CEBU CITY DAY TOUR TRAVEL GUIDE

Our second day in Cebu City was the highlight of our 3 days and 2 nights vacation. We were able to visit places from the historical landmarks, trending tourist spots up to the mountainous part of Cebu just for one day only. To avoid the hassle of the traffic, we decided to hire ‘Habal-habal’ which I strongly recommend. You don’t want to be stocked on the traffic in the middle of your trip. But if you will travel by group, I suggest, you hire a van. The driver served as our guide at the same time our photographer. And in all fairness, they took us good photos.

Our guides were on time. They were already waiting for us outside the hotel when we went downstairs from our room. Our call time was 9:00 AM. And we were so lucky because when we woke up, the weather was unpleasant and when we were about to start the trip, the rain stopped. So we started with the mountainous part of Cebu.

Sirao Garden. The Little Amsterdam of Cebu.
1 hour and 30 mins travel time from the City.

Tops of Cebu
10 – 15 mins travel time from Sirao

Temple of Leah.
This is the graveyard of Leah who is the grandmother of Ellen Adarna (A Filipina model and actress). This temple is dedicated to Leah. A temple built by undying love. Her remains are still there. Some of the antique collections of their family are also exhibited there. Ellen’s family is well-known in Cebu for owning huge businesses like hotels. And they are actually planning to build a hotel beside Temple of Leah so I noticed that some parts of the place are still under construction.

Taoist Temple
It is situated inside an exclusive subdivision so some of the tours are not allowed to go beyond the entrance of the subdivision which happened to us. We had no other option but to walk. Entrance to the temple was 15 mins. It was a good exercise and still tolerable. Travel time from the temple of Leah was 30 Mins.

Lechon House
We had lunch at Lechon House. Cebu has the best lechon and you can find everywhere in Cebu. Place and food were awesome but the price was somehow expensive. For the budget traveler, I don’t recommend it. You can’t try CnT Lechon instead.

Heritage of Cebu Monument
walking distance to the Ancestral house

Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House
 A very creepy house.

Basilica del Santo Niño and Magellan’s Cross

10000 Roses
was not included in our tour’s package. So we had to commute which I regretted because the transportation in Cebu is worst. Traffic is everywhere. The jeepneys have route codes that are the combination of letters and numbers for each route which are hard to memorize. Big thanks to google map because it has a comprehensive guide to where are the terminals of the jeepneys and what are the route codes. Uber and Grab were our lifesavers. 10000 roses can be located at Cordova which is really far from the city. So I suggest, look for a tour that has 10,000 roses in their itinerary.

The Pyramid 
why go to Paris if we have it here in Cebu? It is located in IT park and near Sugbo Mercado, a good place to chill at night and try different food from Cebu.

Habal- Habal Package Tour (without the entrance fee)

• 700 (without 10000 Roses)
• 1000 – 1200 ( w/ 10000 Roses)  

Entrance Fee

• Sirao Garden—-————————30
• Temple of Leah—–———————–50
• Tops of Cebu ———–——————-100
• Taoist Temple    ————-————-Free
• Ancestral House————————-50
• Heritage of Cebu monument ——-–Free
• Basilica del Santo Niño
• Magellan’s Cross————————Free
• The Fort San Pedro———————30
• 10000 Roses ————————-—–20
• The Pyramid  / Sugbo Mercado—–Free

Total = 1480 Pesos PER PAX!!

For pasalubong (a food souvenir / delicacy), you can buy Utap from Shamrock. It is near Basilica del Santo Niño so you can ask your tour guide to go there for just a minute to buy pasalubong or just take a taxi. You can also have your dinner at La Vie Parisienne and try their very affordable wine. I listed also below the possible expenses for the tour which is 1480  pesos per person only guys!!!

You can contact Kuya Buddy 09229088200 for habal habal. Or you can join this group organized tour I found on FB CBU CityDrive Tours. They have a total of 10 hours duration for the complete city tour at a very affordable price from 800 each (1-2 Pax), the highest rate to 400 each (9-10 Pax).

Invite your friends at gunawa na ng plano!! tama sa ang drawing at baka mag pa exhibit na kayo sa dami ng drawings niyong travel goal

Click here to check for more activities you must try and places you have to visit in Cebu!

Cebu Travel DIY/Guide/Itinerary

I was able to visit Cebu for 3 days and surely I will come back for more adventure. I have learned and experienced so many things. Cebu, as we all know is rich with history and culture. Cebu has so much to offer. From food, places to visits and things to do. You will never get bored if you’re in Cebu. Just within the heart of the city your couple of days for vacation is not enough. So, if you are planning or been dreaming to go to Cebu, you should be prepared because Cebu City is also already busy urbanized province. Traffic jam is everywhere and the means of transportation is really hard to memorize (or maybe just me). And I will share with you guys my itinerary for my Cebu City adventure. This is the first part, our day 1.

Just for day 1, we were able to enjoy Cebu so much. We reached the City around 9 AM. Malls were still closed and we cant checked in earlier than 12 NN because of booking policy. So we decided to eat first. KUDOS to SM CEBU CITY Lounge we were able to deposit our total of 3 bags for just Php.30. Just in front of SM Cebu City, we took a taxi going to CNT restaurant to try the Cebu’s best Lechon. Well, only to find out that the restaurant is just across the street but still the taxi driver did not inform us and allowed us to hire him. The restaurant was just about to open but people were already waiting. I went to the front desk and the lady gave me queue number 44. Imagine how many Lechons Cebunos ate daily. Before we leave the restaurant, I can’t help to notice that they have already sold out 4 whole Lechons.

We were able to meet our friend, Aldrin who was taking his review for the board, in the CnTLechon restaurant because Facebook notified us that he was nearby. Thanks, FB.

After lunch, we went to Mabolo Flats Garden to check in. We booked in advance using Airbnb app. I strongly recommend it guys because I was able to get a big discount for using it for the first time. I was able to get roughly more than 1k discounts. I will do a detailed blog on how to do it because you must have a newly registered account using this link www.airbnb.com/c/swiziejoep1 to avail the big discount. Our room was so great and neat. We have an electric stove, hot and cold shower, refrigerator, TV, free wifi, a wonderful view of the city from the terrace and free access to the infinity pool.

The moment we were able to fix our things, we immediately went out and explored Cebu. First stop was Upside Down World located in city time square. We hired uber. Thanks for our friend, Aldrin, for introducing the app and giving me the code for the discounts on the next 3 rides. For Uber discounts, you can also use my code swiziejoepue . There are many Upside Down World branches in the country and this one in Cebu is just recent. It was a very fun and unique experience. The place has different rooms with different themes, all upside down. There were also assistants for each room ready to take photos for you and your barkada. Assistants were so helpful and creative in helping us what poses to do. It was really amazing to see our taken photos rotated and got the ambiance of interacting in the upside-down world optical illusion.

Before our cameras’ batteries and memories drained out of taking photos, we went to the highest building in Cebu, the Crown Regency, to try sky experience adventure and get some real actions. We availed and paid for their bundle that includes buffet dinner, 6D movie, and one extreme activity. I had the chance to pick an activity from the zipline, wall climbing, edge coaster or skywalk extreme. I selected skywalk extreme. It was a great experience walking on the edge of the building at 126.55 meters high above the street. At first, it was really terrifying. My whole body was shaking. But I can’t deny, the view was breathtaking. It helped me a lot to stay calm. Seeing the Cebu’s amazing view from the top, it’s mountainous part, the industrialized Cebu and Bohol across the sea, was fascinating. I actually even totally forgot my tension about the heights. That experience pushed me to try more of the available activities, only if I had more time and money. I will come back and try the wall climbing. Crossed fingers. However, I was not allowed to bring my camera because they said for safety purposes. They actually have their own photographer and the prices of the photos were really expensive. So I doubted if it was really for safety purposes. Each hard copied photo is Php 250. Their photo buddles range up to photo 1000. I purchased their 2gb USB drive with 6 raw photos.

We were asked to choose two out of plenty options to watch the 6D movie which was 15 minutes each. We asked the lady behind the desk to select for the best and most intense movies. She selected roller coasters and zombies apocalypse. With the comfortable theater seats and 3D glasses, the lights went off and the movie started rolling. The experience gave us nauseous. The seats moved in place following the direction of the 3D roller coasters that we were watching. There were also real wind, sparkling water, and artificial snow effects. The first movie was a really extreme ride, still tolerable. But the zombie’s apocalypse was totally out of control. The experience was like going to the haunted hospital from the forest while there were zombies running after our lives plus the suspense factor of the zombies that were there of all the sudden. I think for me, I can finish the whole movie, but my partner couldn’t take it anymore so we decided to stop watching. It was still an unforgettable experience. So do you think do you have what it takes to finish the movie?

We took some air and relaxed after riding an out of the world roaster coasters and running away from the zombies for our lives. When we already cooled down, it was just right time for dinner. So we went on the 37th Floor of the building to dine with a breathtaking night view of the city. The atmosphere was really romantic. The food was Asian cuisine. Most of the guests that night were Koreans and it was so funny that when asked for a halo-halo from the cook, he actually thought I was a foreigner.

That was just our first day in Cebu. I will post soon our second day which was the highlights of our trip. Yes! More adventure to share with you guys that we did in Cebu just for 3 days.

To wrap up, below is our total expenses for our 1st day in Cebu.

Lunch
½ kg of Lechon

——————————–250
4 rice

———————————40
SM Lounge

———————————30
Upsidedown World Entrance

–——————350×2 = 700
Sky Experience
Buffet + 6D Movie

———————————750
Buffet + 6D Move + 1 Extreme Ride

———————————900
2gb USB drive with 6 raw photos

———————————600

• Total of

———————————

3270 good for 2 pax

We spent 1635 each! Everything mentioned above for just 1635 pesos!!

Not bad right?

It was all worth it! feel free to ask me if you have any question. Have fun!