How to get to Siargao from Manila

The Manila to Siargao nonstop is gone for good, not suspended for a season. Siargao's airport can only take small propeller planes, and NAIA has been pushing propeller planes off its runway to free up slots for jets. Cebgo moved its Siargao flights to Clark in March 2025. PAL Express followed in March 2026. Manila is now a place you pass through on the way to Siargao, not a place you fly to Siargao from.

So you have three real ways out of Manila, plus a fourth option that is often better than any of them: not touching Manila at all. Picking the right one is mostly about where your international flight lands and what time of day it gets in. This guide walks through all four, tells you when each one makes sense, and covers what happens once you land at Sayak.

Jump to

• The three Manila routings at a glance
• Option 1: Fly direct from Clark
• Option 2: Connect through Cebu
• Option 3: Connect through Davao
• Option 4: Skip Manila entirely
• Which one should you pick?
• What it costs
• Baggage and surfboards
• Landing at Sayak

The three Manila routings at a glance

Option 1: Fly direct from Clark

Clark International Airport (CRK) sits about 100km north of Metro Manila, in Pampanga. It is now the only airport in Luzon with nonstop flights to Siargao.

Two airlines fly the route.

• Cebgo (Cebu Pacific's turboprop arm, flights numbered DG, sold on cebupacificair.com) runs it twice daily. The early flight leaves around 5:00am and lands about 7:30am. The midday flight leaves around 11:20am and lands about 1:55pm.
• Sunlight Air (2R), a small boutique carrier that uses Clark as its main base, flies a morning departure around 6:00am, arriving about 8:20am. Note that Sunlight cut this route from daily to about four times a week during the 2026 fuel crisis, and that reduction runs through at least September 2026. Check the days before you plan around it.
• PAL Express used to fly Clark to Siargao but suspended the route on 4 May 2026 and has not announced a restart. Do not plan on it.

Getting to Clark from Manila

This is the real cost of the Clark option. Budget 2.5 to 3 hours on the road, more in bad traffic, and add your check-in buffer on top. From central Manila to the Clark check-in desk, allow five to six hours.

• Genesis P2P buses. Your main option, and a good one. They run close to round the clock from several points in Metro Manila. NAIA Terminal 3 to Clark is roughly ₱450 to ₱480 with hourly departures. Trinoma and Cubao are around ₱350. PITX is about ₱480, or ₱520 on the plusher JoyBus. Check the current timetable on the Genesis Transport website before you go, and see our getting to and from NAIA guide for the full picture.
• One thing to ignore. For a stretch of 2026 there was a free shuttle to Clark, run by the airport operator through Genesis, for passengers with a Clark departure. That programme ended in May 2026. Plenty of blog posts and news articles still describe it, so do not count on turning up and riding for nothing. The paid Genesis buses on the same route are unaffected and still running normally.
• Grab will not take you to Clark. The app does not do intercity trips that far out of Metro Manila, so do not plan on booking one on the day. A hired van or car works and runs several thousand pesos, but it is not meaningfully faster than the bus, because the bottleneck is NLEX and Metro Manila traffic, not the vehicle.
• The train does not go there yet. The North-South Commuter Railway to Clark is still under construction. Ignore anything that tells you otherwise.

The 5:00am problem. Cebgo's early flight means being at Clark by 3:00am, which means leaving Manila around midnight. Most people flying that one either take a late-night bus and nap in the terminal, or spend the night near Clark. There are several hotels within a short hop of the airport, including the Royce Hotel and Casino, Quest Hotel Clark, Widus Hotel and Casino, and Xenia Hotel. Some throw in an airport transfer, so ask when you book.

Option 2: Connect through Cebu

Fly Manila to Cebu, then Cebu to Siargao. This is the routing most travellers should take, and the reason is redundancy rather than speed.

Manila to Cebu is one of the busiest air corridors in the country. Philippine Airlines and PAL Express fly it from NAIA Terminal 2, Cebu Pacific from NAIA Terminal 3, AirAsia also from Terminal 2. Flight time is about 1 hour 25 minutes and there are departures all day long. You can see today's on the live Manila to Cebu board. Double-check your terminal before you leave, since NAIA has been reshuffling airline assignments under its new operator. Our which terminal guide tracks the current list.

Cebu to Siargao is served by three airlines with roughly ten flights a day between them:

• Cebgo flies it six times daily, first departure around 5:00am, last around 2:50pm.
• PAL Express flies it about four times daily, with the latest departure around 3:00pm landing in Siargao just before 4:00pm. This is usually the last flight of the day onto the island.
• Sunlight Air flies it daily, with extra frequencies on some days.

Flight time is about 55 minutes.

Why this is the safest routing: if one flight is cancelled for weather, there are nine others. On the Clark and Davao routes, a cancellation often means waiting until tomorrow. During surf season and Philippine holidays, that difference is the whole ballgame.

How long a layover? Neither Cebu Pacific nor Philippine Airlines publishes a minimum connecting time for domestic transfers at Mactan-Cebu. Give yourself at least two hours on one ticket, and three or more if you booked the legs separately, because you will be reclaiming your bags and checking in again from scratch.

Option 3: Connect through Davao

Manila to Davao, then Davao to Siargao. This works, but it is a specialist choice.

Cebgo is the only airline on the Davao to Siargao leg, running one flight most days, roughly six days a week, on an ATR 72. Departure alternates between a morning slot around 8:00am and a late-morning slot around 11:55am depending on the day. Flight time is about 1 hour 10 minutes.

Manila to Davao takes about 1 hour 50 minutes and is served frequently by Philippine Airlines (Terminal 2) and Cebu Pacific (Terminal 3); the live Manila to Davao board shows today's. Davao's Francisco Bangoy airport has a single terminal, so the connection itself is simple.

Pick Davao if you actually want to see Davao, or you are already routed through Mindanao, or the fares happen to work out. Do not pick Davao if your schedule is tight, because there is exactly one flight a day and no plan B if it goes.

Option 4: Skip Manila entirely

If you are flying in from abroad and Siargao is the whole point of the trip, the smartest move is often to not touch Manila at all.

Mactan-Cebu (CEB) takes international flights from roughly 14 countries: Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Busan, Taipei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Minh City, Dubai, Doha, Guam and more. You land in Cebu, clear immigration there, and connect to one of ten daily Siargao flights the same day or the next morning. No NAIA terminal transfer, no Manila traffic, no eight-hour domestic detour.

Davao (DVO) has a much thinner international network: Hong Kong, Singapore, Doha, and a seasonal Bangkok service. It works if you happen to be on one of those, but it is not worth routing around for.

If you must come through Manila, remember that an international arrival at NAIA means clearing immigration, collecting your bags, going through customs, and then checking in again for the domestic leg, possibly at a different terminal. Our connecting flights guide has the full sequence and the buffer times we recommend, and moving between NAIA terminals covers the shuttle situation.

Which one should you pick?

Take the Cebu connection if you are arriving from abroad, travelling in the wet season, on a tight schedule, carrying surfboards, or you simply want the most ways out if something breaks. It is the default answer for most people.

Take Clark if you are already in Manila or North Luzon with a night to spare, you are watching every peso, or you have a whole free day to travel. The airfare is usually the cheapest of the three and Clark is a far calmer airport than NAIA. Just respect the road time.

Take Davao if you want to add Mindanao to the trip, or you found a fare too good to pass up and your dates are flexible.

Skip Manila if your international ticket is not booked yet. Flying into Cebu instead removes a whole day of the trip in each direction.

Some scenarios:

• Landing at NAIA at 6:00am from Tokyo, want to be surfing today. Connect through Cebu. You can make an afternoon Cebu to Siargao flight if your bags come out fast and your buffer holds.
• Landing at NAIA at 8:00pm. You are staying overnight regardless. Now Clark is genuinely competitive: sleep near the airport or in Manila, take an early bus, fly the midday Cebgo direct.
• You are already in Manila and just want the cheapest way over. Clark. Overnight bus, morning flight.
• You are travelling in December or January. Cebu, and build a spare day into your schedule.
• You are bringing three boards. Cebu, and call the airline before you book. See baggage below.
• You have not booked your international ticket yet. Fly into Cebu.

One ticket or two? This matters more than the price

You will often find it cheaper to book Manila to Cebu on one airline and Cebu to Siargao on another. Understand what you are buying when you do.

On one ticket (both legs under a single booking reference, same airline group), your bags are checked through to Siargao on a domestic itinerary, and if the first flight is late the airline is responsible for getting you onto the next one. Cebu Pacific can sell Manila to Cebu on a 5J jet plus Cebu to Siargao on a Cebgo turboprop under one booking. Philippine Airlines can do the same with PR and PAL Express.

On two separate tickets, none of that applies. You collect your bag, walk out of arrivals, queue at the second airline's counter, and check in again. If your first flight is delayed and you miss the second, that ticket is gone and you buy a new one. Nobody owes you anything.

The saving on separate tickets is usually a few hundred to a couple of thousand pesos. The cost of getting it wrong is a missed flight to an island with limited daily seats. On the last flight of the day, with a daylight-only airport at the other end, that is a lost day.

How much do flights to Siargao usually cost

All figures are indicative one-way fares in pesos and will move with demand, season and how far ahead you book. Treat them as a sanity check, not a quote.

So a realistic all-in return from Manila is roughly ₱8,000 to ₱14,000 through Clark, and ₱12,000 to ₱20,000 connecting through Cebu, before bags.

Fares are highest in the last two weeks of October and the first two weeks of November, over Christmas and New Year, and during Holy Week. Book those months ahead, not weeks. The cheapest seats on every one of these routes go in the seat sales that Cebu Pacific and Sunlight Air run every few weeks, so it is worth being on their mailing lists if your dates are flexible.

Terminal fees are already in your ticket. NAIA's domestic passenger service charge (₱390) and Sayak's (around ₱150) are collected when you buy, not at a desk on the day. There is no travel tax on domestic flights, and as a short-stay foreign tourist you do not pay Philippine travel tax at all. Our travel tax guide explains who does.

Baggage, and a warning about surfboards

Two things to know about flying to Siargao that do not apply to normal domestic flights.

Everything is a turboprop, and hold space is genuinely small. ATR 72s and Q400s do not have the belly capacity of an A320. Airlines are stricter about weight on these routes, and Sunlight Air specifically flags weight and balance restrictions on the Clark to Siargao run.

Prepay your baggage. Always. On Cebu Pacific, 20kg bought at the time of booking runs a few hundred pesos. The same 20kg bought at the airport counter costs roughly three times as much. Buy it when you book, not later, and definitely not on the day.

Standard allowances:

• Cebu Pacific and Cebgo: the cheapest fare includes no checked bag at all. Higher fare bundles include 20kg.
• PAL Express: allowance varies by fare class, from zero on the cheapest tickets up to 25kg.
• Sunlight Air: LITE includes nothing, VALUE includes 10kg, PLUS includes 20kg. Extra baggage is ₱600 per 10kg if bought in advance, and considerably more at the airport.

Surfboards. This is where people get caught out.

• Sunlight Air publishes a hard limit: boards up to 6 feet including the case, maximum 2 boards on the entire flight, and you must tell them your dimensions and quantity in advance.
• Cebu Pacific and Cebgo cap sports equipment at 20kg and one piece, bookable up to two hours before departure, and state plainly that space is limited on Cebgo turboprops. Reports of the practical limit on ATR flights run around two boards, and boards over 6 feet are frequently refused.
• PAL Express uses the larger Q400 on the Cebu route, which in practice gives you the most realistic shot at getting a longboard on the plane.

If boards are the point of your trip, call the airline before you book, not after. Route through Cebu so you have alternatives, and expect that a 7-foot board is a real problem on every carrier serving the island. Plenty of visitors rent on Siargao instead, and the board selection in General Luna is good.

For everything else that goes in a bag, see our carry-on and checked baggage rules.

Before you fly: what foreigners actually need

eTravel. Required for your international arrival into the Philippines and again for your international departure. It is free, it takes a few minutes on the official eTravel site, and you should file it within 72 hours of the flight. You get a QR code that immigration scans. It is not required for domestic flights, so you do not need a new one for Manila to Cebu or Cebu to Siargao. Watch out for lookalike sites that charge a fee. Full details in our eTravel guide.

Visa. Around 160 nationalities get 30 days visa-free, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the EU, Japan, Korea and most of ASEAN. Brazil and Israel get 59 days. India, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan get 14. Your passport must be valid for at least six months beyond your intended stay.

Bring proof of onward travel. This is the single most common reason foreigners get denied boarding to the Philippines, and it usually happens at check-in in your home country rather than at Manila immigration. Airlines are fined for carrying passengers who will be refused entry, so budget carriers check hard. Have a return or onward ticket ready to show.

ID for domestic flights. Your passport is fine and is what you should carry. Digital IDs are generally not accepted. Make sure the name on your ticket matches your passport exactly, because a real mismatch can get you offloaded with no compensation.

Terminal fees and travel tax are covered above. Short answer: nothing extra to pay for domestic flights.

If Manila is your entry point, our first domestic flight guide walks the whole NAIA departure sequence in order.

Landing at Sayak and getting to General Luna

Sayak is small. You walk across the tarmac to the terminal, and bags take 15 to 20 minutes to appear. A terminal expansion has been underway to take capacity from 200 to 750 passengers, so the experience may be roomier than older guides describe.

You may be asked for a local environmental or tourism fee of around ₱20 on arrival. Have small notes.

General Luna, where almost everyone stays, is 45 to 60 minutes away on the other side of the island. Your options:

• Shared van, ₱300 to ₱500 per person. Bookable in advance through Klook, KKday and similar, or arranged on the spot. You wait for the van to fill, and luggage space is tight.
• Private van, ₱2,000 to ₱4,000 for the vehicle. Door to door, and the driver will wait if your flight is late. Worth splitting between three or four people.
• Hotel transfer. Most accommodation in General Luna will arrange pickup. Usually the least hassle, occasionally the most expensive.
• Habal-habal (motorcycle taxi), ₱300 to ₱400 per person. Cheap and fun with a daypack. Miserable with a suitcase.

Book your transfer before you fly if you are landing on the last flight of the day, or arriving in peak season. Vans cluster around arrival banks rather than meeting every single flight, and you do not want to be negotiating in the dark.

A trick worth knowing: if you land late, consider spending the first night in Del Carmen, five to ten minutes from the airport, and moving to General Luna in daylight.

Money, scooters and the practical stuff

Bring cash. Siargao runs on it. Tricycles, carinderias, tour boats, market stalls and most small businesses do not take cards. The bigger restaurants, resorts and hotels in General Luna do, so cards cover your dinners and your room; everything else is cash. ATMs are concentrated in General Luna and Dapa, and the one near the airport in Del Carmen is unreliable. The BDO machine in General Luna is the most dependable; the DBP one goes offline often. Avoid the standalone Euronet machines: they charge ₱80 per withdrawal even on local Philippine cards. On a foreign card, always decline the machine's offer to bill you in your home currency, because its exchange rate is worse than your own bank's. Withdrawal limits are typically ₱5,000 to ₱10,000 a go, with a ₱150 to ₱250 fee on foreign cards. Withdraw what you need in Manila or Cebu before you fly.

Individual attractions charge their own environmental fees in cash: roughly ₱50 to ₱100 at Sugba Lagoon, ₱50 at Magpupungko, ₱150 to ₱200 for Sohoton Cove, plus boat hire.

Scooters run ₱350 to ₱600 a day, or around ₱3,000 to ₱3,500 a week, fuel not included. Some things foreigners consistently get wrong:

• Your home licence is generally valid for 90 days from arrival, but bring an International Driving Permit, especially if your licence is not in English.
• There are frequent police checkpoints in Dapa and General Luna. Riding without proper documents risks a ₱3,000 fine, and bikes do get impounded.
• Helmets are legally required. Enforcement on the island is lax and you will see plenty of people riding without one, but that is not a good reason to join them. Wear it.
• The roads look benign and are not. Stray dogs, gravel, potholes and no lighting after dark. Siargao has a genuinely bad record for motorbike injuries and deaths among visitors. Ride slowly and do not ride at night.

When to go, and when flights get cancelled

Siargao does not follow the usual Philippine dry-season pattern, so ignore generic advice about the country as a whole.

The busiest week of the year is 31 October to 10 November 2026, when Cloud 9 hosts the Philippines Pro, the country's first World Surf League Championship Tour event. Flights and accommodation for that window should be booked months out, not weeks. Christmas, New Year and Holy Week are the other sell-out periods.

If you have any flexibility, go between April and October. The weather is better, the flights are more reliable, and you avoid the two months where a cancelled flight can strand you for days.

If your flight is cancelled

Weather cancellations happen, and Siargao is a hard place to be stuck because daily seats are limited. What to do:

Move immediately. Do not wait for the airline to call you. Seats on the next available flight go fast, and on the Clark and Davao routes "next available" can mean tomorrow or later.

Work two channels at once. Queue at the airline's service desk and open the airline's chat on your phone at the same time. Whichever reaches you first, take it.

Come with a specific alternative. Search the airline's main website for flights with actual seats before you ask. Saying "there are seats on the 2:50pm to Cebu" gets a much faster result than asking an agent to go hunting. The disruption portal and the public website do not always show the same inventory, so check both.

Ask about rerouting through the other hub. If you are stuck on a Clark itinerary, ask whether they can put you on Cebu to Siargao instead, or the reverse. Airlines will often say no at first and then accommodate you, particularly when the disruption is their fault rather than weather.

Know what you are owed. The Air Passenger Bill of Rights sets out what airlines must provide when they cancel on you, and it is worth reading before you need it.

Be polite about all of it. The ground staff on these routes are dealing with a lot of stranded people and very few seats, and they have discretion. Calm and specific beats loud and vague, every time.

Before you head to the airport in bad weather, check the live boards. Our cancelled flights page shows what has already been dropped today at NAIA, and the departures board shows current status.

Quick links

• Manila to Cebu flights today: live departures for the first leg of the Cebu routing.
• Manila to Davao flights today: live departures for the Davao routing.
• Cancelled flights at NAIA: what has already been dropped today.
• Which terminal is my airline at?: check before you leave for the airport.
• Getting to and from NAIA: buses, Grab, and the ride out to Clark.
• Connecting flights at Manila: how much time you need between legs.
• Baggage rules: what you can bring, and what it costs.