Drive Your Way to a More Fun and Hassle-Free ‘Pasigarbo sa Sugbo’ 2023 with These Four Useful Tips

Known as the festival of all festivals—as it should be—to celebrate the Cebu province’s founding anniversary, ’Pasigarbo sa Sugbo’ embodies the rare opportunity to showcase the best of what Cebu has to offer—filled with joyous street dances in wildly colorful costumes leading up to the much-awaited grand ritual showdown.

This year, Pasigarbo (literally, “to boast”) lands in the city of Carcar, just over 39 kilometers southwest of the capital, with much to see both along the national highway and within the city itself.

So if you’re planning to visit Cebu for a one-of-a-kind cultural experience during the ‘Pasigarbo sa Subgo’ festival, consider these four tips as part of your pre-planning.

Accommodation

Cebu has a flourishing hospitality industry with some of the biggest hotel chains in the world that have already established roots in major cities and towns, and smaller hotels and bed and breakfast inns have been offering excellent services for years.

Despite many options, however, rooms can be sold out quickly, especially during the festival season. Even if you manage to get a reservation, accommodation costs could triple. Therefore, necessary arrangements have to be made at least three months in advance.

If you have multiple destinations to visit other than Carcar City, you should book a place with easy access to transportation, a strong internet signal, and a plethora of options for food. Staying within the central town is always a good idea.

Must-try foods

If there’s one thing that Cebu will not disappoint, it’s the food.

As a food destination with an ever-changing culinary scene, Cebu is a vibrant and incredibly storied region with so much heritage and local flavors to offer. Its unique Cebuano cuisine is a reflection of its varying landscapes and cultural influences from the past.

Despite its iconic dishes like the legendary Lechon de Cebu, Ngohiong, and SuTuKil, among others, having already made their way to commercial outlets throughout the country, there’s nothing more fulfilling and enjoyable than trying these local dishes straight from the source.

If you’re on your way to Carcar City for the Pasigarbo, you’re in luck because it’s one of the best places to eat lechon and seafood. But if you’re on a serious food hunt mission around Cebu, you’ll need to research, streamline, and bookmark the places you want to visit. A handy trick is to check out dining places in Google Maps as they often provide substantial information and user reviews. Once you made your pick, save them under your ‘travel plans’ until you create your very own “Cebu food guide.”

Places to see and adventure activities

The Pasigarbo sa Sugbo festival is one to look forward to as it promises to greet you with loud bursts of laughter and parade. With so many things to do during this week-long event, we suggest you spend at least three nights in Carcar.

Now, if you’ve planned to travel to other places, consider staying at least one to two weeks as logistics need to be taken into consideration. With nearly 170 islands, Cebu lives up to its moniker as the “gateway to a thousand journeys,” offering a multitude of cultural experiences, fun activities, and explorations that stretch from North to South.

If you need help with recommendations and narrowing down your itinerary, booking your trip with a trusted local travel and tours agency is always an option. But if you’re the adventurous and experienced type of traveler, you need to spend a ton of time researching and itemizing the places that you want to go to.

At the end of the day, it boils down to what you and your group want to see or experience. Whether you’re into scuba diving, trekking, island and beach hopping, or you just simply want a memorable night, trust that Cebu has them all.

With a short amount of time, creating a hyperfocus checklist is essential to the success of your trip. When choosing the places you want to visit, they must have reliable transportation, and ideally be closer to one another. This will save you time and energy and avoid running into possible risks.

Navigating the traffic around Cebu

It gets exponentially harder to get around at this time of the year, with thousands of tourists flying in and renting cars; people from neighboring regions also add to the vehicle pile when they make the trip.

Whether you’re traveling by land or sea, your jump-off point will be the bustling metropolis of Cebu, and the first thing that might greet you is the bumper-to-bumper traffic situation.

If you’re coming from Cordova, you might find that an easier way to access major roads going straight to Carcar such as the South Road Properties (SRP) is through one of Cebu’s iconic infrastructures, the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX). Not only this megastructure cuts down your travel time, but it also offers a scenic view of the Bohol Strait. As its traffic has been consistently increasing with an average of 15,000 vehicles per month, the introduction of a recently developed travel app by MPT Mobility could not have been more perfect.

We’re talking about the MPT DriveHub app, designed by MPT Mobility, the innovations arm of Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation or MPTC. Regardless if you’re an existing user or someone discovering this travel app for the first time, this could be exactly what you need to be street-smart—literally and figuratively.

Launched in mid-2022 in conjunction with CCLEX, the MPT DriveHub app was designed with motorists in mind to help in improving the travel experience for Filipinos, while ensuring that its key features complement Cebu’s vision for economic modernization. With 34,000 active users (a 73% increase compared to last year), MPT DriveHub is quickly finding its way as one of the most recommended travel apps in Cebu.

Whether you’re in town solely for the festival or have a couple more days set aside to explore, the MPT DriveHub app makes the trip that much easier by giving the user real-time traffic advisories and visibility on the toll fees in CCLEX. If you’re using a personal vehicle and have already registered your RFID with the app, you can instantly load and conveniently check your balance, saving you time on the road. On top of this, the app provides 24/7 roadside emergency assistance within CCLEX so you can worry less and drive more. So make sure to download the MPT DriveHub app on Apple Store and Google Play today.