This actually not planned and it was actually a spontaneous decision. In August I realized I had almost 5 days off during Christmas — which means that a trip must take place! I can’t bear the thought of spending five days in Macau, I never know what to do on weekends, let alone for five days! I started planning for trips to Singapore and Hokkaido, but it was difficult because I had to either go to HK to take Singapore Airlines/Cathay Pacific or either transfer in Taiwan. Prices were around 6000 HKD which was beyond our budget for this vacation. I wanted to fly a midnight flight, which allowed us to arrive in Saturday morning which gave us more time to explore.
Cebu was chosen because:
- It was within our budget, 3200 HKD with a transfer in Taiwan (9 hrs). This usually would affect another other traveller, but for me it didn’t. It actually allowed me to fly right after work, go home for a night, and fly early in the morning to Cebu. Absolutely perfect. For the return trip, I was lucky enough to get a shorter transfer back to Macau, which involved waiting for only 2hrs in Taiwan.
- We wanted to go to a resort where we could rest and relax, maybe take some more wedding photos.
- We wanted to go somewhere warm in December and Eva Air flies to Cebu direct.
After booking airlines, the next day I started looking into different hotels & resorts. Whichever hotel we chose I had some guidelines:
- Hotel must be reputable, and not a homestay, apartment, or any other cheap hotel. Even though Cebu is a tourist destination, Philippines is still consider an unsafe place and it is better to be careful than sorry.
- Must be a resort with a private beach within walking distance. I wanted to relax and stay on a private beach.
- Must have complimentary airport transfer.
- Must be Instagram worthy.
VALUE
I looked into Shangri-La Mactan out of curiosity, I knew it would be the most expensive, as it is a reputable five-star resort. I wanted clean rooms, but I knew that at a resort, besides paying such an expensive room, you will be spending dollars on spa, dining, and other leisure activities. Shangri-La rooms were already expensive enough, and I didn’t want to spend even more on expensive spa treatments or expensive dinners. Therefore, Shangri-La was removed from my list (I’ll still include it in my comparison table at the end of the post.
LOCATION
In Cebu, location isn’t a that of a great importance. As long as the resort is near the beach, then that’s what matters. The resort must also include shuttle service to the city. Most importantly, the resort, however, must be BESIDE the beach (and must be a private beach!)
The Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan was the final resort that I booked. I realized in most of the resorts I looked at the furniture in the photos were a bit old. The furniture at Crimson Resort is mostly made out of wood, with wooden floorings. I stayed in the cheapest room, Deluxe Double Room for 10,560 PHP (6064 NT, 197 USD) for the first night and 11,440 PHP (6570 NT, 213 USD) for the next two nights because it was on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Room Comparison (cheapest rooms) & benefits if you book direct
| Shangri-La Mactan | Crimson Resort & Spa | Movenpick Cebu | |
| Room | Deluxe Room | Deluxe Room | Superior King |
| Price | 10,560 PHP++ | 15,500 PHP++ | 10,547 PHP++ |
| Breakfast | Included | Included | Included |
| Other benefits when booking direct | Complimentary roundtrip airport transfer, 10% off restaurants, 20% off spa charged to the room. | Access to marine reservation area (Free snorkeling!) & usage of their underwater camera | 20$ restaurant voucher, complimentary free wifi |
Resort Review of Crimson Resort and Spa Mactan
(Deluxe room with wooden floor with wooden furnishings. The washroom includes a bathtub with a wooden window which could be opened for air; garden view)
This resort has a wooden-Bali style decor with a zen-like garden at the main entrance. I was half expecting a tall hotel building with 20+ or so levels, but I was surprised to find large blockades small villas/rooms with buildings no more than 2 stories high. The bellboy had to drive this little cart to deliver my luggage to my room. It was a short walk from my room to the beach and to the main entrance, but it involves some easy stairs and a slight hill. Since I lived in the cheapest room of the resort, my room was part of a two-story building with 8 rooms on each side and 16 rooms on the second floor.
If you have more money to splurge you can also book the hotel’s higher tier rooms, which is a little cabin/house on it’s own with either a garden view.
Highest-tier room: Pool Villa- I wouldn’t recommend anyone booking the pool villa. I did get a chance to take a peek at a pool villa room and sadly, the pool was very disappointing. Not only is it very small, it is not even worthy of a shot. The pool paint used is this very thick blue color, which makes the pool look very fake and not appealing at all.
BREAKFAST AND RESTAURANT
We loved how most resorts provided complimentary breakfast in Cebu! This is necessary of course, since there is absolutely nothing to eat when you step out of the resort.
The breakfast at Saffron Cafe here is sit-down style with a self service buffet and coffee drinks made to order. There’s a large sitting area (both indoors and open-air), overlooking the swimming pool/ infinity pool. My first stop was always their smoothie drinks – they provide 3 per breakfast and it ranges from beetroot to papaya and milk. For breakfast they provide numerous asian offerings – each morning I would see something Korean (jap chae or Korean style pancake), something Thai (green curry) or hot noodles, something Western (scrambled eggs made on the spot), pancakes and a large variety of danishes, muffins, and donuts.
The hotel also has a Sports Bar open for a breakfast buffet for people that did not receive a complimentary breakfast at Saffron Cafe as part of their room offer? This confused me greatly and the restaurant was always empty each time I passed by it in the morning.
Azure Cafe is situated near the beach and it offers different seating arrangements. If you visit it during the day, you will be offered their lunch/afternoon Western menu with a great range of drinks. If you visit at night, they will serve you with a dinner menu which offers international food. I ate at the restaurant both times and found the prices to be reasonable. Also if you use a Visa card, you will be entitled 20% (better than charging it to your room and receiving 10% off).
- Lunch menu: Western food including pizza (this looked really good when I saw other people eating this) around 600 PHP ++ , burgers, wraps, BLT priced around 300-400 PHP++.
- Drinks: smoothies were 320 PHP ++, cocktails were 370 PHP++, freshly squeezed juice 320 PHP++. Try out their mango smoothie, it was OH SO GOOD.
- Dinner menu: A wide variety of International food ranging from Chilean mussels 380 PHP ++, Japanese salmon rice 980 PHP ++, Hainan chicken rice, and Masala chicken curry 850++ . Prices ranged from 400- 1000 PHP++ depending on what you order.
I must warn you if you are planning on eating by one of the beach seats on the cliff outside Azure Cafe. I would not eat at one of those seats because there is a plethora of ants waiting to devour your meal before you do. When my food came, there were ants on the table waiting. As I ate my BLT sandwich, it was quite messy, but I felt I had to eat it right away and as quickly as possible because there were ants crawling around my plate waiting to eat it as well. It was a terrible experience and I felt very uncomfortable because I was forced to eat really quickly when I should’ve been enjoying the view. Also, because I had food on the table, ants were crawling around my seat. Even though we had beach towels to cover up the seat, these ants crawl everywhere! Some even got into my bag, which was not nice.
RESORT AMENITIES, POOL & BEACH
Beach: I think this disappointed me the most out of the whole trip. The beach was quite small. It was a small beach and the water didn’t look appealing enough for me to take a tip in. Maybe because I was expecting a white, sandy, pristine beach, but when I saw the beach at the resort, it was a great disappointment. In the photos, the beach looked much larger, I’m not sure why I didn’t catch that.
Pool: The pool was enjoyable and it was an infinity pool. From some camera angles it seems like it flows right into the sea. However, you can only take photos in the afternoon for the sun to be on your side. But then the pool will be filled with people. If you take a photo in the morning, the sun will be directly shining against you.
Resort Amenities: We were entitled to one-night free mini-bar which turned out to be disappointing as well. The mini-bar included 1 mini-Sprite, two cans of beer, one kitkat and one-peanut related snack.
SPA
This was my favorite part of the resort. Included with my room reservation, I opted for an add-on spa pampering package (1,841.25 PHP++). This was quite a deal as I saw the original was 4250 PHP ++.
If you attend a spa session, you are entitles to use the spa’s facilities which include a swimming pool, sauna, jacuzzi, steam room. It says a Spa Refreshment on the menu, but I was never given a refreshment. I don’t know if the tea they provided is a refreshment or the piece of candy to the side is considered “refreshment”, but none was provided.
On the third day I opted for a couples spa session which included 15 minute bath, 45 minute body scrub, and 1 hr massage of my choice. *Note if you opt for any spa session, you can select beforehand where you would like the spa session. I specifically asked for the Outdoor Spa Pavilion because I thought it looked the nicest with the spa (photo op!). There is also the outdoor spa cabanas (couples can do spa together) and the spa room (restricted to male only and female only)
Treatment: Time Together (for two) (2 hours)
Number of Persons: 2 persons
Room Type: Outdoor Spa Pavilion
Price : Php 13,216++
TOTAL Price Php (inclusive of 12% VAT, 10% Service Charge & applicable Local Govt. Tax): Php 14,4484.50 for 2 persons.
Overall I had a great spa experience and I got a 20% off spa charged to the room because I booked direct with the hotel. The scrub was great and my skin was very soft for almost two weeks after the session. Later on while checking-out, I realized that if you used visa to pay for the spa, you are entitled 30% which sucked so much because I already settled my room bill. This resort had a lot of these hidden discounts that I could’ve taken advantage of if I had known.
The bottom line: Budget friendly resort in Cebu, restaurants are all reasonably priced, great complimentary airport pick up and drop off. Terrible beach and don’t eat meals by the beach! Spa was great and relaxing, rooms were clean and decent. I didn’t try the water sports activities, I thought they were over priced and I chose a local diving store to do some dives- read my diving review here.