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There is a Cebu City, a Cebu Island and a Cebu province.

Cebu province consists of many islands including the main island of Cebu and tourist destinations such as Malapascua Island, Camotes Islands and Bantayan Island. It also has Mactan island which is the location of the Mactan Cebu International Airport. Cebu City is the capital of the province of Cebu and is situated on the island of Cebu.

If you mean you will stay in Cebu City, it has no beach as the whole of the Cebu City coastline is taken up with shipping and industry. If you want beach , you will have to travel. There are beaches on Mactan Island but generally speaking they have resorts on them and you have to pay the resort to use their facilities for the day. You will not want to go to Talisay City which is next to Cebu City as the sand is an awful grey colour. You can travel north and south of Cebu City. Travelling north, you will get a variation of yellow sand, rocks, yellow sand with rocks and rock plateau. If you go far enough north, you will have nice white sand beach in Daan Bantayan.

Here is a value for money place to stay in Cebu City if you are willing to stay there and travel to the beach
http://www.apartelledearcenascebu.com

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I looked over a couple of new ensuite units being constructed in Esperanza village in the Camotes not long ago, I would have stayed there at the drop of a hat but they hadn't finished them yet, no kitchen but spacious enough for you to plug in an electric cooker, they said they were looking at asking 800 pesos for these per night, this is a proper quiet beach location, powdery white sand like Boracay, water deep enough to swim in at any time of day whatever the tide. You just don't see all that many places like that that are literally meters from the surf in the Philippines. Any city in the Philippines of any size, you wouldn't want to swim there anyway even if there is a beach, too much trash and water not clean. In Cebu I used to stay in Compostela 25km north of center, there is a beach near there where I could go on the bike and buy a lemonade and take a swim (no admission fee), but even there the water is just not pristine, it's still too close to town.