Although the beaches is not as nice as Thailand and Bali, the range of top tier hotels on offer makes Cebu a perfect relaxing and fuss-free resort getaway.
Accommodation
Cebu City and Mactan are really the only 2 main locations of interests when you are searching for your accommodation. Mactan is the resort filled Island and Cebu City is the hectic main city centre which we didn't even go into as we already had our 'cultural' part of our trip planned.
As we are going to be spending the majority of our time at the hotel we decided on the branded Shangri-La's Mactan Resort & Spa. The hotel brand speaks for itself and service was top notch. However the building itself is slightly dated and the hotel is definitely geared towards families, especially the Main Wing. If you want to have a bit more luxury and privacy you can book a room in the Ocean Wing instead as they have a separate more exclusive pool.
Sightseeing
Bohol Day Tour
Bohol is one of the other big island in Cebu and home the world's smallest primate - the tarsiers. Klook offers quite a nice day tour for this. You will go and see the tarsiers at the conservatory in the morning. Lunch is included and served on a river cruise where you can to see some local folk dancing. Afterwards you will be driven to the famous Chocolate Hills and visit and a buttery sanctuary. The tour guide and driver were super friendly and then even managed to find us balut (fertilised boiled egg) at the end of the trip!
SM City Cebu
The hotel offers regular shuttles to go into Cebu City and one of the mid stops is SM City. SM City is a mid-range shopping mall. There is not a lot of to say about this mall but it did gave us an opportunity to leave the hotel and try some local restaurants. If you are not eating here you probably need no more that 1-2 hours here.
Restaurants
As we were staying at a resort most of our meals were at the hotel. However we did sample some local places when we visited SM City.
ZuvuChon - Suckling Pig Specialist
This is a chain restaurant specialised in all things pork and they have a location in SM City. It is delicious and worth having a causal lunch here. There pre-packed deep-fried pork skin also makes for good souvenirs.
Jollibee - Fried Chicken
We fucked up and when to the wrong one. As the most famous export of Philippines there is no way you can leave without trying it in their home turf. They have 2 restaurants within the same SM City complex and we went to the upstairs quiet one and the chicken was a bit dry. GO TO THE ONE BY THE MAIN ENTRANCE!
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