The 17 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Manila

The four-story lobby atrium, with its sunburst sculpture and cascading entrance waterfall, sets the tone for this Forbes Five Star hotel in Makati's central business district. Two towers, curved marble staircases, tufted chairs, and potted palms give the whole thing a grand-hotel-that-means-it seriousness. Guests here tend to dress for the lobby rather than through it, which tells you everything about the register.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Five Star
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Marble bathrooms stocked with Le Labo and floor-to-ceiling windows over the Makati skyline set the tone at this luxury tower hotel in the city's financial district, which holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star. Rooms run large and the pool and spa do what Fairmont pools and spas do. The quiet bonus is access to the Raffles next door, including its quietly legendary Writers Bar, which makes afternoon tea feel like an occasion.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A 32-suite luxury hotel sharing a tower with the Fairmont in Makati's financial district, Raffles draws the stock-exchange crowd by week and mall-crawlers by weekend. The Greenbelt shopping complex is next door, and the city's bar scene is a short ride away. Service runs to the famously attentive Raffles style, unhurried and quietly personal. The hotel holds a Forbes Four Star rating.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide 1 Key

A Forbes Four Star hotel rising above Bonifacio Global City, the Shangri-La The Fort is where multinational executives and weekend escapers end up when they want to stay in BGC rather than just pass through it. The gym alone outdoes most standalone facilities in the city. The neighborhood is Metro Manila's most walkable, so the outside is nearly as useful as the inside, which is saying something given what's inside.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star
2. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The lobby doesn't begin at street level: it starts 24 floors up, sitting atop a mixed-use tower in the Ortigas business district, which earns Marco Polo its "sky hotel" nickname. This Forbes Four Star property leans into the altitude with art by Filipino painter Jinggoy Buensuceso displayed across its floors, grounding an otherwise very vertical hotel in something local. Business travelers fill most of the rooms, but the setting makes it feel less transactional than that.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

1. The 50 #78 · Asia’s 50 Best Bars
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3. World Coffee Map Where to Drink Coffee in Manila

A grand staircase and live orchestral music greet you the moment you walk into this luxury hotel sitting in the middle of Makati's financial district. The carpeted hush of the lobby feels deliberately engineered to make you forget the mall traffic outside, and it works. Locals and travelers alike treat it as a refuge, settling into plush chairs with pastries and tea while the city carries on without them.

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A 38-story hotel resort and casino in Quezon City that leads with its restaurants rather than its gaming floor, which is a choice. Four levels of casino, 526 rooms, and a dining program built to match the area's serious food culture. The Forbes Four Star property was designed by Habitus Design Group, and the whole thing feels less spectacle-driven than its sister resort, more attuned to the neighborhood it landed in.

1. Forbes Travel Guide Forbes Four Star

The name means "sound" in Japanese, and the all-vinyl playlist is not a gimmick. Oto is a cocktail bar in Poblacion where the menu runs from daiquiris and dirty martinis through to signatures that fold in tamarind syrup or wheat beer, and a riff on the Breakfast Martini that nods to Salvatore Calabrese. The room is striking enough that the drinks have to compete, and the drinks are up for it.

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The sliding wooden doors that conceal the bar during daylight hours open at night to reveal what is, by day, an architectural firm. That dual life shapes everything: the cocktail bar keeps the office's concrete-and-glass bones and its minimal, industrial calm. It sits inside Lamp Quarters, a retail complex in Marikina City, and works best for small groups settling into corners that, a few hours earlier, someone was billing clients from.

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

A pedestrian bridge connects the lobby to Terminal 3, which sounds like a consolation prize until you see the four outdoor pools, the whiskey and tea bar, and the Quan Spa. This is a full-luxury hotel that happens to sit inside the Newport World Resorts complex, with casinos, restaurants, and a performing arts theater nearby. Rooms run minimalist, with freestanding tubs and floor-to-ceiling windows over the Manila skyline.

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1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

1. The 50 The 50 Discovery

Perched on Roxas Boulevard facing Manila Bay, this grand hotel wears its Art Deco bones and Filipino-Spanish heritage without apology, which puts it firmly in a different conversation from the boutique crowd. A member of Accor's MGallery collection, it keeps the classic-hotel atmosphere while adding Bose sound systems and Nespresso machines to the rooms. The rooftop restaurant overlooks the bay, and the subterranean Ruby Wong's Godown handles the glamorous bar shift below.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels