Getting around Siquijor

There is no Grab on Siquijor and no public bus worth planning around. In practice you have four options, and which one fits depends almost entirely on whether you ride.

For most travellers the answer is a scooter. A day’s rental costs less than a couple of cross-island tricycle trips, and the island is compact enough that having your own wheels changes the trip completely.

Rental rates on Siquijor are quoted per day, where a day means a full 24 hours rather than a calendar date. An automatic scooter is the cheapest way to get around and what most travellers end up on. A bigger 150cc or 155cc bike costs more and is worth it for two adults with luggage. A tuktuk or a seven-seat car is the answer for families, for luggage runs and for the days it rains.

Rates move with the season and with how new the bike is, so treat any number you see online as a starting point and check what is actually available for your dates. Whatever you pay, budget separately for fuel, which is cheap on a scooter, and for entrance fees at the waterfalls and marine sanctuaries, which are collected in cash at the gate.

Two ways to do it. You can walk up to a rental shack near the pier and take whatever is left, or you can book before you arrive so the bike is waiting for you. Walk-up is fine in low season and a genuine gamble in high season, when the good bikes go first and you end up on whatever nobody else wanted.

Whichever route you take, check these before you ride away:

• Brakes, lights and horn actually work.
• Tyres have tread and the bike has a spare key.
• Existing scratches and dents are photographed, with the owner present, before you leave. This is the single thing that prevents an argument at drop-off.
• You have been given a helmet that fits, not a token one.
• You know what the fuel level is and what it should be when you return it.

On the deposit question: a lot of walk-up shops on the island will ask to hold your passport for the duration of the rental. You are not obliged to agree to that, and you should think hard before handing over your only travel document. Roam never holds a passport. You pay a small reservation fee online to lock the booking, and settle the balance with the owner at handover in cash, GCash or Maya. Cancel free up to 48 hours before pickup.

This is the part most guides skate over. To ride a motorbike legally in the Philippines you need a licence that actually covers motorcycles. A car-only licence does not, however common it is to see it accepted.

Foreign visitors can ride on a valid home-country licence for a limited period after arrival, provided it is in English or accompanied by an International Driving Permit. If your licence is not in English, carry the IDP. Get it in your home country before you travel; you cannot obtain one once you are here.

It matters beyond the roadside. Most travel insurance policies will decline a motorbike claim if you were not correctly licensed for the machine you were riding, which turns a minor accident into a very expensive one. Roam verifies your licence before confirming a booking, partly for the owner’s protection and partly for yours.

One sealed circumferential road rings the island, connecting all six municipalities: Siquijor, Larena, Enrique Villanueva, Maria, Lazi and San Juan. Riding it without stopping takes a couple of hours. Nobody does that. Plan a full day, go clockwise or anticlockwise depending on where you are staying, and treat it as a series of stops with riding in between.

The coast road is the easy part. The roads that climb inland to the waterfalls and viewpoints are steeper, narrower and in places rougher, which is where a bit more engine and better brakes start to earn their keep.

Most accommodation clusters along the west and southwest coast around San Juan, which puts you close to the sunset side of the island and within easy reach of the loop in both directions.

Siquijor has no airport. You arrive by ferry, and for almost everyone that means Dumaguete on Negros, which has the nearest airport and the most frequent crossings. There are also less frequent services from Bohol and Cebu.

Boats dock at either Siquijor port or Larena port, and which one matters, because they are on opposite sides of the island from each other. Check which port your ticket lands at before you book accommodation or arrange a pickup.

Deliberately not listed here: sailing times and fares. Operators and schedules on this route change often enough that any list published today would be wrong within months, and a guide that strands you at a pier is worse than no guide. Check current times with the operator on the day you travel.

If you have pre-booked a vehicle, arrange for it to meet the boat. Roam delivers to both ports and to accommodation anywhere on the island at no extra cost, which removes the arrival scramble entirely.

Fuel is easy. There are proper stations in the larger towns, and roadside stalls selling petrol by the litre in glass bottles everywhere else. A scooter will get round the island several times on a tank.

Wear the helmet. It is legally required, it is enforced, and the reason to do it has nothing to do with the law: the most common way visitors get hurt here is a low-speed spill on gravel or a wet surface, which is exactly the crash a helmet is good at.

The specific hazards worth knowing about, in rough order of how often they catch people out:

• Dogs. They sleep on the warm road and move unpredictably. Slow down.
• Rain. The surface goes slick fast, and the painted sections and manhole covers go slicker still.
• Night riding. Long stretches are unlit, and unlit means genuinely dark, with unlit vehicles and pedestrians in it.
• Sand and gravel washed across the road on bends after heavy rain.
• Sunburn. You will be on an open bike for hours. It is not a joke.

Roam rentals are not insured, and no rental on this island realistically is. Every ride runs on the owner’s rental contract, which you read and sign at booking so the damage terms are clear before you pay. Arrange travel insurance that explicitly covers motorbike riding, and check the licence conditions on the policy.