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Tips & Traps
Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
- TipA place or a move worth it
- TrapWhat to avoid, and how
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Insider advice from Local Friends and travelers. What to do, and what to avoid, city by city.
Join RALF to share your own tips and traps
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New postSleeping on the UP Diliman campus puts you among the trees, the Vargas Museum and the round church, away from the avenues. Kapit-Balay serviced apartments on Guerrero corner Dagohoy are meant for visiting academics and university guests, while University Hotel on Aglipay corner Guerrero takes regular bookings. Book by…
UP Fair is an annual week of music nights at UP Diliman's Sunken Garden, run by student groups, with OPM acts, food stalls and advocacy booths. Each night has its own theme and stage, and tickets are sold online per night. The fair is traditionally held around Valentine's week in February, but the 2026 edition ran in…
Quezon City's official Pride Month celebration is called Love Laban, with a Pride March and festival on a Saturday in late June, Pride Villages across the city and a colorful umbrella display at the Quezon Memorial Circle. The venue has moved: the 2024 festival was at the Circle, the 2025 one at UP Diliman. Check the…
Tago Jazz Cafe on Main Avenue in Cubao is a small jazz room where veteran Filipino players and newer artists play hard bop, Dixieland and Latin jazz. Shows usually run Friday to Sunday evenings, so do not turn up midweek. Arrive early for a table near the stage, order food with your drinks and check the cafe's social…
The Church of the Holy Sacrifice on the UP Diliman campus is a round church by National Artist Leandro Locsin, with a thin concrete dome and 14 entrances but no doors. Inside are stations of the cross by Vicente Manansala and a floor mural by Arturo Luz. It is a working parish, so shoot between services, keep your…
The Bantayog ng mga Bayani on Quezon Avenue honors people who resisted the martial law years, with a 35-foot Inang Bayan monument, a Wall of Remembrance and a small museum upstairs. The city listing gives Monday to Friday only, with group visits by appointment, so a Saturday or Sunday trip may find it closed. Museum…
The Ateneo Art Gallery in the Arts Wing at Areté on Katipunan Avenue grew from Fernando Zobel's collection in 1960 and is billed as the first museum of Philippine modern art. The permanent works are arranged by theme, and the third floor shows contemporary pieces. It sits inside the university, so enter through a…
Araneta Center-Cubao has an MRT-3 station and an LRT-2 station, and they are not one gate. The transfer is a walk through Farmers Plaza and the Gateway side of Araneta City, usually 10 to 15 minutes and longer on crowded weekends. Each line charges its own fare, so a transfer is not free. Allow extra time before a…
The Vargas Museum on Roxas Avenue in UP Diliman holds Jorge Vargas's gift of Philippine art from the 1880s to the 1960s, with many works by Fernando Amorsolo, plus a gallery for newer exhibitions. It is open Tuesday to Saturday and closed on most holidays, so skip Sunday and Monday. Pair it with a walk under the…
Metro Manila's number coding keeps private cars with certain plate endings off major roads from 7 to 10 am and 5 to 8 pm, Monday to Friday, except holidays. Plates ending in 1 or 2 are out on Monday, 3 or 4 on Tuesday, and so on to 9 or 0 on Friday. Ask your driver or car owner for the plate ending before planning a…
The Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center is a nature park in the middle of the city, a few minutes on foot from Quezon Avenue MRT station. Walk the paths around the lagoon, look for the wildlife-themed sculptures and leave a full hour or two, because the grounds are bigger than they look. Weekdays are calmer than…
Kamuning Bakery has been on Judge Jimenez Street since 1939, and its bread still comes from a brick pugon oven built in the 1930s. Order the pandesal warm and eat it plain or with pancit, as regulars do, then take a bag from the takeaway counter next door for the road. Come in the morning when the trays are fresh…
Inside the Farmers Market at Araneta City, pick fish, crab or prawns from the stalls, then carry the bag to one of the dampa kitchens around the market and ask for a style such as sinigang, butter garlic or steamed with ginger. You pay twice, once for the raw catch and once for the cooking. Go before 10 am on a…
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