Manila Self Guided Tour Itinerary – Yexel Museum, Fort Santiago, Sta. Cruz & Binondo

Manila has been a big part of my life. I spent the years of my college life in that city. Thou I wasn’t able to really explore the place, after a long time, I’m glad to be back. It’s gonna be a fun and tiring day well spent exploring my city – Manila. 

It was a Thursday (last year – Aug. 26, 2015)) and I made an effort to wake up early to accommodate my friend who flown all the way from Cebu City just to hang out with me today (Kidding, our activity was just a side trip). It wasn’t his first time here in Manila, but according to him this would be his first time to see Luneta up close as well as Fort Santiago, Sta. Cruz and Binondo. While I, reminisce my college years in this city. That makes it fun right! So let’s get it on! 

Spending only a thousand pesos that would mainly be used for food and transportation, we did plan to do walkathons to make the trip even more fun!

Here’s our itinerary:

• 10am – Yexel Museum 
• 12:30am – Lunch
• 1:30pm – Intramuros
• 3:30pm – Fort Santiago
• 5:30pm – Sta. Cruz 
• 6:30pm – Binondo 

 

Yexel Museum at Manila Ocean Park

From my place in West Avenue, Quezon City, we ride an Uber to Ocean Park that costed us around Php 250, not bad I think. We have other options of taking the jeep or LRT but just for us to still look fresh upon our arrival we opted to ride the Uber. First destination, Yexel Museum. (Read: Museums you can visit along LRT Stations)

A few months ago, I purchased Yexel Museum tickets online via Metrodeal that cost Php 99 each. I originally planned to take John, Earth and Ruth, but because our busy schedule got in a the way I decided to use it myself instead, plus the GC is about to expire already. The Yexel Museum original ticket price cost Php 500.

Yexel Museum is one of the attraction inside Manila Ocean Park which is located at the back of Manila Stadium. The place is a bit isolated thus getting there is quite hard specially if you don’t have your own vehicle. Riding taxi’s within the LRT station could be sometimes hard as well as specially if its peak hours. Thou you can always walk or maybe do the same thing like we did.  

After redeeming our tickets we headed straight at the venue. Will upload a video of our trip in Yexel soon. 

What can we see inside; There’s a huge minions wall upon your entry, a few walks away was the famous inverted room,  a Spider man booth, and Lord of the Rings section, they got lots of LOTR stuff here.

The famous Game of Thrones ‘Iron Throne’ replica can also be seen here, a StarWars section, Iron man and lastly a souvenir shop that could be found at the end.

The setup are intended for Photo-shoots but if there are lots of people you will then need to line up for your turn. And Oh, just a tip, Be ready to do wacky poses in front of a lot of people.

After two hours, we decided to walk towards Luneta. For the longest time that I spent my college years here, this would be my first time to be taking photo of my self here in Luneta. This would be the best angle we could see to not include the ‘Pambansang Photobomber‘ in the scene.

My friend Dico was requesting for us to visit Divisoria but with our limited time, It would not be possible.  I suggested for us to do a walkathon from Luneta to Sta. Cruz instead passing through Intramuros. But unfortunately, my waze didn’t work properly we ended up in Fort Santiago instead. Not bad at all. 

Fort Santiago plays a big part in the Philippine History. It is were Jose Rizal, the Philippine National Here, was imprisoned before his execution in 1896. The entrance fee here is Php 70 and it is a nice place to do photo-shoots and be historically inclined by learning about its history.

We then pass by the bridge heading to Sta. Cruz Manila, then went straight to Binondo were ended up having dinner at Wai Ying and snacks at Mr. Ube.

It was a short day trip in Manila and we learned a lot. I realized there are still a lot of nice places I should line up and visit here in Manila. And as I grew older, I appreciate it more. Next on my list is the National Museum and Manila Zoo!  I think my friend Dico was ecstatically happy as well, at least he already crossed out that destination in his list. Thanks for joining me today Dico and I hope when I visit your place in Cebu, you’ll get to tour me as well in your city.

We went home via LRT, tired, happy and satisfied!

What’s your best memory of Manila?