Manila is notoriously huge, and not the easiest place to manoeuvre around. A lot of the city was destroyed in the Second World War, it being the second most bombed city after Warsaw. It’s often very hot as well. So you need to take a beat to get into it. Many travellers don’t, and they are therefore missing out on one of the most exciting and dynamic cities in Asia with some of the very best hosts. Fashion, food, art and film are all colliding, as is a young generation wanting to make great strides in social change.Â
Speakeasies are a big thing in Manila, so getting to a lot of bars involves wandering down alleyways, secret doors, and walking through other establishments to find them, providing a constant source of amusement to locals watching you search. They are a metaphor really for the ask that the city makes of its visitors, to look a little more carefully, and a little longer, before the true pleasures reveal themselves.
- The Peninsula has been around for ever and is woven into the fabric of Manila society, and you never know who you’ll see having lunch in the lobby.
- Henry Hotels. This locally owned and charming small chain has a very well presented option in both Pasay and Quezon City.
- Shangri- La The Fort. It’s no surprise that you won’t go wrong in a Shangri- La, but it’ll also be handy for the hotel’s hidden speakeasy bars; The Back Room, if you can find it, and another one inside Pink’s Hot Dogs.
- Intramuros is an essential day trip for wonderful and historical architecture.
- The Drawing Room, Finale Art File, Galerie Stephanie and Silverlens Galleries are solid entry points into the local contemporary art scene.
- A great day trip from Manila is a visit to Taal volcano, the smallest active volcano in the world. Beautiful views, a crater and a lake, and the super restaurant Antonio’s, for coffee in the morning, a meal in the main restaurant or upstairs in Terraza, or even just a sundowner cocktail in the garden.
- Nicomedes “Nick” Marquez Joaquin, who also used the pen name Quijano de Manila is a titan of Filipino literature and many of his works are set in and are about Manila.
- F.H. Batacan’s worldwide bestseller Smaller and Smaller Circles is set in Manila and is not only a great crime romp but a valuable insight into the structure and politics of the Philippines and Manila. In 2025 her new eagerly awaited collection of stories Accidents Happen is coming out, with more murder and Manila to be devoured.
- Marga Ortigas is a local writer who will take you on an epic family journey through the history of the Phillipines in The House on Calle Sombra.
- The journalist Patricia Evangelista tells the story of the violent recent years in Manila in Some People Need Killing.
Coffee and Breakfast Auro cafes are all about tree- to- bar chocolate, giving back to their local partner farmers. Great coffee and pastries and of course fantastic hot chocolates. There’s also Caravan Black Coffee and The Curator.Â
Lunch Bindodo is officially the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594, so as you can imagine there’s a lot of options. Ying Ying Tea House, Sincerity Cafe and Restaurant, and Chuan Kee Binondo are solid if you don’t have time to wander. Cubao Expo in Quezon City is full of great day and night options, like Habanero and upstairs at Best of Luck.
Dinner  Back in the city try Toyo Eatery which won the Flor de Cana Sustainable Restaurant Award in 2023, Hapag, Lusso, Blackbird at The Nielsen Tower, A Mano, Metiz and Helm.
- Philippine Airlines is investing heavily in it’s routes from Australia, not only to build direct tourism to the Phillipines, but to redefine Manila as a hub, with flights out to the rest of Asia, the U.S. and Europe, which will expand once the new Bulacan airport comes online. It’s building a strong brand around it’s price points and level of service and has good flights to Paris and Istanbul, LA, New York and Toronto and Vancouver.
- The most frequent flights to Manila come from Australia, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore.
- Air France and KLM are co-ordinating their schedules to offer a daily flight to Manila, and the main US carrier is United Airlines.
- One of the biggest problems is traffic, and construction is underway of the Metro Manila Subway, with the first tunnel boring machine lowered in June 2022. Partial operations are expected in 2028 and full operations by 2030 or 2031
- The United Nations Development Programme and Japan recently funded a material waste processing facility for Manila, that includes plastic melters, biogas digesters, and organic waste recovery systems. The City of Manila has partnered with the World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines for the Plastic Smart Cities project, which aims to reduce the city’s plastic pollution and completely eliminate plastic waste leakage by 2030. Manila is the first city to implement a City Plan of Action on Marine Litter and to also localize the National Plan of Action on Marine Litter.
Manila’s Go! Manila has become a digital platform to address social inclusion. There are at least 350,000 underinvested Manileños who will have unique digital identities and therefore equal opportunities in accessing services. The program focuses on the socio-economically disadvantaged: 20% of Filipinos use analog mobile phones; 20% have neither analog or smart mobile phones.
- Maria Ressa. The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is adored in the Phillipines and well known to everybody. She co-founded Rappler the news organisation, and endured constant political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government and continues to fight for the rights of the Filipino people.Â
Issa Barte has founded the youth- run organisation For The Future. They are championing reforestation, climate action, and community work embedded with indigenous knowledge all over the Philippines
- Anna Patricia Non started Community Pantry Phillipines during the pandemic, and wound up creating a movement that continues to feed the poor, reduces waste, and helps farmers make a living.Â
- Although he has now passed, people still talk about how Carlos Celdran raised the profile of the city with his tours and shows and how he campaigned for social change.Â
- Art Fair Philippines in mid- February. In 2013 Trickie Lopa, Dindin Araneta and Lisa Periquet started what is now one of the best art fairs in Asia, taking over multiple levels at The Link in Makati City. Alongside the fair is also 10 Days of Art with lots of happenings and exhibitions in other spaces around Makati and in public areas.Â
- Black Nazarene 7km procession through Manila every 9th January since 1767. One of the largest religious festivals in the world, featuring an icon of Jesus that survived a fire on a boat from Mexico in 1607. Millions attend, many walking barefoot through the capital.
- ArteFino Fair in August and it’s December pop up Presente
- Film Festivals Cinemalaya in July and Metro Manila in December.
- Ruby Wong’s Godown in the baseent of the Admiral hotel.
- Bank Bar that you’ll find by walking through a 7-Eleven
- Buccaneers Rum & Kitchen
- The Peak on the 60th floor of the Grand Hyatt hotel with the great view you’d expect at that height
- The Blind Pig
- 78-45-33
- Kultura is a chain of stores that stock locally and collectively produced clothes, gifts, foods, jewellery, all with the mission of supporting filipino communities sustainably. A good option is the centrally located shop in the SM City Manila Mall.Â
- Aphro Living, Ritual, Aranaz and Univers are cool stores for thoughtful shopping
- Records, trendy T-shirts, skater gear, funky antiques- find your inner hipster at the Cubao Expo shops in Quezon City.
- Pearls. It can be hard to find the famous Davao South Sea Pearls from Mindanao, and if you find yourself in any Manila shops or out at the Greenhills Pearl Markets, get ready to strike a deal and to find out where the pearls are from. Greenhills is in San Juan, home to the second largest Filipino- Chinese community in Manila,Â
- Metro Manila is a 2013 Tagalog-language British film about a family moving to Manila once rice farming no longer makes a living. The film was selected as the British entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.
- In the very popular Japanese anime series Detective Conan an episode Black Iron Submarine is largely set the Peninsula Hotel and Makati CBD.
- In The Bourne Legacy Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz are dramatically chased through the streets of Manila on a motorbike.
- Although mainly shot on the island of Luzon, many scenes in Apocalypse Now, the classic Vietnam war movie, were shot in Manila, where the cast and crew lived for months, with plenty of off- screen drama .
- K-Dramas, or South Korean TV series, are a big thing, and many of them are not only filmed in and around Manila, but feature the city heavily in plotlines, such as Secret Ingredient, The Fugitive: Plan B, and A Killer Paradox which is available on Netflix.
- The New Manila international airport, also known as Bulacan international airport is expected to be operational in 2027 or 2028. It is part of a huge infrastructure project aimed at building new expressways and mass transit systems to help decongest Metro Manila. The current Ninoy Aquino International Airport is soon to be privatised, and in the future will likely continue to carry national flights, while international flights willl move to Bulacan.
- The government plans to replace the colourful but diesel and very polluting mass transit Jeepneys with an electric version. There have been tensions with the mandate as many drivers own their own vehicles and couldn’t afford the new e-jeepneys, but the government and manufacturers are working out prices that reduce barriers to adoption.Â
