Manila

Intramuros walls, Quiapo bells and a sunset over Manila Bay

Two days cover the old heart of Manila. Spend the first inside Intramuros, from Fort Santiago and the Pasig ramparts to Manila Cathedral, San Agustin Church and Casa Manila, and watch the sunset over Manila Bay. On day two, ride LRT-1 to Carriedo for Quiapo Church and a food walk through Binondo.

Continue to Manila Cathedral and then to San Agustin Church and its museum. Casa Manila, a reconstructed colonial mansion across the street, shows how wealthy families lived under Spain. After lunch walk through the gates to Rizal Park and spend the hot afternoon in the National Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Anthropology, both free. Finish on the bay walkway on Roxas Boulevard for sunset, then eat in Malate.

Day two, across the river. Take LRT-1 to Carriedo and start at Quiapo Church, home of the Black Nazarene, with herbal stalls and amulet sellers outside. Walk west along Escolta, the old commercial street of Art Deco buildings, to Binondo Church and Ongpin Street for a long lunch of dumplings and noodles. In the afternoon visit the Chinese cemetery or return south for the Metropolitan Theater and Paco Park. Heading on to Thailand? Our Manila to Bangkok flights page lists the nonstop options, and visitors arriving from Bangkok can check Bangkok to Manila flights.

Ongpin dumplings, isaw sticks and halo-halo around Manila

Filipino food is built on sour, salty and sweet, and Manila is where every regional style meets. Order adobo and sinigang at a carinderia, a point-and-pay canteen, eat dumplings on Ongpin Street in Binondo, try isaw, grilled chicken intestines, near the LRT stations, and cool off with halo-halo.

Adobo (meat braised in vinegar, soy and garlic) and sinigang (a sour tamarind soup) turn up in every carinderia, the canteens where you point at pots and pay by the dish. Lechon, whole roast pig, is party food, and pancit noodles are served for birthdays to bring long life.

Binondo is the best place for a long eating walk. Chinese-Filipino shops along Ongpin and Yuchengco streets sell siopao buns, fried dumplings, fresh lumpia and flaky hopia pastries filled with mung bean or ube. Go before 2pm, when the busiest places start selling out.

Street food clusters around LRT stations, schools and markets. Try isaw, grilled chicken intestines on sticks, kwek-kwek, quail eggs in orange batter, fish balls dipped in sweet or spicy sauce, and banana cue, caramelised plantain on a skewer. The famous balut, a boiled fertilised duck egg, is sold in the evening by walking vendors. For dessert, halo-halo layers shaved ice, sweet beans, leche flan and ube.

Black Nazarene crowds, Christmas season and boats to Corregidor

Manila's calendar is crowded with religious feasts. On 9 January the Feast of the Black Nazarene sends a barefoot crowd through Quiapo for close to a full day, Holy Week and the long Christmas season fill the churches, and tour boats from the bay waterfront reach the wartime fortress island of Corregidor.

Holy Week in March or April brings processions and a near-shutdown of the city. Christmas begins absurdly early: carols play from September, lanterns go up in October, and from 16 December dawn masses fill the churches of Intramuros and Binondo. January and February are among the coolest and driest months, with highs around 30C.

For a break from the traffic, tour boats from the Manila Bay waterfront visit Corregidor when operating, the island fortress at the mouth of the bay where American and Filipino forces held out in 1942; tours cover the ruined barracks, the Malinta Tunnel and the Pacific War Memorial. Further south, Tagaytay looks across Taal Lake to the Taal Volcano and is a popular escape in the cool season. In Las Piñas, St. Joseph Parish Church keeps a 19th-century organ built partly from bamboo.