Eat in Manila’s newest restaurants, visit your favorite designer’s ateliers, or drink to your heart’s desire in one of the many Happy Hour promos in town. With this traffic, it’s time to get creative on how to kill time while off the busy Manila streets.
Find the Perfect Reading Nook
Catch up with your reading. A recent study proclaimed that each person could read up to 200 books a year with the time spent on social media. Here’s our suggestion: instead of wasting four hours on the road from point A to point B, find a comfortable spot you can enjoy a good book to enrich your mind. Hotels and cafés in the north often offer refuge to readers/workers as long as you purchase a drink or food. Same goes at Makati. If you want something moody and has that “hipster writer vibe”, make your way to Raffles Hotel and spend an hour or two devouring a novel at the Writer’s Bar or Long Bar. All this time away from EDSA traffic might actually help you catch up to Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians saga before the first film leaves theaters.
RELATED READS: Movie Review: Crazy Rich Asians (2018)…No Spoilers, We Promise!
Rediscover the Manila Shopping Scene
New shopping concepts are always popping up in Manila. For instance, did you know that the Zulueta sister’s food concept Apéritif is now open in SM Aura? They offer cold cuts, tapas, premium sweet confections, and even home items that you can buy for your tablescapes at home. Scheduling fittings with your favorite designers may also be a good way to keep you off the busy streets. Patty Ang is based in the Fort, Rosenthal Tee is in Ortigas for those located in the north. Shopping in Manila was never better than it is today. It may benefit you to pay your good friends Gucci, Prada, and Louis Vuitton at the malls during these dreaded traffic days. However, it most certainly won’t benefit your wallet. The choice is yours.
RELATED READS: The Zulueta Sisters Launched Apéritif in SM Aura…and It’s Changing Everything
Happy Hour is Always a Good Idea
Happy Hour is a remarkable thing because bars and lounges around the Metro are always finding ways to better themselves. We’ve written about Manila’s recent boozy afternoon offerings before here. Take your pick from Chotto Matte’s Buy 1 Take 1 Filipino-inspired high balls, Discovery Primea’s epic gin nights, Marco Polo Ortigas’ unlimited Spanish wines and tapas, La Cabrera’s Argentinean steak and wine happy hour, and Perry’s see-it-to-believe it rose wine power hour.
RELATED READS: Your Guide to a Boozy Afternoon: 6 Happy Hour Places in Manila Worth Trying
Have Dinner Out
Just like Happy Hour and shopping, the Manila culinary scene continues to flourish with young chefs and food concept groups consciously outdoing themselves with every newly opened eatery. Some that have caught our eye lately has been Chele Gonzalez’s Gallery by Chele and The Belleveu Manila’s hip new bar concept Cellar 22. If you want variety, check out The Grid, Rockwell’s impressive luxury food hall which offers everything from comfort food by Happy Ongpauco-Tiu to lobster rolls from Bun Appetit, and tacos from Bruce Rickett’s famous La Chinesca.
RELATED READS: Everything You Can Eat at The Grid, Rockwell’s New Luxury Food Hall
Featured image from EricaSuter.com
