Things to do in Cebu City
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Bo’s Coffee Club
A super popular Cebuano franchise that makes genuine top-notch espresso along with the usual mocha, latte and frappé selections. A favourite with both students and business types, this is a good air-con escape from the streets and there’s free wi-fi with any hot drink. There’s another outlet on Pres Osmeña Blvd and a third at Ayala Center.
reviewed
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Wineshop
With a mixed crowd of Filipino and foreign clientele, the Wineshop is a convivial and unpretentious Spanish-owned wine bar. If you’re excited by the idea of genuine tapas (P40 to P60), you’ll be disappointed by the sardinas (straight from the tin) and bemused by the inclusion of kinilaw (Filipino-style ceviche) and sisig (a sizzling plate of grilled pig jowl bits). The real steal is the house red (P60 a carafe), which is eminently drinkable.
reviewed
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Persian Palate
A popular franchise dishing up generous helpings of reasonably authentic Indian and Middle Eastern food. It advertises spicy food, but even the ‘hot’ curries are quite mild. Its menu includes a rarity in Cebu City – a large vegetarian selection. Other branches exist at Ayala Center and Crossroads in Lahug.
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Our Place
A favourite haunt of foreign blokes, Our Place is a grimy hideaway decorated with pub kitsch. There is a well-stocked bar and a good international menu featuring plenty of red meat.
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Sideline Garden Restaurant
A large and atmospheric seafood resto-bar under a spacious pagoda behind Fuente Osmeña.
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Casa Gorordo Museum
Downtown, in a quiet residential area, the newly renovated Casa Gorordo Museum is one of the hidden gems of Cebu City. Originally a private home, it was built in the 1850s and purchased by the Gorordos, one of Cebu’s leading families. The lower part of the house has walls of Mactan coral stone, which makes it deliciously cool in the middle of the day. The stunning upper-storey living quarters are pure Philippine hardwood, held together not with nails but with wooden pegs. As well as having Spanish and native influences, the house incorporates principles of feng shui, owing to the Chinese ancestry of Gorordo matriarch Donna Telerafora (whose death portrait graces the hallw…
reviewed
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Basilica Minore del Santo Niño
This holiest of churches is a real survivor. Built in 1565 and burnt down three times, it was rebuilt in its present form in 1737. Perhaps it owes its incendiary past to the perennial bonfire of candles in its courtyard, stoked by an endless procession of pilgrims and other worshippers. The object of their veneration is a Flemish image of the infant Jesus, sequestered in a chapel to the left of the altar.
It dates back to Magellan's time and is said to be miraculous (which it probably had to be to survive all those fires). Don't forget to look up and admire the heavenly ceiling murals while you're here. Every year, the image is the centrepiece of Cebu's largest annual ev…
reviewed
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Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary
One of the first places Cebu residents will take visiting relatives is the Jumalon Butterfly Sanctuary, west of the downtown area. It’s hardly a place you’d expect butterflies to hang around, but hang around they do – from branches and leaves all over the garden of Julian Jumalon’s home. You will receive a lecture and tour showing you butterflies in various stages of their life cycle, and butterfly collections and artworks made from damaged butterfly wings – even a presidential portrait! The best time of day for viewing is the morning, and the best time of year is from June to February, when the butterflies are breeding. Ring first to make a booking.
reviewed
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Taoist Temple
Perched high in the northern hills overlooking the city, the Taoist Temple is a symbol of the city's large and prosperous ethnic Chinese population. It's not one for temple aficionados; the architecture is functional and austere by Chinese standards. Nevertheless the trip here, past the gated mansions of exclusive Beverly Hills, is a good excuse to see how Cebu's wealthier citizens live, and the views over the city are noteworthy.
To get to the temple take a Lahug or Calunasan jeepney and ask to stop at the Taoist Temple or Beverly Hills (around P5) - you've then got a short walk uphill. Alternatively, take a taxi from uptown for about P80.
reviewed
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Basilica Minore del Santo Niño
This holiest of churches is a real survivor. Built in 1565 and burnt down three times, it was rebuilt in its present form in 1737. Perhaps it owes its incendiary past to the perennial bonfire of candles in its courtyard, stoked by an endless procession of pilgrims and other worshippers. The object of their veneration is a Flemish image of the infant Jesus, sequestered in a chapel to the left of the altar. It dates back to Magellan’s time and is said to be miraculous (which it probably had to be to survive all those fires). Every year, the image is the centrepiece of Cebu’s largest annual event, the Sinulog festival.
reviewed
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Tops Lookout
Tops Lookout, better known simply as ‘Tops’ is located on Mt Busay. This modernist, fortresslike viewing deck provides spectacular views, especially at sunrise or sunset. There are snack stalls up here, and beers sell for P40. Many Lahug jeepneys get within about 500m of the lookout (take one on Pres Osmeña Blvd, north of Del Rosario St – you may have to change at Cebu Plaza Hotel – and ask for a jeepney to Tops), from where it’s a steep, winding road to the top. A taxi will take you there and back for around P900, and you will probably have to pay the driver’s admission, too.
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Tinder Box
Just adjacent to Crossroads proper, the Tinder Box is a genteel delicatessen and restaurant. Make this the last place you visit in Cebu, lest you find yourself returning compulsively to browse for imported French vinegar, Australian gouda, cave-aged gruyère, Swiss yoghurt and Belgian chocolate. The Australian steak (P825) is extraordinary, as are the lamb shanks braised in cabernet sauvignon. Vegetarians will have to settle for the fancy cheese platters (P150 to P350). Groups of five or more should book ahead for a table in the atmospheric wine cellar room.
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Magellan's Cross
Magellan's cross? Wouldn't you be if you'd sailed all the way from Europe only to die in a soggy heap on the island of Mactan? Ferdinand's Catholic legacy, a large wooden cross, is housed in a stone rotunda (built in 1841) across from Cebu City Hall. The crucifix on show here apparently contains a few splinters from a cross Magellan planted on the shores of Cebu in 1521.
A painting on the ceiling of the rotunda shows Magellan erecting the cross (actually, the locals are doing all the work - Magellan's just standing around with his mates).
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Paseo
Not so much a nightclub as a night precinct, Paseo is a vast semi-outdoor space fronted by a market area and bordered by 20 independently owned bars all competing for attention. See how far you can crawl your way around in a single night, but don’t forget to write the name of your hotel on the back of your hand. On Friday nights the party heats up at 10pm; on Saturdays it kicks off as early as 8pm. Get there earlier for cheap eats – most of the bars have short-order kitchens. A taxi from uptown will cost about P60 and take 15 minutes.
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Mr A
Can be reached by following the road to Tops Lookout. A favourite with the well-heeled patrons of the Waterfront, it features a terrace with a sweeping view of Cebu City that is arguably superior to Tops. Unlike the view, we found the Filipino/international food nothing to write home about. (If it's the view you crave, a quiet drink will serve the purpose.) It's 40 minutes by taxi, which will cost you around P400 including the wait - or you can include it in your Tops itinerary.
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Carbon Market
No, it’s not a Philippine emissions trading scheme. Urban living in the raw, the Carbon Market is Cebu’s oldest and biggest produce market – where racks of clothes and baskets snuggle cheek-by-jowl with stalls of fish, live chickens, drying intestines and digital media of dubious origin. There’s not a lot to interest tourists, which is why you won’t get harassed by vendors. Most jeepneys heading downtown go to Carbon.
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Village
For high-class, international-style dining you can't go past the two minimalls in the 'foothills' of the Waterfront Hotel, the Village and Crossroads. A metered taxi from Fuente Osmeña will cost you around P50 to around P60. The Village is a little downmarket of Crossroads. It features a range of schmick, look-alike restobars including Yo! Latino, with a Spanish/Mexican menu and live bands every night.
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Fort San Pedro
Built in 1565 by Miguel López de Legazpi, conqueror of the Philippines, Fort San Pedro has served as an army garrison, a rebel stronghold, a prison camp and the city zoo. These days it’s retired as a peaceful, walled garden and handsomely crumbling ruin. It’s a perfect retreat from the chaos and madness of downtown Cebu, especially at sunset. It also has public toilets.
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Ratsky
A smooth bar where hip young things head to at night for a drink (San Miguel around P70) and to hear live music. Pasta, sushi, burgers and oysters are on the menu. Enter by the door 50m south of the corner of Mindanao Ave and Bohol St. If Ratsky doesn't do it for you, there are other bars in Ayala. Dress code applies and the admission price entitles you to one free beer.
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Rai Rai Ken
Ayala Center is a shopping mall with a surprising array of decent food outlets. The most grown-up are in the Food & Entertainment Area, in the north wing of the mall. Enter by the door 50m south of the corner of Mindanao Ave and Bohol St to findRai Rai Ken a restaurant with contemporary Japanese cuisine.
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Casino Filipino
If highrolling’s your thing, then Casino Filipino at the Waterfront Hotel is for you. If not, the place is still worth a look if only for the mechanical horse-racing machine, the fake night sky of the main gaming room, and the spellbinding ceiling mural in the foyer – a 50m by 30m recreation of explorer Ferdinand Magellan’s world map.
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Don Henrico’s
Ayala Center is a shopping mall with a surprising array of decent food outlets. The most grown-up are in the Food & Entertainment Area, in the north wing of the mall. Enter by the door 50m south of the corner of Mindanao Ave and Bohol St to findDon Henrico’s which does decent pizzas and pasta.
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Golden Cowrie Native Restaurant
There is no better place to challenge an ambivalence towards Filipino cuisine. Chefs conjure up exquisite regional delicacies from all over the country, with an emphasis on Cebuano specialities such as manok halang halang (spicy chicken soup). Long tables and colonial-era lattice windows create an informal atmosphere.
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Ayala Center
A six-storey dome, you’ll find most banks, airlines and tour companies represented here. There are also European and American label boutiques, restaurants, bars, health spas, cinemas, every fast-food chain imaginable, games halls and even a child-care centre, which makes you wonder if some people ever leave this place.
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AA BBQ
Vegetarians have nowhere to hide at this popular outdoor chain restaurant where diners choose their own raw meat and have it charcoal grilled on the spot (let the staff know if you don’t want it slathered in spicy sauce). This is a top spot for a chilled beer after an evening stroll along Fort San Pedro.
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