Looking for places to visit with the whole family? This list of must-see museums in Manila will help you sort out your problem. Planning trips considering all the members of the family is quite hard, but these places will suit everyone’s taste, from those who want to learn more about the Philippines history and art to those who want to update their Instagram feeds.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to Filipino living outside the Manila area. But before that check out the cheapest month to fly to Manila here.
DessertMuseum Manila
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Jumping on the interactive museum set-up and making the viewers part of the exhibit, Dessert Museum Manila lets its visitors experience life as sweet as candy, literally. The Museum offers a one and half hour tour inside the amazing world of sweets, candies and dessert for Php 699 for those reserving a tour online, and PHP799 for walk-ins. This tour is inclusive of a sample of the dessert highlighted in the room.
The place has eight different areas featuring a particular dessert. The room themes are as follows:
- Donuts
- Marshmallows
- Candy Canes
- Banana Beach
- Bubblegum
- Gummy Bears
- Pinata
- Cakes
While going around the tour, a guide will be talking about each of the highlighted dessert, giving out facts. They would also give around 20 minutes to go around the room and take photos. As this is an interactive museum, you’ll surely enjoy becoming one with the candy themed rooms. The bright colors will surely pop in your next Instagram post.
Upside-downMuseum
Thismuseum is currently undergoing renovations and shall open in August 2019.
Another museum that is following the interactive trend in museums right now is the Upside-down Museum. This museum focuses on the visitor’s creativity on how they should pose with all the rooms and displays made upside down. Visitors can enjoy the whole museum for only PHP450, birthday celebrants can even visit on their birthdays here for free. The installations, a popping style of displaying art, gives the visitors all the freedom of what to frame in their lenses, and get the satisfaction of becoming the art piece themselves.
The museum offers a lot of different types of rooms, spanning 1700 square meters, the biggest of its kind in Asia. It features a 90-degree house, mirror house, Goliath’s shoe, the upside-down highway, and a whole house which is made upside down. Going to this place from the airport is quite easy, as it’s also located in Pasay, it’s only a short 30 minute ride from where Manila’s airport is located.
NationalMuseum of the Philippines
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Amidstthe busy streets of Manila and its tall skyscraper, the National Museum Complexstill holds most of the Philippines’ history. The three different buildings ofthe National Museum of the Philippines, sit across the Jose Rizal Statue inLuneta. These are the National Museum of Fine Arts, National Museum of NaturalHistory, and Natural Museum of Anthropology. The newest of the bunch, NaturalHistory, opened just two years ago and is still have ongoing renovations forit’s permanent displays.
Another thing to go see at least once in your life would be the Spoliarium. One of the largest paintings in the Philippines, this piece was made by Juan Luna at Rome in 1884. It is the center piece found in the Fine Art museum. This painting is often attributed to the horrors and brutality the Philippines have undergone during the colonization period.
Goingto the National Museum Complex, you could also go visit the Museo Pambata whichis just across the street. All the Museums in the Museum Complex are free ofcharge.
TheMind Museum
Goingfrom the interactive IG-worth museums, we go to an interactive Science Museum.This museum is located in Makati City, right in the middle of the businessdistrict in Bonifacio Global City. The museum is 4,900 square meters, featuringfive main galleries in two floors. The exhibits are called, Atom, Life, Earth,Universe and Technology.
This museum will surely get all the love from our nerd companions, and the kids as well, as the museum offers some interactive experiments that the visitors could do. You could also ask for a guide throughout the museum visit to talk you through the displays. The price of an all-day tour is PHP750, and there are various price range for the three-hour visit you could go and check out.
AyalaMuseum
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Thismuseum is currently undergoing renovations and shall open in 2020.
Another Museum found in Makati would be the Ayala Museum. This is more of a traditional white-walled museum with collections separated by the time period or a specific theme. This six-story museum is run by the Ayala Foundation in 1967. The exhibits are the following:
- The Diorama Experience, a room of Dioramafocused on the major events in the Philippines from the prehistoric perioduntil contemporary period
- Maritime Vessels, room that displays models ofseveral maritime vessels through the Philippine history
- Pioneer of Philippine Art, a white wall room ofthe most famous late 19th to 20th century PhilippinePainters
- Gold of Ancestors, a room of prehistoric goldfound across the country
- Embroidered Multiples, a compilation ofEthnographic Materials collected by the French, Brejard.
- A Millennium of Contact, a room showcasing therich history of Philippine trade to its neighboring countries.
Bencab Museum
This museum is led by the National Artist, Benjamin Cabrera. This is the only museum in our list outside Manila city, located in Tuba, Benguet. The museum offers contemporary art that discusses most of the current issues faced by the country. In contrast to the contemporary art, it also features the community art of the Cordillera culture. Two of the four levels of the museum are dedicated to its galleries, while the 4th level is a café to enjoy the natural view this museum uniquely offers.
This can be all enjoyed for the general admission fee of PHP100, while students and senior citizens could enjoy it at a discounted rate of PHP80.
Manila offers a good number of museums for you to visit, so check out the cheapest month offers for Manila-bound flights. There are also other activities you can enjoy in Manila, visit parks or themed parks like Star City.
