Where to Stay in Manila — Best Hotels & Areas
Curated by Our Guild Explorers · Updated August 2026
Manila is not one city but seventeen of them stitched together, and the single decision that shapes your stay is which district you sleep in. Get it right and the capital is generous: superb food, real history, and hotels that would cost twice as much in Singapore. Get it wrong and you spend your holiday in traffic. Below are the places to stay by style, each with an honest note and a Book Me link straight to Trip.com — and every hotel on this page was looked up on Trip.com before it was written in, so every button goes to that hotel and no other.
Choosing Your Neighbourhood
Four districts hold nearly every hotel worth the trip. Here is the honest difference between them.
Makati, Bonifacio Global City, the Bay Area or Intramuros?
Makati is the safe answer and usually the right one: the old business district has become the most liveable part of the metro, with proper pavements, the Ayala museum and Greenbelt gardens in the middle of it, and everything from a legendary grand hotel to a clean budget room within a few streets of each other. Bonifacio Global City — everyone says BGC — is what Makati would be if it had been designed all at once: wide, green, orderly, full of new hotels and good restaurants, and a little corporate in the evenings. The Bay Area in Pasay, around the Mall of Asia and the entertainment city casinos, is where you stay for a dawn flight, a cruise sailing, or a view of the famous Manila Bay sunset; it is not a place to walk for pleasure. Intramuros and Ermita, the old Spanish quarter and the strip along Roxas Boulevard, put you among the history and the museums, with fewer hotels and more traffic. One point that overrides all of this: whichever you choose, ask what the drive will be at the hour you plan to move, not what the map says.
Luxury
Manila does grand hotels unusually well, and at prices that would be unthinkable in Hong Kong or Singapore.
The Peninsula Manila
The social heart of Makati as much as a hotel. Its vast, light-filled lobby, with the gilded sunburst above the staircase, is where Manila meets for afternoon tea and has been for fifty years. Rooms are generous and quietly traditional rather than fashionable, the service is superb, and the location on the corner of Ayala and Makati Avenues could not be more central. The pick if you want the city's institution.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Raffles Makati
An all-suite hotel above the Raffles and Fairmont complex on Makati Avenue, with butler service, a handsome long bar and rooms that are properly apartment-sized. Calmer and more private than the Peninsula across the road, and a particularly good choice for a longer stay or for travellers who want space to spread out. Ask for a high floor facing the golf course.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Shangri-La The Fort, Manila
The most impressive modern hotel in the metro: a tall, polished tower in the middle of BGC with an enormous pool and fitness floor, excellent restaurants and rooms that feel brand new. Everything works, everything is easy, and the surrounding streets are the only ones in Manila you can genuinely stroll at night. Best for travellers who want comfort over character.
Book Me on Trip.com ›The Manila Hotel
The country's grande dame, opened in 1912, where MacArthur kept a suite and where the chandeliered lobby still stops people in the doorway. It sits by the bay beside Rizal Park, a short hop from Intramuros, and it trades on history rather than newness — some rooms are magnificent and some are merely comfortable, so it is worth reading recent reviews of the specific room type. Stay here for the sense of occasion.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Boutique
Manila's small hotels are thinner on the ground than in Bangkok or Hanoi, but the good ones are very good.
The Henry Hotel Manila
A cluster of 1940s houses in a walled garden compound off Roxas Boulevard, turned into an eccentric and rather wonderful little hotel full of mid-century furniture, art and mango trees. It is a genuine surprise in the middle of the city and a favourite of designers and photographers. Not for those who want a business-hotel gym and a concierge desk; perfect for anyone who does not.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Hotel Celeste Makati
A small, warm, family-run hotel on a quiet Makati side street, with a rooftop restaurant and terrace, personal service and rooms decorated with more affection than a chain would manage. It is a few minutes' walk from the Greenbelt malls and a world away from them in feel. A gentle, good-value choice for a couple.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Budget & Value
Value in Manila is about location and reliability. These two deliver both without pretending to be more than they are.
Red Planet Makati Amorsolo
Compact, spotless, modern rooms in the middle of Makati's business streets, at a price that leaves money for dinner. There is no restaurant to speak of and the rooms are genuinely small, but the beds are good, the air conditioning works and you are minutes on foot from Greenbelt and Ayala Avenue. The sensible base for a city break on a budget.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Citadines Salcedo Makati
Serviced apartments in leafy Salcedo Village, each with a kitchenette and a washing machine, which changes the arithmetic entirely on a stay of a week or more. The Saturday Salcedo market is around the corner and the neighbourhood is one of the pleasantest in the city to walk in the early evening. Particularly good value for families and long stays.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Family-friendly
What families need in Manila is a pool, a mall you can reach without a taxi, and a short walk to dinner.
Novotel Manila Araneta City Hotel
Attached to the Araneta City complex in Quezon City, which means shops, cinemas, restaurants and the Big Dome are all reached under cover — a considerable blessing in the rainy season. There is a proper outdoor pool, family rooms, and a train station at the door, which is the one part of Manila where public transport genuinely beats the traffic. Best for families who want to be out of the car.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Conrad Manila
A ship-shaped building on reclaimed land at the edge of Manila Bay, next to the Mall of Asia and its aquarium and ice rink, with an outdoor pool deck and some of the best sunset views in the city from the upper floors. Everything a family needs is within the complex, which is either the great convenience or the great limitation depending on your temperament. Very handy for a cruise departure.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Adults-only
An honest answer here is more use than a list.
Manila has no adults-only hotels worth sending you to
Adults-only is a beach-resort format in the Philippines, not a city one, and Trip.com carries no genuine adults-only property in Metro Manila that we would put our name to. Rather than dress up a business hotel as something it is not, here is the honest advice: if you want a grown-up, child-free stay in the capital, book an all-suite hotel such as Raffles Makati or an upper floor at one of the Makati landmarks, where children are simply rare. If the adults-only holiday is the point of the trip, keep it for Boracay, Palawan or Bohol, where the format actually exists. The link below is the full Manila list on Trip.com, not a booking for any one hotel.
Browse Manila hotels on Trip.com ›Pet-friendly
Two Makati addresses that genuinely take dogs, rather than merely tolerating them.
Discovery Primea, Manila
A tall, sleek, Filipino-owned luxury hotel on Ayala Avenue with a well-known welcome for small dogs, an excellent top-floor restaurant and rooms that are among the largest in the city. The staff are the reason people come back. Confirm the size limit and any fee with the hotel when you book, as pet policies change more often than room rates.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Ascott Makati
Serviced apartments above the Glorietta malls, with kitchens, laundry and enough space for an animal to be comfortable rather than confined — which is what makes apartment-style hotels the practical choice when travelling with a pet. Central to the point of being able to leave the car alone entirely. Agree the arrangement with the property in advance.
Book Me on Trip.com ›Manila Hotel FAQ
Which district should I stay in on a first visit?
Makati, in almost every case. It is the most walkable part of Metro Manila, it has the greatest concentration of good hotels at every price, and the pavements, restaurants and shopping are all within reach on foot. Bonifacio Global City is newer, cleaner and even easier to walk, but it is quieter in the evenings and further from the historic sights. Choose the Bay Area only if an early flight or a cruise departure makes it sensible.
How long does it really take to get from the airport to Makati?
Anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour and a half, and the difference is entirely the time of day. Ninoy Aquino International is close to Makati as the crow flies, but the roads between them carry some of the heaviest traffic in Asia. Arriving mid-morning or after eight at night is a different experience from arriving at five in the afternoon. Build the delay into your plans rather than hoping.
Is it worth staying inside Intramuros?
For atmosphere, yes; for choice, no. The walled Spanish city is the most interesting square kilometre in the country, but it holds only a handful of hotels and most visitors see it comfortably on a day trip from Makati or the Bay Area. Stay there if the history is the whole point of your visit and you are content with a small, quiet base.
Are Manila hotels good value compared with the rest of Asia?
At the top end, remarkably so. A suite at one of the Makati landmarks costs meaningfully less than an equivalent room in Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo, and the service tradition in Philippine hotels is among the warmest anywhere. Value in the middle of the market is more uneven, so read recent reviews rather than the description.
Do I need to worry about the rainy season when booking?
It is worth knowing about rather than worrying about. From June to October the habagat can bring heavy afternoon rain and, occasionally, street flooding in low-lying parts of the metro. Hotels in Makati and Bonifacio Global City sit on higher ground and are rarely affected. Our month-by-month guide sets out the whole year.