I just had a quick Cebu getaway last June with two of my college friends. We only booked for a 3-whole day vacation, two of which were spent in BANTAYAN ISLAND. The remaining one day was spent in CARCAR, to do a quick foodtrip and pasalubong and souvenir shopping.
We started our trip by taking a cab from our hotel in Parklane to Magellan's Cross (Php 110) . It was my third time going to this tourist spot but I was still amazed by the big Cross. We made a quick prayer for thanks giving and guidance and then headed to South Cebu bus terminal (Grab car: Php 70).
We took an aircon bus going South with a fare of Php 60. You can take any bus going South Cebu, just don't forget to tell the driver or the conductor that you are going to Carcar Market. Travel time is about 2 hours.
It was already past lunchtime when we reached Carcar Market so we directed first to the Lechon area to have some legit Carcar Lechon for lunch.
It was just a small area at the right side of the market, composed of less than 10 Lechon stalls. We were quickly "attacked" by aggressive vendors offering their lechon products asking us to eat their free samples, I was already very hungry at that time and was quickly annoyed by them. We decided to buy on one of the stalls where in the tindera's are just quietly waiting for buyers to approach them. The retail price per kilo of Lenchon was Php 400/kilo. We bough a quarter for lunch. Just beside the lechonan area were rice (aka puso vendors). There were also snack vendors with tables and chairs where you can eat your lunch and will let you borrow some plates, just be considerate to buy some softdrink or coffee or egg or anything they are selling as a token of gratitude.
After we had our lunch, we quickly went to the area where they were selling Carcar shoes. We told the tricycle driver to take us to Acacia Grill, which was a few kilometers away from Carcar Market.
Below are some samples of Carcar shoe products. Prices range from Php 150 to Php 500.
After buying a couple of pairs, we went back to Carcar market again to find wholesale Chicharon for pasalubong.
In Carcar, a quarter kilo bag of freshly packed chicharon costs Php 300.
We also bought chicharon in small packaging that cost about Php 500 per 25 pcs. This was about Php 20 per piece. Flavors came in regular and spicy.
After 3 hours of touring Carcar, we decided to head back to Cebu City. We did this by simply taking the bus passing in front of the market with "Cebu City" on its signboard.
