Thanks for the detail on down town
[QUOTE=Westcoast1; 1189461]The downtown is the bottom end. Corner Colon / Palaez is Cebu Century Hotel. Double Deluxe room is p850 only. Aircon, free wifi, double bed, and a (slow) coffee shop / resaraunt on floor 5. The hotel is fine (not lowbrow) , but the locals just outside the front door are lowbrow. Plenty of SW just across the street. Turn right out the front door, walk a block, Tina's is on your right. You will pass thru a very dark dirt parking lot to get inside. If you don't get the willies walking in that lot, you are THE MAN. Just before Tina's is Hotel Mercedes, and across the street on the left is Pete's Kitchen. Just before Hotel Mercedes is a small bar on the right, I see the same older aussie's drinking beer every afternoon there. Kind of harsh neighborhood. Tina's is as low-brow as a bar gets: average (at best) girls (who can't dance) , uglier waitresses, weak music, dirty place. P500 is the barfine (2 drinks). Gaisano Metro mall is one block from CCH, a low-end mall. 6 floors of no aircon. Quite dense the population in the area, don't carry your wallet on you at any time, or anything else that is bulky in your pocket, like a cell phone, as its visible even though its in your pocket, unless your shirt is untucked and long.
Just past Tina's if you keep walking up Palaez street is a convenience store on the right, locals sit just outside at a small table and play cards. Keep going to the light at corner Sancianko street, cross that street, still on Paleaz and just up the street on your right is Golden Valley Hotel, on the left is Tuxedo Business Suites, both about p1200 per night for similar room as CCH. Right next door to GVH is University of San Carlos and a Jollibee. Walking back towards Sancianko, turn right at the light and a few steps ahead on the left is CebuView Tourist Inn, then GV Tower Hotel. Turn around and walk back down Sancianko (past Palaez, towards Junquera St) , and there are several bar-girl places on your right. Dozens of locals hang in the streets at night, it looks nearly terrifying at first, but they never bothered anyone. You don't have to find these bargirl places, the street hawks will show you into them; he gets p10 per customer he walks in (don't tip him). They will also find girls for you.
Going the other way from CCH, turning left out the door, walk a few steps to Colon, turn left (turning right goes one block to Gaisano Metro mall) , and in one short block to Junquera St you will see Cebu Business Hotel, then University of Visayas. Across the street on your right is a big-assed department store.
Again, this entire area is very gritty, day and night, not for the feeble or faint. The heat of mid-afternoon, combined with the dense throngs walking Colon, the long wait at the streetlight waiting to cross, can make you feel like your being crushed, and also like everyone is a pick-pocket.[/QUOTE]Thanks for going in to so much detail on the down town area. I will be in Cebu late September and really want to check out the SW scene down there at least one night.
I can handle the grittiness as long as I am not going to get mugged. My plan is to get a hotel close by but use it only as a short time place. I will stay in a nicer area like Waterfront to sleep. Any other info on the SW scene down there would be nice.