Cebu, The Queen City of The South

Cebu is the center of trade in the Visayas region of the Philippines. It's called the Queen City of the South and often regarded to as the second capital of the country, the first being Metro Manila. It's geographical location has given it a vital role in trade and tourism. Unlike other regions in the Visayas, Cebu experiences less typhoons, thus, it has the usual tropical weather of either sunny or a bit of rain. Everything that the Visayas region has to offer can easily be accessed through Cebu City. If you want to discover other islands in the Visayas like Bohol, Leyte and Negros, docking in Cebu City will be a worthwhile side-trip. Cebu City has a busy seaport to destinations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, the 3 major divisions of the Philippine archipelago. The nearby Mactan International Airport is a portal to this wonderful destination for people from faraway regions and abroad.

Cebu, My Second Home

Cebu is one of my favorite places to go for vacation now that I am sick. I love the weather there compared to here in Leyte, where we get a lot of typhoons year round. It's a busy city but not as crowded as Metro Manila. I am so familiar with the place because I worked and lived here for a decade until I got sick with Kidney Failure and had to go home to family in Leyte. My last trip to Cebu in September 2017 was just for a few days, I just needed to catch up with friends and update them about how I am coping with the illness and I also had to get documents from my previous employer and my diploma from my graduate studies. It was more of settling important personal stuff than for leisure but I had a dose of stay-cation in some backpacker places and I got to chill with my bestest buddies.

I could have stayed with my roommate, July or the houses of my friends in Cebu but I opted to stay in backpacking spots because I was trying to visit many friends and attend a lot of invitations that I go home very late at night or way too early in the morning and I thought I did not wanna bother my friends with that. Plus, I get to experience and feel a kind of adventure with hanging out in backpacker places. I was meeting other backpackers as well, widening my circle of friends.

In this post, I will tell you about one of the five backpacking places I went to, the cheapest one in Cebu. If you've been following my posts, it will give you an idea how cheap I can be with accommodations. Hahaha! Anyway, I think I should blog about cheap accommodations because it's actually difficult to find them in web searches. It's a lot easier to find high-end accommodations with the rise of the many hotel and travel related apps.

Cheapest Backpacker Bed and Bath in Cebu City

The Sugbutel was the cheapest accommodation I stayed in Cebu. It prides itself as a Family Hotel. If you are a backpacker and would just be needing a roof above your head to spend the night as you tour and go mobile by day, this is the place. I spent my first night in Sugbutel the last time I went to Cebu because this was quite close to the airport and close to the old SM mall. I got there by taxi, I paid 135 pesos from the airport with a regular taxi. Important note when you go to Cebu, there are 2 kinds of taxis. Yellow taxis are airport taxis and the white ones are regular taxis. The yellow taxis charge almost double than the regular ones, so I avoid them.

When I arrived there around 12 noon, I had to wait in the lounge for 30 minutes because they were fully booked and it was checkout time. I had to wait for the cleaners to finish their job before I can settle down. I enjoyed chitchatting with a fellow backpacker in the lounge then I noticed they had an area with 2 computer sets, it had coin slots and you can use them for 5 pesos for 5 minutes. I tried it and searched their website for the best deals I can get in this place.

Image Source: Sugbutel Website

I decided to get the second to the cheapest shared accommodation they can offer because the cheapest offer was in the upper bunk. They brand this type of accommodation as Business Class. The bunks are in a shared big room with more than 20 bunks all in all, I lost count because there were too many. The lower bunk costs 315 Php (6.3 USD) while the upper bunk costs 265 Php (5.2 USD). There's quite a big difference in the two since the upper bunk does not have the curtain dividers. This was what the the front desk personnel told me when she suggested the lower bunk. This shared room was in the second floor of the hotel.

If you did not bring your own blanket, linens and towel, you can rent them because they are not included in the price I mentioned above. Let me show you my bill for you to have an idea how much it is. Blanket costs 50 Pesos. Fitted sheet costs 30 Pesos. Towel costs 30 Pesos.

The toilet and bath was okay, if you go there too early in the morning, it's newly cleaned so everything is spic and span. The toilets have bidets and the bathrooms have showers and door-sized mirror inside on each. I did not have pics taken of the toilet and bath, my bad. But they were okay.

Here are the pictures I took when I stayed there. I loved the place because the wifi signal was strong and the room was so cold. The bunk also had everything I needed, it had 2 electrical sockets where I can charge my laptop and phone. It had lights on the head side if you wanted to read while resting. It also had lights on the other end. Just under the mattress, below your pillow is a secret compartment where you can put your stuff. It has no lock, if you wish to leave stuff in the hotel's lockers in the reception, you have to pay 35 Pesos a day.

For food, they serve food because this place is also a hotel. There is also a convenience store on the ground floor to buy some essentials and snacks. You can also use the hotel phone and order food from the nearby food places.

The place was more than good enough for its cheap price. If you'd consider staying in this kind of accommodation, be ready to expect stuff like hearing noises from other people, having someone see you in your "woke up like this" self, not being able to leave your valuables unattended. The place might be too cold for you since it's shared and you can't control the temp. The light may be too bright, even if you close the lights and the curtains, because the place has the lights on 24/7. These are just the few things I can think of that people should expect.

One more thing about what I love about the place is that it accepts my PWD ID and gives me 20% disability discount on their rates. It's not like that for every cheap accommodations I book, some establishments fail to honor my ID because they claim that they are already a "budget" place and cannot give more discounts anymore. So, kudos to this place for following the laws of the Republic of the Philippines!

As I was reading through their website so I can post more information about this, I noticed that they have promos you can check out. If you book a month before your stay, you can actually stay with them at 99 Pesos only! What a deal! To know more just go to their website here.

Source: Sugbutel Website
This is their location address from their website, you may find directions to this hotel on Google Maps.

I am in no way affiliated to this business establishment. I just wish to share in Steemit my experiences in booking my accommodations in Sugbutel. This is all for public information purposes only.

If you know cheaper accommodations in Cebu, do let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

All pictures in this post are mine unless otherwise stated.

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