mark them up. Say how you want it broken up in the box marked "Anything else?".

Usually yes. There is no minimum notice on this route and no cut-off hour, so a request for tomorrow, or for later today, is worth sending rather than writing off. What settles it is whether a vetted driver is free for the time you need, and you will have the answer and the price by email the same day, usually within a few hours. A very early start is routine here rather than a complication. The part that gets harder with less notice is choice - holding a particular vehicle size or an exact pickup hour - not whether the journey can happen, so send the date and, if the timing is tight, the hour you need to be moving.

Nothing to ask for a quote. Once you are happy with the price it is two steps, not a choice between two: a booking fee paid online (card, bank transfer or GCash) confirms the trip and is what gets you your written confirmation, then the balance goes directly to your driver at the end of the journey. The fee is part of the all-in figure you agreed rather than an extra on top of it, and your quote states it before you pay. Free cancellation up to 72 hours before pickup refunds the fee in full.