For a lot of older travellers, Manila is a city that doesn’t have much appeal. It’s the gateway to a wonderful country of over 7,000 islands with some of the best beaches in the world, but Manila itself is a congested city with horrendous traffic and frequently suffers air pollution days that makes it a very unhealthy place to be.

But there is one place in Manila that I do recommend visitors try to visit if they have a day or two to spare on their way to or from some of the more relaxing destinations that the Philippines has to offer. And that’s the old walled city of Intramuros at the mouth of the Pasig River.

I’ve written previously about what to see and do in Intramuros in this article on the three best ‘heritage’ destinations in the Philippines. However, I’m often asked where’s the best place to stay for someone who just wants to do a quick one- or two-night’s stopover in Manila for the purpose of visiting Intramuros.

To avoid having to battle traffic getting to Intramuros or having to stay in some of the ‘seedy’ areas in the vicinity of Intramuros, it’s best to stay in a hotel where you are within walking distance of the walled city. There are two hotels inside Intramuros and one just outside. There are no Airbnb options inside Intramuros.

If budget is not an issue and you want to stay in a real heritage hotel to enhance your overall visit experience, then your best choice will be the Manila Hotel that’s located outside Intramuros. This iconic hotel opened in 1912 and was the country’s most elegant hotel until it was set on fire by Japanese troops during the Battle of Manila in 1945. It was gutted but subsequently rebuilt and then expanded and refurbished in 1975, and again in 2008.  

Many world leaders have stayed at the Manila Hotel (US president Bill Clinton was one) as well as famous authors like Ernest Hemingway and entertainers like the Beatles and Sammy Davis Jr. The hotel’s penthouse suite became the residence of General Douglas MacArthur during the years that he was in the Philippines.

From the outside the Manila Hotel is not as impressive as many other colonial hotels in Southeast Asia, but inside it’s a different story. The lobby is large and airy with massive brass and capiz shell chandeliers hanging from its high wooden ceilings. Set back from the elegant white archways on all four sides of the lobby is the reception area on one side and a restaurant on the other.

The hotel oozes history. Throughout the hotel there are many interesting items of traditional furniture carved from Philippine mahogany on display, and paintings on the walls of the public areas that depict events in the Philippines’ history. Parked outside the main entrance there are two elegant motor tricycles that used to be used to transport guests to the nearby Rizal Park. They provide a popular spot for ‘selfies’ these days.

Aside from the lobby restaurant, there are three other restaurants in the hotel, one of which serves the best buffet breakfast in Manila. Whatever your breakfast preference is, you’ll find it here, and the coffee is good too. Another serves Chinese food and the most upmarket restaurant – the Champagne Room – serves the some of the best French and Italian cuisine in Manila. For that restaurant, semi-formal attire is required, but for the others casual dress is fine.

The one thing that I have never been able to fault the Manila Hotel on is their food. The best room service meals I’ve ever had were in that hotel, and for a five-star hotel serving world class food, the prices are surprisingly reasonable. Even if you do not stay there. It’s worth walking over from Intramuros for lunch or dinner. The service from all the staff is impeccable.

Unfortunately, the rooms at the Manila Hotel are getting somewhat tired these days with holes in the curtains and a few threadbare patches in the carpets. Probably the hotel is waiting to recover from the downturn experienced during the Covid pandemic before considering room renovations. But the rooms are large and comfortable, and everything has worked fine on my stays.

Not long after the hotel reopened after the Covid pandemic I was able to get a room there for only $97 a night which was an absolute bargain. I expect rates to start increasing soon as tourism numbers start to pick up in the Philippines. But they probably won’t get back to the pre-Covid levels of $300 a night until the rooms have been renovated, because there have been a lot of new hotels completed along Manila Bay in recent years, so competition between hotels in the capital is more intense now.

The Manila Hotel has a large swimming pool and an outdoor deck where you can relax with a cocktail and watch the ships docking in the adjacent port area. There’s also a spa and fitness centre, and a small coffee/cake shop and souvenir shop off the lobby, so there’s no need to leave the hotel aside from your walk over to Intramuros.

To get to Intramuros from the hotel, you’ll have to walk out of the main entrance, turn left and then cross busy Roxas Boulevard at the traffic lights (which actually changes its name to Bonifacio Drive at that point). It’s a very busy road with three lanes on either side and lots of semi-trailers and tankers coming from the port, so do be careful when crossing even though there are pedestrian lights at the crossings.

Unfortunately, there is no pedestrian crossing or pedestrian lights that allow you to cross directly over to the other side. You need to use the three pedestrian crossings at the junction that take you around three sides of a square, so to speak, and wait for the lights to change at each crossing. Some locals do try to cross directly when the lights change, but if there are traffic enforcers there you may get booked for jaywalking!

Once across the highway stay on the left-hand side of Padre Burgos Avenue for about 300 metres until you reach the small road off to the left that takes you into one of the back gates of Intramuros. Note that the back gates are only open from 5.30am to 10.30pm, so should you want to take a late-night stroll through Intramuros when its cooler, you’ll need to take a tricycle back to the hotel because the walk back through the main entry gates of Intramuros would be slightly over a kilometre, and walking back along Bonifacio Drive is not that safe at night.

The second option is the 4-star Bayleaf hotel inside Intramuros. It’s on the eastern side of Intramuros, opposite the Manila City Hall, on the edge of one of the small residential barangays that are inside the walled city. It’s about two blocks from where the most interesting historical buildings are, and everything inside Intramuros is within easy walking distance.

The Bayleaf is popular with locals as an eating place, as it has three excellent restaurants and a chocolateria. The Skydeck restaurant on the roof is a great spot from which to watch the sunset over Manila Bay but it’s been well and truly ‘discovered’ in recent years and is now almost always fully booked, especially on weekends.

In fact, the Skydeck recently introduced two ‘sittings’ for evening bookings because people were spending too long over their meals and drinks. You can either now book for the 4pm-7pm sitting (which is best for the sunset) or 7pm-10pm for a relaxing meal after dark. The food is good but service can be a little slow when it gets busy.

Raffaele on the third floor is a pizzeria, but also serves excellent soups, salads and appetisers. It’s smaller there so the service is much faster. The restaurant has views across the Intramuros golf course towards City Hall. ‘9 Spoons’ is the other restaurant on the penthouse level, but I’ve not tried that because every time I’ve been there it’s been booked for a private function.

The rooms at the Bayleaf are only about half the size of those at the Manila Hotel, but they are nicely furnished and clean. The bathroom is large and bright and the room has all the usual fixtures that you would expect in a 4-star hotel. I paid $71 a night the last time I stayed there, which I thought was good value. My only complaint about the room was that there were a lot of small ants on the writing desk and in the bathroom, but fortunately there were none in the bed. I reported that to reception.

The only downside about staying at the Bayleaf is that when you walk out of the hotel you will often be pestered by pedicab drivers trying to sell you tours of Intramuros. One day a pedicab driver told me that “Intramuros was a long way away and you have to go through a dangerous residential area to get there”.

None of that is true. It’s a five minutes’ walk from the Bayleaf and there’s nothing dangerous about the residential area. Intramuros has many ‘guardia’ on patrol as well as tourist police and there have been no incidents of violence towards tourists there that I’ve ever heard about. I’ve walked just about every street in Intramuros at night without any problems. Of course, as is the case anywhere in Manila, you shouldn’t walk wearing expensive jewellery or flash money about.

Unless you have a problem walking, the best way to see Intramuros is by walking, not peering out of a pedicab. Of course, if you want a guide, then a pedicab tour might be an option for you. But make sure you agree the price with the driver in advance and the length of the tour (in terms of time).

If you are particularly interested in the history of Intramuros, your best option is to hire a private guide for a walking tour. Google “Intramuros private guide” and you’ll see plenty of options. You can read the reviews and make an advance booking. If you’re looking for a guide at the last minute, try the tourism office just inside Fort Santiago. A few of the pedicab drivers are almost as knowledgeable as the private guides, but most are not. The bamboo bike tours are another way to see Intramuros, but you won’t get as much in-depth information as you will on a walking tour.

The third accommodation option is the budget hotel called White Knight. It’s rated two stars and it’s in an old heritage building right in the centre of Intramuros. Undoubtedly the best location of the three options. However, whilst the Manila Hotel is one of the best hotels in the Philippines, the White Knight has to be rated as one of the worst.

I stayed in the White Knight only for one night so that I could review it. I checked in fairly late and there were four persons in the reception area. A guest who was in the process of having an argument with the receptionist, and two male staff members lounging on a couch looking totally disinterested in what was going on.

I positioned myself behind the guest who was arguing with the receptionist, and both ignored me for 15-20 minutes. I do not know what they were arguing about because it was in Tagalog, but I assume it was about something the guest had been wrongly charged for because she kept referring to “200 pesos”. The receptionist made no eye contact with me, nor did the two staff members on the couch.

After about 20 minutes I was tempted to walk out, but it was late, and I’d already paid for my booking online. But then the guest who had been arguing walked out. I moved forward but the receptionist still ignored me. Then she looked up and said: “Yes?” I told her I had a booking for the night. She took a while to locate my booking on her computer. Then she photocopied my driver’s licence and asked for a 3000 pesos cash security deposit “in case I damaged anything”. That was more than what I’d paid for the room.

After completing the registration formalities, she handed a key to one of the male staff members on the couch, and he took me upstairs to my room. He opened the door, turned the air-conditioner on and was about to walk out after handing me the key without saying a word. The room had two single beds. I told him I’d booked a double because I prefer to sleep in a larger bed.

He took the key back and just said: “Wait” – and disappeared downstairs. After about 10 minutes he reappeared with another key and took me to a room further down the corridor which had a double bed. Again, he just turned on the air-conditioner, handed me the key and left. I tried to turn the TV on, but it wasn’t working. The air-conditioner wasn’t working that great either, but I thought I would persevere with it rather than requesting another room.

The condition of room was ‘okay’ for a budget hotel in such an old building. There was a bit of dust on the shelves in the wardrobe, but the floor looked reasonably clean. There were a few small stains on the bedsheets, but the bed was quite comfortable. I unpacked my things and settled down on the bed and did a bit of work on my laptop.

When I was ready to sleep, I went into the bathroom to have a shower. There was no water. Not even a trickle. So I called the reception and told the receptionist I had no water. She said there was a water outage until 4.00am. Why didn’t she tell me that when I checked in? I asked if she could send a bottle of water up so I could at least brush my teeth before sleeping.

I left the shower tap open and the bathroom door open so I could hear when the water came back on, because the air-conditioner wasn’t keeping me cool, so I felt I needed a shower as soon as the water came back on. At around 4.00am, I was woken up by gurgling sounds in the bathroom, but it was only a dribble of water, so I went back to sleep.

When I woke up later, I turned the shower back on, but it was still only a dribble. So I put the shower head in a plastic bucket that I’d found under the sink and waited about 15 minutes for it to fill up. I bathed from the bucket as best I could, put on a change of clothes and got out of there as fast as I could, remembering to collect my 3000 pesos security deposit on the way out.

I hadn’t checked the Google reviews for the White Knight prior to checking in as I didn’t want them to influence my own opinion in advance, but when I checked the reviews after my stay, I discovered that my experience was not unique. In fact, some guests appear to have had worse experiences claiming they had been bitten by bed bugs or found cockroaches in the bed. One said there were mosquito larvae in the drinking water supplied.

I didn’t try the restaurant at the White Knight because it offered only basic Filipino food. I walked down the road to a nearby Starbucks and had breakfast there instead. It is such a pity that this hotel is so badly managed. It’s in a fabulous location. The building is old but with renovations could easily be brought up to a three-star standard. But the main problem is that so many things don’t work, and the staff are totally disinterested in their jobs and their guests. They shouldn’t be working in the hospitality industry.

It’s sad that the Philippines Department of Tourism doesn’t have the power to compel the owners and/or managers of this hotel to operate it to an acceptable standard. It’s in the middle of a UNESCO World Heritage listed site and represents a missed opportunity to provide international visitors with a memorable stay inside Intramuros. The White Knight is memorable for all the wrong reasons!

So avoid the White Knight at all costs. If you are travelling on a budget or particularly want to stay inside Intramuros, choose the Bayleaf. Otherwise, the Manila Hotel is the best option if their rates are within your budget. For most of the year that would be my first choice (because of their fabulous buffet breakfast) except perhaps between mid-March and mid-May when it is very hot and walking to Intramuros from the Manila Hotel is not so comfortable. During those months I would choose the Bayleaf.

All images: © David Astley