And in case you find yourself in Cebu, the Queen City of the South, here are some tips and tricks to getting your way around.
Make the map your travel buddy.
If you've gotten yourself a tour group and a guide, good. If not, don't worry. Anyway, Dora the Explorer's sense of adventure entails nothing but reliance on the good ol' map.
Nothing beats the excitement of exploring a new place by encircling target destinations and making path lines. Cebu is relatively simple to navigate so even the ones with poorest sense of direction will find their way easily.
Secure one of the EZ Maps which can be purchased in local bookstores. Most of the travel destinations in Cebu can be found in Mactan, Mandaue and Cebu City, so make sure your map has those three highlighted. Landmarks such as the Magellan's Cross, Carbon Market, and the historical churches can be found there. All you need is a little strategy on which place to visit first.
To kick off your search, you might want to encircle the following landmarks:
Mactan Island
Lapu-Lapu Monument
Magellan's Marker
Mactan Tourist Sports Complex
Guitar Factories
Magellan's Cross
Cebu City
Fort San Pedro
Colon St.
Magellan's Cross
Basilica de Sto. Niño
Carbon Market
Ayala Center Cebu
Taboan Market
Basilica de Sto. Niño
Inside the Basilica de Sto. Niño
Be at the center of everything.
The key to a successful and budget friendly trip is knowing where you're headed and finding a place to stay within the proximity. Hotels and inns abound the island and the decision where to stay depends largely on what activities you'll partake.
For those who plan to spend all their days in the beach, resorts in the Mactan Island are aplenty. But for those who will be opting to spend more time in the Cebu City proper, an inn or hotel in the area around the Fuente Osmeña circle is your best bet as it is close to pretty much all the tourist destinations. You'd want to save those taxi fares for pasalubong shopping instead, right?
Locals know best
Our map was teeming with circles and path lines when we arrived in Cebu. But on our first stop at the Lapu Lapu's Shrine, we readily erased and changed our penned plans -- thanks to a local named Ivan and the mamang sorbetero who were more than enthusiastic to provide us with a list of must sees in Cebu.
If not for the two of them, we wouldn't have known that the so-called SuTuKils are just behind the stage we were fronting. If not for Ivan's advice, we would have spent way too much by availing the pricey snorkeling rates of the resort we were staying at. We might have also made unnecessary taxi trips in place of the cheaper 7-Peso jeepney rides.
So the next time you find yourself clueless (or not) on your whereabouts, don't be afraid to ask. Make instant 'bays (friends) and be ready for better travel bargains.
Food, food, and more food!
Ah, yes. What's a trip to Cebu without having a taste of the local food?
Cebuano food is altogether a different hodgepodge of cuisine and delicacies. A long weekend in Cebu isn't suffice for you to try all the wonders it has to offer, but with proper planning and pacing, at least you'd cover those under the "never-leave-Cebu-without-trying-these" category.
*For a list of restaurants you can try in Cebu, click here.
As discussed in my previous travel article, you haven't been to Cebu if you haven't tasted their esteemed lechon. Cebu lechons abound all the major areas of the city, but you can't go wrong and lost with CnT Lechon.
In terms of popularity, the SuTuKils probably fare next to the lechon.
These 'you-choose-we-cook' al fresco restaurants are just behind the Mactan shrine (which can be your first stop since it's nearest the airport).
SuTuKil stands for Sugba-Tula-Kilawin, three ways your seafood can be cooked. With their proximity to the fishing villages, there's no arguing that they have the freshest catch of the day.
For more on the SuTuKil experience, watch out for my next travel article.
Lastly, the street food capital of Cebu -- Larsian -- is one thing you'd be sorry to pass up.
This huge indoor complex houses numerous barbecue stalls offering grills of every possible kind: chicken (wings, thigh, skin, breast, feet, intestine, blood), pork (meat, liver, intestine, chorizo, tocino, etc.), stuffed squid, and fish of different sizes and sorts.
The barbecues go well with 'puso,' the Visayans' take on rice.
This no-frills food haven located near the Osmeña Circle and the Cua Dong hospital is simply too good and too cheap to be true. When I was there, numerous groups, local and foreign alike, are all in their respective hubs, busily chewing their grilled fare off the sticks, not minding the smoky atmosphere in the poorly ventilated complex.
Those with asthma should definitely beware and take caution. But for the rest, enjoy!
Always have something to bring home...
...and get them in the right places. You can always do your last minute shopping at the airport for pasalubongs but of course, expect to pay more. Find time to personally visit and haggle at the pasalubong meccas of Cebu. These include the Taboan Market, several streets away from Colon, where all the danggits and pusits await. Don't make this your last stop before heading to the airport lest you want to be barred. Once you get yourself in Taboan, prepare to be stinky!
For your otap, barquillos, ladyfingers, turones de mani and dried mangoes requests, head to the Mabini St. or Fuente Osmena for the Shamrock Outlets. As locals say, otap isn't otap if it isn't Shamrock.
I admit. Three days definitely isn't enough for a place as beautiful and as diverse as Cebu. In a province blessed with an irresistible stretch of pristine clear beach, historical roads and structures, and an ever dynamic metropolis, one would never run out of ways to enjoy.
Nevertheless, those few days in Cebu are sure to be worthwhile and memorable. Oh, thank God for cheap plane fares! http://www.clickthecity.com/travel/?p=5174
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