I recently spent a week in Cebu and while I had amazing experiences canyoneering, snorkeling and touring around; there are a handful of things I wish someone had told me before I booked my trip here. The internet is full of reasons why you should visit Cebu, things to do in cebu, whale sharks in cebu, and so many more fun things to do in cebu but none of them are super honest nor candid. So… without further ado, here are 6 things I wish I knew before visiting Cebu, Philippines.
1. Traffic is inevitable
The traffic in and out of Cebu City is so bad that there are multiple news articles written about it. We landed in Cebu at 5:30PM. After getting through customs/ immigration and exchanging our money, we were outside and getting into our taxi at 7PM. The distance to travel was about 73 miles from the airport to our hotel in Oslob; a journey that usually takes 2.5 hours without traffic. Yes, thats right; 2.5 hours on a normal day without traffic.
However, if you’re like us, you’ll hit it on an unlucky day and have traffic. Traffic so bad that your 73 mile journey might take you 7 hours with one quick stop for gas. Yes, that’s right; 7 hours to go 73 miles. We pulled into our hotel at 2AM. It was rough, to say the least.
Honestly, if I would have known about it before we booked this trip, I might have not even come to Cebu in the first place. It was that bad. Just one more time… 7 hours to travel 73 miles. After this trip, I made a vow to myself and Kaleb that I would never complain about the traffic in Seattle ever again.
2. The drivers are reckless
Scooters, trikes, bicycles, motorcycles, vans, cars, buses, oh my! First, sidewalks are not a thing. Sometimes you’ll find them, most of the time you will not. Walk with caution. The place you will be walking on the sides of the streets is also being used by bicycles, motorcycles, scooters and trikes. There are not speed limits, and if they are posted, they are never used. What else isn’t used? The passing/ no passing lanes. Whether there is a double yellow line or a double any colored line, cars and motorcycles will be passing in that zone. One of our taxi drivers liked to take up the whole road as if there were no lines at all. He also enjoyed passing cars around blind corners and cutting off numerous scooters. There will probably be a handful of times as a passenger where you think, “This is it; this is where I get into my first car accident.” Odds are, you won’t. I never saw one single car accident and most of the cars were dent free. The drivers here may be crazy, but they are also very skilled at maneuvering their vehicles. I found most of the driving in Cebu to be scary, yet impressive.
3. The people are trustworthy
I spent my first two days of the trip not trusting anyone. I had that “the whole world is out to get me” mindset and boy was I wrong. After a few days of traveling around Cebu, I came to realize that these people were just people showing up to work and doing their jobs in order to make a living, just like I do at home. I could trust the taxi driver who got us to our destination safely, I could trust the trike driver when he told us the price of the ride and didn’t ever try to increase it, I could trust the people in the crowds that they were there to go about their business and not even think of stealing my belongings. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure bad things do happen every once and awhile. I’m sure people do get overcharged and their items do go missing, but if I’m being completely honest with you, those things happen at home in Seattle too. Every city has it’s bad eggs, it’s thief’s, it’s scam artists. But I want you to know that for the most part, the people I encountered across the Philippines were all honest and fair.
4. There is little-to-no food and water safety
Every single hotel we stayed at around the island of Cebu reminded us to never drink the tap water. Whether it was posted on the hotel’s website or written directly in the welcome booklet, we were told over and over to not ever drink the water. In my book, that means that you never brush your teeth with the water either. The water is so bad here that the local, Filipino people don’t even drink the water. All of their water comes from a single company who filters the water and provides it to the people. I made sure to only ever drink bottled water while visiting Cebu and I never had any tummy issues. Even if you think you have an iron gut, do not risk the water. Sadly, there have been numerous accounts of local people drinking the water and dying because of it. The water is no joke.
As for the food in Cebu, this one can be quite tricky. The rules I followed were exactly the rules that my doctor told me to follow before I got here and also outlined by the CDC, here. If you can’t boil it, cook it, or peel it, then don’t eat it. i.e. if it’s not fully boiled for 3 minutes, fully cooked or you cannot peel it (think banana) then you best not eat it.
One last piece of advice I have for you; go vegetarian on Cebu. I stayed 95% vegetarian for this trip. I saw too many cases of meats being stored at room temperature and/ or not being fully cooked. Every single meal I ate, I opted for the vegetarian option. I am a meat eater at home, but in the Philippines I was a vegetarian. I had many great meals of fried rice, pancit, veggie lumpia and stir-fried veggies. I do believe this helped me stay bug-free while I was here as a few of my companions opted to eat meat, and both came down with a terrible, debilitating stomach-bug.
5. The views are insanely gorgeous
If you are lucky enough to be driving through Cebu during the daylight hours, you will be struck by the beauty of this place. The ocean is that picture perfect, aqua blue. The mountains are that bright, jungle green. The colors are so vivid, it is quite shocking how such color can exist in nature.
6. Avoid transferring through Manila at all costs
After our week on Cebu, it was time for us to get out and make our way to Thailand. We got out of Cebu just fine, took the hour long flight and landed in Manila. We landed in a different terminal than our next flight, so we had to take a shuttle bus to the next terminal. The shuttle buses between terminals come once an hour and you have to sign up for them. If your name isn’t on the list, they won’t let you go. There will be an information desk where you put your name on the list for the terminal transfer.
After a 5 minute bus ride that is extremely hot and sweaty with standing room only, you’ll arrive at the correct terminal. But! Before you get into your new terminal building there is a security checkpoint where they conduct an initial screening. You cannot enter the building until after you have gone through the first security checkpoint. So, there will be thousands of people standing outside in the longest lines you have ever seen just to get into the airport. The lines were absolute madness. After waiting our turn, we made it into the airport and then got into another line to get through a second round of security. Why do they have 2 rounds of security? No idea. But when the population is as high as it is in a city like Manila (12.8 million), it doesn’t quite seem realistic to keep so many people squished together, waiting.
And because the population is so high and so many people are traveling through Manila, you’re probably going to have a tough time getting off the runway. With everyone in their seats, ready for take-off, our pilot came over the intercom to inform us of the traffic on the runway. Go figure. Kaleb and I just started laughing. Needless to say, a theme of our trip to the Philippines was waiting in traffic.
