Best part of town in Manila?

How long do you want to stay there for?

Are you just passing through? Or do you want to see some of Manila?

I think your friend was a bit unlucky.... Makati to the airport most times of the day is around 30 mins, in the middle of the night 20 mins to T3 and in early morning / late afternoon 45mins - 1 hour max. I've travelled to the airport from all over Manila many dozens of times and I can't remember taking 2 hours - ever. Plan for an hour to the airport wherever you say within the central districts and you should be fine - and always check in early in MNL - not an airport you need to be in a hurry in...

Where you stay depends where you want to go and what you want to see and do... Makati - crowded and clean(ish), Pasay - more crowded and dirty(very), Malate - kind of between the two. Pasay is a tad closer to the airport but that doesn't mean you want to stay there... Manila Metro is not very good - taxi's are cheap and walking is cheaper still. I'd stay in Malate or Makati, the former is handier for Metro stops and both have a wider range of hotels than Pasay with Malate being slightly cheaper for the same thing. Malate has plenty restaurants, bars, shopping etc. If you like Spanish Colonial, Intramuros is a 30 min walk from Malate across Luneta Park. Check out agoda.com for accomodation prices, to see what you get for your money (not as cheap as you think it should be) and tripadvisor.com is reasonable for reviews of what to see and do, restaurants etc.

How long do you want to stay there for?

Are you just passing through? Or do you want to see some of Manila?

I did want to see Manila. I will be there 2 days at the front of the trip and 2 days at the end. In my trip research, and asking friends, I have heard so many horror stories about long taxi rides struck in traffic that I am just trying to take distances into account. Especially now that I seem to be hearing, from several sources, to stay away from the metro.

I think your friend was a bit unlucky.... Makati to the airport most times of the day is around 30 mins, in the middle of the night 20 mins to T3 and in early morning / late afternoon 45mins - 1 hour max. I've travelled to the airport from all over Manila many dozens of times and I can't remember taking 2 hours - ever. Plan for an hour to the airport wherever you say within the central districts and you should be fine - and always check in early in MNL - not an airport you need to be in a hurry in...

Where you stay depends where you want to go and what you want to see and do... Makati - crowded and clean(ish), Pasay - more crowded and dirty(very), Malate - kind of between the two. Pasay is a tad closer to the airport but that doesn't mean you want to stay there... Manila Metro is not very good - taxi's are cheap and walking is cheaper still. I'd stay in Malate or Makati, the former is handier for Metro stops and both have a wider range of hotels than Pasay with Malate being slightly cheaper for the same thing. Malate has plenty restaurants, bars, shopping etc. If you like Spanish Colonial, Intramuros is a 30 min walk from Malate across Luneta Park. Check out agoda.com for accomodation prices, to see what you get for your money (not as cheap as you think it should be) and tripadvisor.com is reasonable for reviews of what to see and do, restaurants etc.

Thanks for the response. Yeah, staying in Makati seems to be the general recommendation. So Malate is further than Makati from the airport. Does that translate to longer transport times to the airport?

Filipinos - not 'flips' by the way, that is a horrible abusive term, are the last people to seek advice from generally. Anywhere in the central belt of cities in metro Manila around Pasay where the airport is and which includes Makati almost never takes more than about 45 minutes in a taxi.

I stayed in Ermita recently. .a little further than Malate from the airport.

It took about an hour by taxi...most of the wasted time was just outside the airport....

# 4 ... yes ... in terms of distance from the airport Malate is a little futher north than Pasay along Manila Bay and Makati is a little closer, more inland, but I doubt there's more than 15 mins difference most times of the day. Taxis will tend to go along Roxas Boulevard from Malate and use the Skyway from Makati, but the taxi drivers know all the short cuts and they're going to avoid the traffic if at all possible. They don't make any money sitting in traffic jams.

In most parts of Makati you could be in any city in Asia... they've built over most of the park areas and green spaces.. just another business district... offices, condos, fast food and up-market malls... with about as much atmosphere as a car wash... Malate, well you know you're in Manila, and as for Pasay... increasingly reminds me of Mumbai or Lagos... sad really but there it is.

Filipinos - not 'flips' by the way, that is a horrible abusive term, are the last people to seek advice from generally. Anywhere in the central belt of cities in metro Manila around Pasay where the airport is and which includes Makati almost never takes more than about 45 minutes in a taxi.

No offense intended. My friends and I have used that term casually. I thought it was neutral slang.

I stayed in Ermita recently. .a little further than Malate from the airport.

It took about an hour by taxi...most of the wasted time was just outside the airport....

So is the bottleneck right in front of the airport? Or are there other travel bottlenecks? When I did a google map search, the area of EDSA just off the skyway is always bright red (high traffic).