Nov 21, 2024
Amazing Manila - Eric - our guide was amazing! He was explaining different food and fruits and also culture and history of Philippines. We experienced different ways of transport in Manila including- boats, tuk tuk , buses and circling. I feel this tour is the best to get to know the city If you have a little time in Manila. Definitely, I recommend this tour to anyone coming to Manila. Enjoy!
Review provided by Viator
May 2, 2024
Fun tasting and biking - Bike ride in the old town and food tasting in China town were my favorite moments. Jen was a great guide telling us lots of stories and history.
Review provided by Viator
Apr 20, 2024
This is a fantastic tour to do - This is a fantastic tour to do. If you have Miguelita and Dana as your guides, it’s even better!
Unfortunately I couldn’t ride on the ferry as it was closed for the national holiday so we ended up getting a taxi to Quiapo. That was the only downside (if you can even call it that).
You will learn a lot on the city tour (fun fact: Binondo is the oldest Chinatown in the world) and see a few beautiful churches. After the city tour, we rode a jeepney to Intramuros which was another great part of the tour and it sparked great discussion amongst the group.
I have to praise Miguelita and Dana again because they were so attentive and patient with the group.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Apr 18, 2024
A must! - What a great fun day! Stella and her team are fantastic guides and made the day really enjoyable. Lots of food to try, lots of history to learn and a really lovely group to meet on the tour. Thank you 😊
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Apr 12, 2024
Great experience - The experience overall was amazing, I’ve missed the ferry in the morning because of traffic but they have organised it so I could rejoin them after the ferry ride. Food and cultural tour, Grace and Janill were very knowledgeable, friendly and always available. Overall a great experience.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Mar 2, 2024
Super recommended!!! - Completely recommendedbl3. The tour is great and super complete. A gastronomical and cultural immersion with a phenomenal guide. Totally recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 24, 2024
Definite must do! - We were in Manilla only for a few days, and thus tour caught my attention. It's a jam packed day, but neither do you feel rushed or a trip to tick off the boxes. You get to spend ample time at each place and meet the locals, our guide mark despite one review on here giving a 1 star was absolutely amazing. Friendly, clear on what the plan is, and you can clearly see he has a passion for Phillipine history and involving the locals. Honestly this is the best tour I've been on in all of South East Asia period. Even at the end when time was limited he offered to stay on and do one more stop if we wanted to, however the line at this stop was very long so we as a group were happy to call it a day. Not only do you see a volcano, you meet lots of cool locals, some grest history in old manilla and honestly again the tour guide mark absolutely made the whole trip worth it. If you want an in depth day, and get a true understanding of Philippine culture, this is a must do tour. On top of top of all this Mark will provide with you meny recommendations and tips for the rest of your Philippine trip. If I could hire him and his driver Jay for the whole time I would.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jan 13, 2024
A MUST do in Manila - WOW. This tour packs a lot into one day and it is so informative. Our tour guide Jen was amazing, it felt like she had interesting tidbits of knowledge to share with us every few minutes or so. Not only did we learn a lot, but we also ate A LOT. Like, A LOT. Jen was also able to recommend good places for us to go later on and how to get there. 15/10 would recommend. Really, really well done.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Feb 25, 2024
Great Tour, Not so great Food Experience - The tour part of this experience was five stars. The guide was super knowledgeable and fun. I learned a ton and the various modes of transportation was definitely a key part of the trip. The food was mostly just ok except the fruits in the market which were fantastic. There was more sharing of food than I think most people would be comfortable with. I would suggest they increase the price and work out something with the vendors in advance to have portions for individuals prepared.
Review provided by Viator
Feb 22, 2024
Very disappointing - needs dramatic improvement - The tour guide was friendly but had a strong accent and most of the group found him very hard to understand. Unfortunately this was one of the most badly organised tours I've ever been on. We were told we would start our day with a ferry ride but when we reached the ferry the tickets had sold out. I don't understand why this weren't purchased in advance (we bought the tour tickets in advance). Even in the morning 90m before the ferry departed the tour guide and his assistant were around so there seemed to be plenty of opportunity to have this sorted out beforehand.
We then experienced a very hot, stuff, squished in cars for a long drive instead. We saw a church and a local market where the guide bought us some fruit to try. We were all quite hungry and grumpy at that point with lots of waiting around and having had one big thing go wrong on the tour already. I think it would have been better to have put out some of the little local snacks (bought from shops while we waited in the blazing heat with no shade) for us right at the beginning so we could try them while we were waiting for the tour to start. That would have been better organisation and a much better guest experience. It would also have been good to have some more substantial street food along with the fruit as everyone was hungry as this point.
We did a walking tour of the financial district and China town. The guide walked ahead of the group and was hard to understand so most of the group didn't get much information.
Then we attempted the first lunch stop. I say attempted because the restaurant was full and turned us away. We went to another place but had to wait about 30-40m to be seated (again in the blazing heat with limited shade). The guide invited us to order but it wasn't made clear that anything extra would be charged to us as there were some basic dishes included. This caused issues with payment and upset several of the guests. No drinks were included.
Honestly the lunch stop wasn't worth it, especially for the stress involved. I think it would have been better to go somewhere where we could reserve for the group and/or try more street food instead. We were all full after lunch but that's when the 'heavier' street food started to come out - pork buns, wraps etc. Not easy to enjoy these on a full stomach and a bit frustrating when we had all been very hungry in the morning.
We then took Jeepneys and then Tuk Tuks to look around Intramures. This was a fun bit of the tour and it was easier to hear/understand the guide as it was a quieter part of town. Note there are NO bamboo bikes included on this tour. We found the Bamboo bike people and they do still offer bikes to hire but no longer work with this tour company - we suspect there was an accident and this had to be suspended. That's understandable but it should be removed from the tour description. After not having the ferry, not getting the bikes and lunch/food being so badly organised this last part of the tour was definitely the highlight. We also tried the very bizarre Halo Halo ice cream... containing sweetcorn, beans, jello etc.
I think a lot of work needs to be done for this tour to be dramatically improved for guests.
Review provided by Tripadvisor