Whether a practicing Catholic or not, visiting the Marian Shrine of Simala is a must for a Cebuano. Why? Because it's so near it's such a shame not to have visited it. I'm kidding, but you can take it seriously, so you can just follow how I and my friend went to the place and maximize our less-than-a-day trip there.
* go to South Bus Terminal, it's right next to E-Mall. Dispatchers at the terminal will just lead you to the right bus.
* the ride will take approximately about two hours, maybe because our mini-bus was rather slow. And we paid Php65.00
*you can drop off along the highway of Barangay Simala, and take a motorcyle ride, or habal-habal, for Php20.00 to the shrine itself. The drivers will give you their mobile number, so you won't have to worry about getting a ride back to the main road.
* it's better to leave for Simala early in the morning, 6 or 7 will do. 5am is way too early, so I won't advise anyone to do so. We arrive there at around 9:00am, and there weren't so many people yet until after 10am.
* if BYOP is not your cup of tea, no worries. A lot of eateries are just outside the entrance of the shrine, and of course, affordable. Just beware of flies, lots of flies. Better bring your own hand fan to shoo them away. LOL
*after checking out the Shrine (if you aren't there to pray), you'd be ready to leave just before lunch. So you may drop by Car-car (Car-car is Nice!---it's all over the town. You can read it.) and see the shoe stalls there, buy a pair or two if you like, and maybe have a sumptuous yet affordable lunch at the Acacia Grill House surrounded with Talisay trees ( how ironic). It's has a comfy atmosphere in it, good to relax in between bus rides.
Those are my suggestions. Those were what we actually did. Hehe. And the total expenses for the day, including taxi rides within Cebu City, just around Php600.
Here's a glimpse of my own trip there.
