If you ever had a chance to visit the Philippines I bet you have been to this place or if you are planning to then this is one place that should be on your itinerary. If you still don’t know where this is, it is the Manila Cathedral in Intramuros, Manila. Across it is Fort Santiago, a fort built during the Spanish occupation of the Philippines which you should also include in your tour.

Though when I went there to take this photo it was closed for renovation although it is still an interesting site to visit with all its history, though I suggest if you can afford it have a guided tour of the whole place. An advice to foreign tourists, have your hotel or travel agent set it up for you as I saw a lot of locals pestering foreign tourists to get their services as tour guides. I don’t have anything against them but wouldn’t you want to have your money’s worth and having an authorized tour guide also ensures you get only the correct facts.

There are other interesting places in the Philippines even just within Metro Manila only but for safety and security reasons my advice is to plan ahead and get a local tour guide that has Department of Tourism accreditation or better yet if you know someone from the Philippines ask him if he can accompany you or recommend someone who can. You might have to pay them for their time but it is much better that taking the risk of getting lost or coming across unscrupulous individuals and they can point you to places not on the usual tourist’s map. That is what I have been doing whenever my American in-laws would visit the Philippines.

Photo taken with a Canon EOS 600D with a Canon EF-S 18-135mm/f.3.5-5.6 zoom lens.