Known as the oldest city in the country of Philippines, Cebu may be the second city plus the second most important metropolitan center is Philippines.
First time arriving there I landed at Mactan Cebu International Airport. The airport is air-con and intensely spacious with folks speaking Cebuano and English. Once I got out of your plane, I was directed to check out customs to acquire my passport checked and to turn in a visitor information form that I had filled in in the plane which the flight attendants give away before landing.
After that I headed to the baggage claim area to grab my luggage. Signs and information in the airport wasn’t tough to read and understand which is written in english, visible and clear. So it is hard to have lost within because theirs lots of customs officers happy to help and direct you wherever you’ll want to go. At the baggage claim area, you will notice plenty of limo, taxi, bus and hotel agents standing and holding up signs before leaving manchester international. So it has not been difficult to find any transportation or service inside the airport.
I chose to go ahead and take taxi, that your initial staring fare is 30 pesos, when I converted that to U.S currency its roughly only a dollar because in those days 49 pesos was add up to 1 U.S dollar. The hotel I was staying took less than 10 mins to have there hence the fare was under 45 pesos. It is also best if you have small changes like 20 pesos to 50 pesos as the taxi drivers in Cebu tend not to carry plenty of changes. If the fare cost less than 100 pesos and you let them have above that, likely the taxi drivers will explain which they will not have enough change and give you what they have. The coin pesos begins with 25 centavos, four centavos makes 1 peso, than theirs 5 pesos, 10 pesos. After that it is paper pesos which starts from 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000. So understand that if you decide to catch taxis be sure you have coin pesos and 20’s, 50’s, 100’s paper pesos available.
The hotel I was residing at charges me $34 U.S dollars a day. The average budget range at that time for your hotels in Cebu ranged from $30 – $120 dollars depending what your seeking. If your staying for more than 30 days it is a good idea to look for an area newspaper so it is English or ask locals there where you could rent a month to month bases.
As to me I planned in which to stay cebu for 6 months so my first week there I was looking for an area to rent. I found a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and toilet, kitchen and living room apartment which is very spacious for around $160 dollars 30 days. I found out that the average monthly rental at Cebu ranges from $100 to $600 dollars. So you may get a good studio for below $100 dollars monthly.
My monthly electric bills was averaging $10 for water, $60 for electric, $30 for cable t.v and internet. So the total would average about $100 for everything. I also buy 5 gallon filtered drinking water for $.20 cents which is inexpensive. I usually bought 4 to 5 of people 5 gallons bottles per month which the total belly over to be $1 month. As you can see my average regular bills cost me around $261.
It doesn’t take a whole lot of beyond of one’s wallet to outlive in cebu, basically it is only focusing on how to reside just like a Cebuano.