I ♥ CEBU ~ DIY Cebu City Tour

So we didn't stick to our original DIY itinerary. lol The whale sharks got us really tired and exhausted. Anyway, we went back to Cebu City after the whale shark watching at Tan-awan, Oslob. We checked in at Sampaguita Suites at Plaza Garcia branch. I chose this branch because it's near SM City and luckily, it is also near two of Cebu's attractions - the Sto. Niño Basilica Church and Magellan's Cross. We started the tour on our 3rd Day though. We just went malling after the whale shark watching.

Apparently, you can find many tour packages from anywhere in Cebu particularly from taxi drivers. Even the security guard at Sampaguita suites presented us a laminated flyer of sort. But it was too expensive for two persons only. Maybe for a group of 4 or more, the tour packages could be worth their money. Another reason I didn't want to avail of any tour packages is because we don't really want to go to all of the tourist attractions. So here is our customized Cebu City tour on a Sunday:

Magellan's Cross

Magellan's Cross is just outside Sto. Niño Church. So before going inside the Basilica, we visited Magellan's Cross first which is just across the street from Sampaguita Suites. 

Sto. Niño Basilica Church

We then went inside the Church. It was Sunday morning and there were a lot of people attending a mass and others just touring inside the Basilica.

Fort San Pedro

Fort San Pedro is just near the Basilica but we do not know how to get there by commuting so we just rode a taxi. The fare was just Php47 anyway. The entrance fee to the Fort San Pedro is PhP30

From Fort San Pedro, we headed to SM City Cebu for lunch and to buy some hiking gears like tent and sleeping bags. The taxi fare from Fort San Pedro to SM was PhP75. 

Taoist Temple

Next on our plan is to go to the Taoist Temple. Before going there, we dropped our bought stuff at the hotel first. It was already past 5pm when we went to the Taoist temple and unfortunately, the temple closes at 5pm! So the taxi driver told us that we could just take pictures outside the temple since we were already there. ^^

From the Taoist Temple, we wanted to go to Tops but you really have to rent a taxi going there and the driver offered to take us there for PhP1500. He even lowered it down to PhP1100 but it was still expensive for us. He said that they charge a fix rate because it's too far and they have no assurance that they'll have passengers back to the city. So we just went to Ayala Mall since it was the nearest mall from Taoist Temple that we know of. From Ayala, we already know how to commute back to Sampaguita hotel.

There are other tourist attractions that we have not visited in Cebu City but I still enjoyed our DIY tour. It feels good to go to places on your own because you get to learn different routes and it makes the whole trip more fun and challenging. :)

Summary of Expenses:

From Sampaguita Hotel - Sto. Nino Church and Magellan's Cross - 0

Sto. Nino Church - Fort San Pedro (via taxi) - 47

Fort San Pedro to SM City Cebu (via taxi) - 75

[ SM City to Sampaguita Hotel (via taxi) - 75 ]

Sampaguita Hotel to Taoist Temple to Ayala Center (via taxi) - 180

Ayala Center to Sampaguita Hotel - 8

Total Expenses for our Cebu City tour = PhP385 (taxi fare not divided)