Cagayan de Oro Trip for Two Part 2: The City
I feel that I should dedicate a short post about the city because I think it’s important for first-time visitors.
From The Airport
To get to the city from the airport, you are pretty much limited to taxi cabs unless you have somebody picking you up. The thing is, taxis from the airport doesn’t want to use the meter. You have to haggle your fare and there doesn’t seem to be a standard rate.
A good price will have to be around P150 to maybe P200 but expect the driver to haul other passengers if there’s still space in the vehicle and you still have to pay for the agreed price.
If you’re travelling alone, what you can do is find other passengers to split the cost of taxi if you want to save some cash. You can also go outside the airport and wait on the highway for a passing taxi for a metered fare. It’s quite rare though and the meter will probably reach around P125.
The City
Cagayan de Oro City is pretty small with the center being Divisoria so better aim for a place to stay near the area but not directly in the vicinity because it can get loud at nights especially on Fridays and Saturdays.
There are three big malls in CDO (Ayala is still undergoing construction). The SM is located in the outskirts of the city. Gaisano is near the highway. The most popular one is Limketkai Mall and its expansion has a lot of excellent dining places to hangout especially at night. It’s like the Greenbelt of CDO.
Mode of travel is mainly by jeepney and the fare as of this writing is P6 within the city.
Must-try Places to Eat
Here are the places where you must aim to eat during your stay:
- Dear Manok. Chicken Inasal and Buko Halo-halo. The place is a landmark already in CDO.
- Kagay-anon Restaurant. Unfortunately we weren’t able to try it out. Heard their pinakbet is really good.
- Butcher’s Best. They say they serve the best barbeque and sisig in CDO. What I like about is the price of the food. Very cheap!
- Consuelos Steakhouse
- Sunburst Fried Chicken. Buffet breakfast for a hundred bucks (or is it 120?).
Better ask the receptionist in your hotel for directions. 
Staying at Pearlmont Hotel
For our accommodation, we stayed at Pearlmont Inn (Limketkai Drive) which is walking distance from Limketkai mall (around 10 minutes) and is also near Cucina de Oro which serves pretty good Chicken Inasal at a reasonable price.
The room is not that high-end but it’s a pretty decent place to stay for the night. There’s aircon and Cable TV and for P1400 a night, you have complimentary breakfast each morning. Breakfast isn’t that great though but I’m quite picky when it comes to food.
The staff are nice and pretty helpful and they even allow us to store our luggage while we go on our overnight Camiguin trip. There are lots of jeepneys plying that area so it’s easy to commute to and from the hotel.
My only qualm is that they don’t offer free WiFi. You have to pay P100 to use it for four hours. There are no nearby internet shops as well. If we want internet, we have to go to Bo’s coffee near Lim Ket Kai. Hehehe.
On our first day when we land at the airport, we had a quick lunch and we’re off to the Cagayan river for some whitewater rafting adventure. That’s next!
You might also be interested in:
- Cagayan de Oro Trip for Two Part 1: The Plan
- Cagayan de Oro Trip for Two Part 4: Going to Dahilayan
- Cagayan de Oro Trip for Two Part 3: Whitewater Rafting
- Cagayan de Oro Trip for Two Part 6: Going to Camiguin
Filed under: Travel
Can’t wait to read your next adventure in CDO!
Who’s with you
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waah…been waiting for the whitewater rafting, BITIN! haha!
post it nah! 
Hi how many hours did the white water rafting last because we’ll be going to camiguin right after. Thanks
hi! gud pm.. just finished reading your blog about ur trip in cdo.. its very helpful and we enjoyed reading it til the end.. i wanna ask if u can help us with our sched.. we will be in cdo on april 28 and our flight is 8.25am and on may 1, 10am is our flight going back to manila..
kaya ba ng sched nmen ung the same trip as u did?? thanks in advance. =)
hi judy mukhang mahirap ah mainly because maaga flight niyo pabalik. ilan ba kayo? 2 lang rin? ok sana if you have a van so you can do rafting in the morning, zipline after lunch (although baka gabi na kayo makauwi).
or… go directly to camiguin. tapos the following morning uwi. go to dahilayan pagdating sa CDO. medyo hapon na nga lang. following morning rafting.
hehe it’s going to be tight and medyo pagod sa travel.
2 lang din kme.. hopefully, sumama mga frends. hehehe.. if ever zipline & camiguin nlng cgro ppuntahan namin… i already have the ticket na kc b4 we discover ur site.. sana pla we get the 3pm flight pabalik.. anyways, thanks 4 ur suggestion. =)
Hi! we are going to CDO, and this site of yours is very helpful. Thanks a lot!
you’re welcome! Enjoy your trip!!
At this time it appears like BlogEngine is the preferred blogging platform available right now. (from what I’ve read) Is that what you are using on your blog?
Hi! just end up reading ur blog & its a big help to us. Just like u were only 2 planning to go on CDO on Dec 10-12. I wanna ask u if u could help us in in our itnerary. We will be in CDO 10:30 am (Dec 10) & our flight back would be 6 pm (Dec 12).
Plan A would be Day 1: white water rafting in the afternoon, Day 2: dahilayan park adventure then go to camiguin in the afternoon. Day 3: tour in camiguin then go back to CDO after lunch
Plan B would be Day 1: Dahilayan in the afternoon, Day 2: white water rafting then to to camiguin in the afternoon Day 3: tour in camiguin then go back to CDO.
What do you think is the best? Did our tour would fit in our sched? I realy want to include the iligan tour but i think we could not make it. How much is your total expenses?(if may i ask just for budgeting purpose) Please help me!
hi aileen, i’m not sure if there are ferries going to camiguin in the afternoon eh. if meron, you also have to consider the time to get to balingaoan port. mukhang hapit so you might have to give up one of those.
i forgot na kung magkano. hahaha sorry. add mo na lang yung sa mga post.
Hi calvin, i really enjoyed reading your CDO trip. Can you help me please. me and my bf arriving cdo nov 11 @730 am and leaving CDO nov 13, can we do things like yours?plan ko kasi sa nov 12 yung Dahilayan park..but i want to be in camiguin. kindly help.Thank you so much
yikes medyo gipit ka sa oras eh. not sure if there are scheduled boats going to camiguin in the afternoon. if inuna mo naman camiguin, late in the afternoon ka na makapunta ng dahilayan park. you have to put off one. mas ok yung white water rafting since tag-ulan so malakas rapids. or you can ask yung sa rafting if kaya rin nila dalhin kayo sa dahilayan after lunch para makapa-zip line pero i think that’s for groups eh.
hi Jean,
i saw ur msg. to calvin, we are also goin to Cgy on Nov. 11 maybe we have d same flight arriving 0730. I just want to inquire where you will be staying coz we do not have any reservation yet and not yet finalize our itinerary. But what we plan is to go to Camiguin, Dahilayan, Cgy.
Is it ok with you if our timing will be the same we can go together so we could rent a van for the trip.
Great post. very informative and helpful. Been planning on going to Cagayan De Oro during the holidays. Will definitely try out your suggestions. Thank you very much