Cebu, Philippines - Travel Destinations

The Month of April is just perfect to travel. However early Spring, Autumn and Winter seasons are also ideal to travel to the Philippines with mild temperature as in Juli.

Airlines which i prefer to travel: Asiana Airline, Singapore Airlines, Swiss Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines.

Direct flight is very expensive so i recommend to take a flight with one or two stop overs with 2 to 4waiting hours for connecting flight. This is important in case your flight will be delayed, you still have enough time without hectic to catch your connecting flight.

My last travel was in April 2013 with Asiana Airlines with 2 stop overs in England with less waiting hours and in Seoul 3 hours stand by.

A combined 2 to 5 days stop over between connecting flights can be arranged with the airlines at discounted prices. My family usually avail this kind of opportunity visiting beautiful and interesting places, learning other cultures iike Bangkok, Malaysia, Hongkok, Dubai etc.

Seoul has a nice, modern, clean airport. Asiana Airlines has a relax lounge with meals at a reasonable price.

Other lounge are available with a silent area to sleep. They have free shower with free shampoo, creme body soap, body lotion etc.

Our flight from Europe took about 25 hours. It seems too long but we enjoyed roaming around the airport of Seoul. During the flight we used to watched video films, play games, reading. hearimg music. The meals and snacks are good.

Selecting the flight schedule is also important to adjust the time difference. Switzerland and Philippines has about 7 hours time interval so we choose a night flight from Seoul and arrived Cebu at midnight. We arrived at our hotel about 1:00 a.m. woke up at about 9:00 a.m. for breakfast. Our day rythm was automatically adjusted.

Shopping

Every time we fly to Cebu, we don't carry heavy baggages. We stayed in Cebu City Center for 4 nights just near the shopping malls, visit the tourist attractions, best restaurants, experiencing Cebu's night life.

One could arrange from standard to luxury hotel rooms with discounted best prices by Agoda.com or any other agencies you prefer.

My family loves shopping and in Cebu you can find a vareity of shopping malls of course a lot cheaper than in Europe. Cebu is a shopping paradise.

One can go to the shopping malls with a taxi which cost for only 2. USD or less depending where you go.

Our favorite Malls:

Shoemart Shopping Mall

Ayala Shopping Mall

Gaisano Shopping Mall

Rustans Shopping Mall

Ayala Shopping Mall has lots of Boutiques where you could find all brands of luxury items and clothings. Here is a bit expensive to shop.

Shoemart is the biggest Shopping Mall in Cebu, one day is not enough to look around. Here you could shop and it is cheap...really a paradise to go shopping.

Gaisano also have lots of items to choose...save more money to shop.

Rustans is also good but lesser items to choose than Shoemart.

Eat and Pay Less

In Cebu one could discover and taste a vareity of Filipino food and Chinese specialities, There are also European Restaurants.

One could find lots of restaurants in the shopping malls, a very convenient way of saving time and effort after a day's shopping.

Just wish what you want to eat and you can have it: Fish and Meat Grill, great tasty Pizza like Shakey's, Filipino Native dishes, Itaiian Foods, Chinese etc.

My favorite restaurant for Native Filipino Dishes is the "Lighthouse Restaurant", with live Filipino Music, waitress wearing one of the Filipino native dress.

For four persons one could enjoy a great meal A La Carte at about 20. USD with desserts and drinks. Eat pizza family size or just average standard menus for family and pay less.

Experience the luxury like Bay Resort Restaurant, Plantation Bay Restaurant etc. for about 8 persons A La Carte for 100. USD to 200.USD

A beautiful, wonderful, amazing, memorable experience is a trip to Oslob where one could swimm with the whale shark, just 4 meters away on your eyes and ever nearer.

The best time is early in the morning, the earlier the better at 7:00 a.m. where there are lots of whale sharks around from 13 to 17 of these beautiful creatures.

For foreigners riding on a small boat with 2 Filipino guides cost 1000.00 PHP and for Filipino nationality 500.00 PHP to swimm with the whale. If you only want to stay in the boat, it cost 300.00 PHP.

One could ride with a passenger aircon bus or rent a car. It takes about 4 hours from Cebu City to Oslob.

If you have 2 or 3 days time, i would recommend an overnight stay in Santander.

A beautiful nature for a day adventure and picnic. There are 3 Waterfalls located not far from each other. The first Waterfall is the biggest where one could do rafting and go near the cascading water. One could also swimm in the waterfall basin.

Going or climbing a little bit higher is the small waterfall, where there are picnic tables to rent for 250.00 PHP. I like the place where there are few tourist, to take a bath and swimm. The water is perfect, clean and refreshing. One could order fresh coconut, drink the fresh coconut juice and eat the fresh tasty coconut meat...so delicious!!!for 50.00 PHP.

The third waterfall is a bit higher not far from the little waterfall. It is bigger that the middle waterfall. There is also rafting and cottages to rent and meals available like the first waterfall.

There is an entrance fee of 10.00 PHP/person. If you want a guide, waiting in the parking area, you could pay as you want, i gave 300.00 PHP for our guide to carry my bag, take us pictures, tell a story about the place and their ways of living to survive, show the path to the other falls and accompany you back.

The guide is not compulsory. One could discover the place alone. The highest part of the waterfalls can be reached but we did not climb up higher.

Our shopping adventure in Cebu City was lots of fun.

We rented a car for 12'000.00 PHP for 5 days and proceeded our travel vacation to Santander, Cebu. Renting a car is cheaper as requesting a pick up and drop off service from the hotel which cost around 4'000.00 - 5'800.00 PHP one way.

Having a car is more comfortable, able to discover beautiful places, dining out at night and beach hopping.

Santander is a great hide away, scaping from the hectic atmosphere of Cebu City. It is a bit far, about 4 hours ride but it was really worth visiting the place. Swimming with whale sharks and having a great adventure in Kawasan falls.

Santader is a snorkeling paradise. We stayed in Eden Resort Hotel direct by the sea. Our rooms are just above the cliff looking over the private beach and the sea with beautiful comfortable covered terrace. It is a paradise for the soul, one could hear the soft music of the waves against the seashore, the fresh sea breeze and the beautiful spectacular sunset on the sea horizont and the front island.

The fishermen paddling there little wooden boats, fishing and diving.

Direct on our hotel is a snorkiling paradise. The underwater scenery with different kinds of corals, fishes, sea plants..what a beautiful, amazing , colorful underwater world.

The place is for relaxing. There is no night life here. There are nearby hotels where one could have delicious meals like Marine Village Hotel owned by a Japanese. Take off slippers before entering the restaurant. The restaurant terrace is very comfortable and is above water with an exotic atmosphere.

We went swimming at the nearby white peeble sand beach owned by a Korean. The water is crystal clear and perfect to swim and enjoy.

One must take the oppurtunity to visit the nearby islands like Sumilon, Negros which only takes about 30 minutes ride with the ferryboat.Negros is a big island and city is great for shopping, dining and night life.

Cebu has lots to offer not only in the South area but the whole island itself. Near Mactan airport, about 20.30 minutes ride with a taxi in Mactan island are the famous luxus hotels and beautiful white sand beaches.

See all the videos and pictures of this hub and you have discover the beautiful magical island of Cebu.