Don't Skip Manila

13/02/2025

"The finely filigreed crocheted curtains that adorned gracious Filipino homes were taken down during the war, unravelled, and reworked into useful, work-a-day blouses, bags, socks, etc. Clothes were handed down the line of poor to poorer relations.
The Sunday dress gone out of fashion becomes the 'pamalengke' or 'pambahay'. Becoming frayed on top or bottom, it resurrects as a blouse or a skirt. Eventually it becomes the family 'basahan'."
— The History of the Burgis, Mariel N. Francisco & Fe Maria C. Arriola

13/02/2025

𝙑𝘼𝙇𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙄𝙉𝙀’𝙎 𝘿𝘼𝙔 – 𝙈𝘼𝙉𝙄𝙇𝘼 𝙀𝘿𝙄𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉!💕

Looking for the perfect way to celebrate love this February 14 -16? Whether you're with a partner, friends, or flying solo, 𝗗𝗢𝗡’𝗧 𝗦𝗞𝗜𝗣 𝗠𝗔𝗡𝗜𝗟𝗔 because we’ve got the sweetest events lined up just for you!

📍𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐮𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫
Take a romantic journey through Intramuros with tales of love, passion, and history! 🏰💕
📌 Feb 14, 2025, at 9:00 AM
📌 3-hour guided tour
📌 All-inclusive experience: Entrance fees, refreshments, kalesa ride
💌 Perfect for couples, friends, and solo history lovers!
🎟 Secure your spot now: www.dontskipmanila.com

📍 𝐑𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐥 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤, 𝐋𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐚 – 𝐀 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞-𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐟𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫
National Parks Development Committee
Step into a romantic wonderland with dreamy photo spots, live music, pop-up markets, and heartwarming surprises! Stroll through Lover’s Lane, grab a keepsake at Cupid’s Mementos, and shout your love at the Dedication Booth. Plus, don’t miss an enchanting live performance by Sydney-based busker 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘢 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘷𝘢—setting the perfect mood.
💌 FREE ADMISSION!

📍 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐮𝐫𝐨𝐬 – 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 & 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲
Intramuros Administration
Make your Valentine’s 𝘧𝘶𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴𝘺 with:
💖𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 (𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵)
🎈 𝘉𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘈𝘳𝘵 (𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵)
🎨 𝘖𝘯-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘚𝘱𝘰𝘵 𝘚𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 (𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 70 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘴)
🎡 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘯-𝘵𝘩𝘦-𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴!
📌 FREE but pre-register here: (https://forms.gle/hji9Kk4qD9ksnoD69)

📍 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐮𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 – 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 & 𝐅𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞
National Museum of the Philippines
Celebrate love in the most unique way—through history and culture! 💕 Join FREE guided tours exploring Filipino courtship traditions, marriage customs, and family values. Write a heartfelt note in Baybayin script and take a peaceful stroll through Liwasang Rizal.
🕘 Registration starts at 9:30 AM & 1:30 PM (30 slots per session!)

📍 Renacimiento Manila –𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞'𝐬 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫💘
Flying solo? No problem! Meet, mingle, and maybe even find your match in a fun, relaxed setting.
📆 Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025 (3-6 PM)
📌 Fee: Php 600 per person (includes a Human Bingo card!)
📌 Exciting icebreakers, social games, and great company!
🎟 Register here: forms.gle/TwoVkZv5KKAUN2Qf6

💌 𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐞, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐞, 𝐨𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲—𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐥𝐚 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠!

12/02/2025

12/02/2025

Manila never truly recovered from the war—it simply chose to forget. The past was paved over for the next shopping mall or condominium, as if erasure could pass for healing. Entire generations grew up disconnected from what was lost because remembering would mean admitting that the city was never truly rebuilt—only replaced.

The Manila Girls sticker series is a quiet act of defiance against forgetting. Each piece is a reminder of what was lost—people, culture, entire districts that once defined the city. As part of the souvenir set for the Battle of Manila Memorial Walks, these stickers are more than keepsakes; they are fragments of a past the city refuses to confront. Eighty years later, maybe it’s time to stop looking away.

Register for the two remaining tours here:
✏ bit.ly/NiladBOM80

10/02/2025

Complete Your Journey, Collect History!

If you’ve joined the first two legs of the Battle of Manila Memorial Walk series, you’re already holding part of our exclusive souvenir set. Now’s your chance to finish the journey and complete the collection!

Each tour package includes official artwork representing the historic districts we explore—a true piece of history to take home. Don’t miss out on this meaningful experience!

📌 Register now and be part of history.
✏ Sign up here : https://bit.ly/NiladBOM80

09/02/2025

Thank You for Exploring Manila with Us!

A big 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐭! to our incredible guests for joining Don’t Skip Manila Walking Tours!🚶‍♂️✨ Your curiosity and excitement made the journey even more special.

We loved showing you the stories, historic streets, and vibrant culture of Manila and the Philippines. We hope you left with unforgettable memories and a newfound appreciation for this amazing city! ❤️

📸 Don’t forget to share your favorite moments and tag us—we’d love to see them! See you again soon for another adventure!

09/02/2025

Pagbati, The Heritage Collective ✨

08/02/2025

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐔𝐬!

To our wonderful guests—Maraming Salamat! 🌟 Your enthusiasm and curiosity made our Don’t Skip Manila Walking Tour an unforgettable experience.

We loved sharing Manila’s rich history, arts and, vibrant culture with you. We hope you left with amazing memories, new discoveries, and maybe even a deeper love for this incredible city! 💙

📸 Don’t forget to tag us in your photos—we’d love to see your favorite moments! Until next time, keep exploring and never skip Manila! 🚶‍♂️✨

07/02/2025

𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐭! 🌟

A huge THANK YOU to our amazing guests for joining Don’t Skip Manila Walking Tours! 🚶‍♂️✨ Your curiosity, energy, and love for adventure made the journey even more special.

We hope you enjoyed uncovering Manila’s rich history, stories and local connection as much as we loved sharing them with you! ❤️

Until next time—keep exploring, keep discovering, and don’t skip Manila!

07/02/2025

BATTLE OF MANILA: ERMITA

Ermita, once the epitome of elegance, where power dressed in linen suits and lived behind wrought iron gates. Tree-lined streets led to gatherings filled with the city's most distinguished residents. It was a district built on civility and wealth, where the world made sense if you had the right address. Then came the war, bringing destruction so complete that even memory struggled to reconstruct what was lost. The mansions burned, the avenues crumbled, and the people who once called it home never returned.

Now, Ermita wears a different face, less refinement, more necessity. The grand homes have given way to neon-lit commerce, with pawnshops standing where parlors once stood. The dignity of its past lingers in crumbling facades and the occasional lamppost that refuses to fall. Walking its streets is less a stroll through history and more a confrontation with what time, war, and progress have done to a city that never had the luxury of staying the same.

As we conclude the tour, we walk through the echoes of what was lost and what remains. From its shattered mansions to the institutions that struggled to rise again, Ermita tells the story of Manila, city that never had the luxury of standing still. Join us in this final leg, where we confront the past, remember its scars, and honor the history that shaped the Manila we know today.

📌 TOUR 05: ERMITA
📆 Date & Time: 01 March (Saturday) at 9:00AM
💬 Tour Guide: Renacimiento Manila

✏️ Registration here: https://forms.gle/MT6imQqZUKtn7B4S8

❤️‍🔥 This is a collaborative effort between the Nilad Community and its following members: AKIM / Manila Girls, Don't Skip Manila, The Heritage Collective, Renacimiento Manila, and WanderManila.

07/02/2025

06/02/2025

𝓕𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓲𝓷 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝓱𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓻𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓥𝓪𝓵𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓮'𝓼 𝓓𝓪𝔂! 🌹

Join us for 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐀𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐨𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫 on Feb 14, 2025, at 9:00 AM – a romantic journey through Intramuros with tales of love, passion, and history. 💕🏰✨

📍 3-hour guided tour
📍 All - Inclusive tour (Entrance fees, refreshments, kalesa/tranvia ride)
💌 Perfect for couples, friends, and solo history lovers!

Secure your spot now at www.dontskipmanila.com

06/02/2025

“Across the five tours, the Nilad Community and its member groups aim to provide not just history lessons, but ‘an invitation to confront the reality of loss and, more importantly, the responsibility of preserving what remains.’”

Thank you BusinessWorld!

Book your BOM Tours here: https://bit.ly/NiladBOM80

EIGHTY YEARS AGO in February, 100,000 people died as the city of Manila burned. For 30 days, the Philippine capital was caught up in a clash between the Japanese and American armed forces in a bloody, destructive battle at the tail end of World War II. It is an event that many of the nearly […]

06/02/2025

BATTLE OF MANILA: INTRAMUROS

Once, the Santo Domingo Church in Intramuros was a grand spectacle, massive, ornate, the kind of place that made you believe in something, if not divinity, then at least in the persistence of architecture. It had already survived fires, earthquakes, and the kind of political turbulence that sends lesser buildings crumbling. But in 1945, in a month-long campaign of indiscriminate shelling and street-by-street carnage, it was obliterated. Today, its ghost lingers only in photographs and the stories of those who remember when Manila could still be called the Pearl of the Orient.

And what did we get in return? A city so desperate to forget its past that it paved over the trauma with glass, steel, and shopping malls. If history teaches us anything, it’s that forgetting is dangerous. The Battle of Manila Tour is not just a stroll through old streets; it’s a reckoning with what happens when memory is treated as an inconvenience. Intramuros was once Manila’s beating heart, and now, eight decades later, we ask: what happens to a city that loses its soul?

📌 TOUR 04: INTRAMUROS
📆 Date & Time: 22 February (Saturday) at 4:00PM
💬 Tour Guide: Don't Skip Manila

✏️ Registration here: https://forms.gle/MT6imQqZUKtn7B4S8 (Limited Slots Available)

❤️‍🔥 This is a collaborative effort between the Nilad Community and its following members: AKIM / Manila Girls, Don't Skip Manila, The Heritage Collective, Renacimiento Manila, and WanderManila.

03/02/2025

BATTLE OF MANILA : MALATE

In 1945, Malate's Taft Avenue was the stage for the Battle of Manila's tragic climax. Educational institutions became unintended sanctuaries, sheltering civilians, families, wounded soldiers, and guerrilla fighters. These supposed havens turned into scenes of unspeakable violence, with massacres claiming hundreds of lives.

Eighty years have passed, yet the echoes of that bloodshed linger. The physical stains may have faded, but the memories remain etched in the fabric of the city. Join us as we walk Taft Avenue, reflecting on a past that refuses to be forgotten.

📌 TOUR 03: MALATE
📆 Date & Time: 15 February (Saturday) at 2:00PM

💬 Tour Guides: Renacimiento Manila x The Heritage Collective x Dr. Xiao Chua

✏️ Registration here: https://forms.gle/MT6imQqZUKtn7B4S8 (Limited Slots Available)

❤️‍🔥 This is a collaborative effort between the Nilad Community and its following members: AKIM / Manila Girls, Don't Skip Manila, The Heritage Collective, Renacimiento Manila and WanderManila.

03/02/2025

01/02/2025

BATTLE OF MANILA : BINONDO TOUR - OFFICIAL ARTWORK

Binondo, Manila’s beating heart of commerce, became a battleground in 1945, its streets choked with rubble, its night air thick with fire and fear. Across the river, Jones Bridge stood wounded, stripped of one of its four La Madre Filipina statues, ironically the one symbolizing democracy. A monument meant to endure was instead shattered, much like the very ideals it was built to uphold.

Eighty years later, the statue has been replaced, though democracy itself remains in questionable condition. Across the world, we see it chipped away, eroded not by war but by something far less dramatic, neglect. Walk with us through Binondo along Escolta Street and consider if a statue can be rebuilt, can an ideal?

📌 TOUR 02: BINONDO
💬 Tour Guide: The Heritage Collective
📆 Date & Time: 09 February (Sunday) at 5:00PM

✏️ Registration here: https://forms.gle/MT6imQqZUKtn7B4S8 (Limited Slots Available)

❤️‍🔥 This is a collaborative effort between the Nilad Community and its following members: AKIM / Manila Girls, Don't Skip Manila, The Heritage Collective, Renacimiento Manila and WanderManila.

BATTLE OF MANILA : BINONDO TOUR - OFFICIAL ARTWORK

❌ REGISTRATION CLOSED ❌

Binondo, Manila’s beating heart of commerce, became a battleground in 1945, its streets choked with rubble, its night air thick with fire and fear. Across the river, Jones Bridge stood wounded, stripped of one of its four La Madre Filipina statues, ironically the one symbolizing democracy. A monument meant to endure was instead shattered, much like the very ideals it was built to uphold.

Eighty years later, the statue has been replaced, though democracy itself remains in questionable condition. Across the world, we see it chipped away, eroded not by war but by something far less dramatic, neglect. Walk with us through Binondo along Escolta Street and consider if a statue can be rebuilt, can an ideal?

📌 TOUR 02: BINONDO
💬 Tour Guide: The Heritage Collective
📆 Date & Time: 09 February (Sunday) at 5:00PM

✏️ Registration here: https://forms.gle/MT6imQqZUKtn7B4S8 (Limited Slots Available)

❤️‍🔥 This is a collaborative effort between the Nilad Community and its following members: AKIM / Manila Girls, Don't Skip Manila, The Heritage Collective, Renacimiento Manila and WanderManila.