Things to do
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Basilica del Santo Niño
Cebu's oldest Catholic foundation houses the Santo Niño image that Magellan gave in 1521, recovered from the ashes of a Spanish assault decades later and now kept behind glass in a side chapel. Queues to touch it run long on Fridays, the devotional day. Masses fill the courtyard, and the Sinulog procession in January moves the image through the city.
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Fort San Pedro
Built by Miguel López de Legazpi's expedition and rebuilt in stone in the eighteenth century, this triangular bastion at the harbour edge is the smallest Spanish fort in the country. Inside the walls sit a garden, a small museum of shipwreck finds and galleries on the American and Japanese occupations. An hour is enough, and shade is thin at midday.
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Kawasan Falls
Three tiers of turquoise water fall through the jungle behind Badian, on the southwest coast about three hours from the city. Rafts on ropes carry visitors under the main curtain, and canyoneering routes from Alegria finish by jumping into the pools here. Arrive before nine to beat the tour buses. Water turns brown and the falls close after heavy rain.
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Magellan's Cross
A tindalo wood cross stands under a domed kiosk beside the basilica, planted by Ferdinand Magellan's party in 1521 to mark the baptism of the local ruler and his household. The original is thought to sit encased inside the outer casing to stop pilgrims taking splinters. A painted ceiling tells the story. Twenty minutes covers it, and vendors press candles at the door.
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Moalboal
A dive town on Cebu's west coast, reached in roughly three hours by bus or van, where a sardine school of millions hangs a few metres off Panagsama Beach and can be swum with on a snorkel. Turtles graze the shallows and the wall drops away close to shore. Rooms and dive shops line one lane. Pescador Island trips depend on the sea state that morning.
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Temple of Leah
Raised on the hillside at Busay by a businessman in memory of his wife, this Roman styled shrine carries a colonnade, lion statues and a bronze figure of Leah in the central chamber. The scale is theatrical and the finish incomplete in places. Come for the view over the city as much as for the building. Ticketed, with steep steps and little shade on the approach.
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Tops Lookout
Above Busay at around six hundred metres, this circular viewing deck looks down the length of Cebu City to the strait and Mactan beyond. Habal habal motorcycle taxis and vans climb the switchbacks from the lowland in about forty minutes. Dusk is the hour worth timing for, when the grid lights up. Cloud can close the view without warning at any hour.