Tour Manila By Motorcycle For Under 500 Pesos!

Tour Manila By Motorcycle For Under 500 Pesos!

 

Having moved to Manila from Zamboanga City, my fiance David and I were excited to go around and see everything that Manila had to offer us! So, when David’s motorcycle was finally shipped here, we decided to go on a tour of Manila – with an added challenge: we left the house with just 500 pesos in our wallet and a goal to make the most of it. We spent a wonderful Sunday touring around Manila and stopping at a lot of culturally rich places, while managing to stay within our budget! We packed a picnic lunch to bring with us in a backpack, printed a map of all the destinations we hoped to visit, and off we went!

 

 

 

Our first stop was the famous Coconut Palace, a government-owned mansion located near the Cultural Center of the Philippines. What makes this palace unique? 70% of the building is constructed from different parts of the coconut tree! We were unsure if it was open to the public because it was enclosed by a huge gate as you can see in the photo, but we stopped in front of it to take a few photos. Price for looking? Free!

We parked across the street from the Coconut Palace to eat our lunch before continuing on our way. We had prepared delicious sandwiches and brought an insulated thermos of cold water, a much enjoyed refreshment at this point as the motorcycle ride under the sun left us both with an intense thirst to quench. We quickly devoured our meal and then headed to our next destination – the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Unfortunately for us, that museum is closed on Sundays, so one of these days we will have to make another trip there!

 

 

Of course, no “tour de Manila” would be complete without paying tribute to Rizal Park, also known as Luneta Park, so we made our way there next. Within Luneta Park, there are lots of places to check out. After visiting the Rizal Monument, we next went to the “Diorama of Rizal’s Martyrdom”. Tickets to enter cost just 20php per person. Walking through the diorama, you will see many statues depicting key moments in Jose Rizal’s life, each with plaques describing the significance of the statue, all the way up until his execution. In fact, the diorama is situated in the very location where Rizal was executed. Chilling, isn’t it?

 

  

On a lighter note, make sure to also enjoy the Chinese and Japanese Gardens that are in Rizal Park, as well. Entrance fees for each are 10php per person, so we shelled out a total of 40 pesos here for the both of us to enjoy.

 

 

Entrance to the Chinese Garden in Rizal Park 

 

Beautiful scenery in the Japanese Garden 

 

Flowers in the Japanese Garden 

 

The entrance fee for the gardens was definitely sulit! The scenery was gorgeous, and there were lots of benches to sit on and rest while enjoying the tranquility and quiet music in the background. In the Chinese garden, we also made a feline friend out of a lazy cat who was enjoying the sunshine, too. We actually regretted having already eaten our lunch because this would have been the perfect place to enjoy our little picnic. We sat on a bench in a nice shady spot and enjoyed the light breeze for a while before moving on with our tour. We tipped the parking attendant 10php when we left.

 

 

Our perfect spot in the shade