Manila

Developers master-planned BGC from zero on the old Fort Bonifacio army base, laying a tidy grid where the power lines are buried, the pavements are walkable, and murals turn up on parking-garage walls. Bonifacio High Street is the heart of it, an open-air retail spine with a long linear park down the middle, kids on scooters, dog walkers, and an excellent run of restaurants either side. BGC is the least stressful address in Metro Manila, which counts for a lot with a family carrying jet lag and mixed ages.

BGC suits you if the priority is comfort, safety and letting people wander independently. Teens can walk to food without a Grab, grandparents get flat pavements and lifts, and the whole family gets aircon within 200 metres. Two attractions sit within striking distance. The Mind Museum is a good hands-on science museum that will hold a 7-to-14-year-old for three hours, and the Manila American Cemetery covers 152 quiet acres holding more than 17,000 WWII graves and the Tablets of the Missing, with the BGC skyline rising directly behind the crosses. The honest trade-off is that BGC is expensive and the least Filipino-feeling neighbourhood in the metro. It is also badly placed for Navotas, so plan on 60–90 minutes each way and leave before 7am.

Everything worth doing on a half or full day in Manila sits inside one tight triangle: the walled Spanish city of Intramuros, the 1590s Chinatown of Binondo directly across the Pasig, and Rizal Park spilling out to the seawall. You can do Fort Santiago's dungeons, San Agustin's trompe-l'oeil ceiling, a 19th-century merchant's house, the world's oldest Chinatown and the Spoliarium without ever getting back into traffic. Then you watch the sun drop into Manila Bay. People here have watched it do that for four centuries.

The pairing that works is Intramuros + Binondo + Rizal Park + sunset, in that order, on one day. Start at Fort Santiago at 8am, when the gates open and the light is still soft. Adult entry is PHP 75, PHP 50 discounted, and the Rizal Shrine and reopened dungeons are inside. Walk ten minutes to San Agustin, the oldest stone church in the country and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, whose vaulted ceiling is painted flat but reads as carved stone; the adjoining museum is PHP 200. Casa Manila across the plaza is PHP 75 and gives you a full bahay na bato interior, with the courtyard, the capiz windows and the terrifying open-plan toilet. If you'd rather not walk it, Bambike Ecotours runs 2.5-hour guided bamboo-bike tours at PHP 1,699 per person including entrance fees, which is the single best-value thing in Intramuros; the kalesa horse-carriages are photogenic but drivers open at wild numbers, so agree the price and duration in writing before you sit down. Cross to Binondo by late morning, a 15-minute walk over Jones Bridge or the new Binondo–Intramuros Bridge, and eat there (see the food section). After lunch, double back to Rizal Park for the Rizal Monument and then the National Museum of Fine Arts, which is free, air-conditioned, closed Mondays, and holds Juan Luna's enormous Spoliarium in a purpose-built hall; ninety minutes is plenty. Finish on the Baywalk or the Luneta seawall for sunset around 5:30pm. Two things don't belong in this day. The Manila American Cemetery sits 12 km away in BGC, so pair it with your BGC time. The weekend markets, Salcedo Saturday Market and Legazpi Sunday Market, both in Makati and both roughly 7am–2pm, are morning events on their own days. On your dates, Salcedo falls on Saturday 28 November, the Navotas morning, so Legazpi on Sunday 29 November is the realistic one.

Manila eating has two registers, and you want both. There is the modern Filipino kitchen (chefs cooking their grandmothers' food with better sourcing and a wine list) and there is the unreconstructed stuff: a Binondo canteen with plastic stools and a 70-year-old wok, or a Roxas Boulevard institution that has been grilling the same chicken since 1936. Five places cover the whole spectrum, and none of them will cost you a fortune.

Start with MANAM (Comfort Filipino), the easiest yes for a big family, with branches in Greenbelt 2, BGC and most major malls. The menu comes in small, medium and large so a group can order eight things instead of arguing. Get the House Crispy Sisig (₱205 small / ₱370 medium / ₱620 large), the Sinigang na Beef Short Rib with Watermelon (₱300/₱535/₱935), which sounds wrong and tastes perfect, the Kare-Kare with Oxtail (~₱380), and Tortang Talong with Aligue. Budget ₱900–1,400 a head with drinks. For the Binondo institution, try Sincerity Cafe & RESTAURANT on Yuchengco Street, plastic-tablecloth simple, cash preferred, and famous for exactly three things: the fried chicken, the kuchay-and-oyster cake and the fried noodles, roughly ₱250–500 a dish. If there's a queue, Lan Zhou La Mien (hand-pulled noodles and fried dumplings, ₱200–350) and Dong Bei Dumplings (kuchay dumplings, boiled or fried, ₱200–300) are both a two-minute walk away, and Eng Bee Tin on Ongpin is where you buy hopia and ube tikoy to take home. For the BGC dinner, Sarsa Kitchen + BAR at Forum South Global serves chef JP Anglo's Negrense cooking, spicier and more coconut-driven than Manila Filipino. Order Chicken Inasal, Kansi (beef shank sour soup), Crispy Pata Sisig, Talangka Rice and Adobo Flakes; about ₱500–800 a head. For the classic, The Aristocrat on Roxas Boulevard has been open since 1936, serving Boneless Chicken Barbecue with Java Rice, java sauce and atchara at ₱339, plus Kare-Kare and Pancit Canton. The Aristocrat isn't the best Filipino food in the city, but older relatives will recognise the taste instantly. If you want the fine-dining swing, Toyo Eatery in Karrivin Plaza, Makati (Jordy Navarra's Asia's-50-Best kitchen, tasting menu roughly ₱4,500–5,500 a head) needs booking weeks out, and ABE in Serendra/Greenbelt is the safer Kapampangan choice, with Binukadkad na Pla-pla, Knockout Knuckles and Adobong Pusit, at ₱500–800 a head.