What to do on a Manila layover

Every plan below starts and ends at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL), known as NAIA. Manila has no airport train, so each one is a taxi ride to Intramuros, the walled old city, and back. The times in town assume about 75 minutes from landing to sitting in a taxi, about an hour’s drive in, 90 minutes for the drive back and 90 minutes at the airport before departure, with your onward boarding pass. Nobody publishes a drive time from NAIA, so the drive times are our own estimates: in heavy traffic or rain, leave earlier.

First make sure you can leave the airport: most Western passports need no visa, only the free eTravel registration. Then check the day. Casa Manila and the Museo de Intramuros are closed on Mondays; Fort Santiago is open every day, from 8am on weekdays and 6am at weekends. PAL’s Transit Tour runs only from Friday to Sunday.

8 to 9.5 hours: Fort Santiago and Casa Manila

You’ll have about 2.5 hours in town on an 8-hour layover and about 3.5 on a 9-hour one.

Fort Santiago and Casa Manila

The two sights in Intramuros with published hours and prices, a short walk apart and ₱75 each. It suits anyone with one long daytime layover who wants a first look at old Manila without rushing.

1. Clear immigration, buy a coupon taxi at the arrivals kerb and ride to Fort Santiago, at the north end of Intramuros: ₱610 to the fort, or ₱530 to Intramuros, about an hour.
2. Spend about 75 minutes at Fort Santiago, walking the walls and grounds.
3. Walk about 10 minutes to Casa Manila, the museum house, and give it about 45 minutes.
4. Book a Grab or take a taxi back, leaving Intramuros 3 hours before your flight.

Opening hours. Fort Santiago opens at 8am on weekdays and 6am at weekends, and closes at 10pm, with last entry at 8pm (8:30pm at weekends). Casa Manila is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 6pm, with last entry at 5pm. So on a weekday, a landing before about 5:45am means waiting for the fort to open; to reach Casa Manila before its last entry, land by about 1:15pm.

Pick your day. On a Monday Casa Manila is closed, so the plan becomes Fort Santiago alone, which still fits. At Fort Santiago, students, seniors and visitors with a disability pay ₱50; Casa Manila has a ₱50 discounted rate too.

Bags. Bring hand luggage only: NAIA lists no left-luggage service.

9.5 to 14 hours: Intramuros, the National Museum and Rizal Park

You’ll have about 4 hours in town on a 9.5-hour layover, 4.5 on a 10-hour one and about 6.5 on a 12-hour one.

Intramuros, the National Museum and Rizal Park

Old Manila, then the country’s national art and history collections, free, and the park in front of them. It suits a first-time visitor with a long daytime layover.

1. Coupon taxi to Fort Santiago, about an hour, and spend about 75 minutes there.
2. Walk about 10 minutes to Casa Manila (closed Mondays), about 45 minutes.
3. Walk about 15 minutes to the National Museum: the Fine Arts or the Anthropology building, about 75 minutes. Both are free.
4. Walk through Rizal Park, also called Luneta, around the Rizal Monument, about 30 minutes.
5. Book a Grab or take a taxi back, leaving 3 hours before your flight.

Opening hours. The National Museum is open 9am to 6pm. Its current listing says every day, but older notices say Tuesday to Sunday, so check its page before a Monday. To reach it with time to look round before 6pm, land by about noon. Rizal Park publishes no opening hours; treat it as a walk through, free, rather than a sight with a gate.

With more time. Add the Museo de Intramuros, inside the walls: ₱150, Tuesday to Sunday 9am to 6pm, last entry 4:30pm. Or visit Baluarte de San Diego, one of the old city’s bastions, open daily 8am to 5pm, last entry 4pm.

In the rain. The museum is the dry part of the day. If it pours, cut the park and leave earlier: the drive back slows down first.

Airline tours for PAL passengers

These two programmes are for Philippine Airlines (PAL) passengers only, flying PAL international flights in and out. Each needs a layover of at least 8 hours, and PAL’s own rule is that you’re back at the airport 2 hours before your next flight, not the 90 minutes this guide uses elsewhere.

Tour	Length	Layover you need	Price
PAL Transit Tour	4 hours, morning or afternoon, Friday to Sunday	8 hours	US$50, entrance fees included
PAL City Layover	Your time between shuttles	8 hours	Free shuttle; rooms and meals extra
Private Intramuros tours (opens in a new tab)	Varies	The tour’s length plus about 3 hours, if it collects you at the airport	Live price on GetYourGuide

Both PAL programmes ask you to bring hand luggage only, and both involve passing immigration, so you need eTravel and a passport that lets you into the Philippines.

For any other airline, or a weekday, GetYourGuide (opens in a new tab) and Viator (opens in a new tab) list private and small-group tours of Intramuros. Check whether yours collects you from the airport, whether the price is per person or for the group, and what happens if your flight is late.

PAL Transit Tour Philippines

A guided bus tour run with the Department of Tourism, for PAL passengers changing planes in Manila. It suits a first visit on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday when you’d rather someone else handled the road.

1. Book ahead in the LovePH app or on PAL’s website, or walk up on the day. Either way, when you land go first to the Transit Tour desk in the arrivals area of Terminal 1 or Terminal 3, before immigration, to register and get your passenger ID. Tour passengers then use their own immigration counters.
2. The morning tour goes to Intramuros and the National Museum; the afternoon tour goes to the Solaire and Okada resorts.
3. An hour each way by air-conditioned bus, and 2 hours there: an hour with a DOT-accredited guide and an hour on your own.
4. Back at the airport, 2 hours before your next flight.

What’s included. US$50 a person covers the bus, the guide, entrance fees, insurance, bottled water and a poncho.

The rules. PAL sets them, and they’re strict: your layover must be at least 8 hours, with 2 hours before the tour and 2 after it for immigration and the airport; your passport must be from a country whose citizens enter the Philippines visa-free; your next flight must leave from the same terminal you landed at; and checked bags aren’t allowed.

Start times. PAL doesn’t publish the clock times of the morning and afternoon tours or the pickup point. Book ahead in the LovePH app or on PAL’s website, or ask at the desk when you land, and plan on the tour starting no earlier than 2 hours after you land.

PAL City Layover to Newport World Resorts

A free shuttle from Terminal 1 to Newport World Resorts, the hotel and entertainment complex beside Terminal 3, and back. It suits a PAL passenger who wants a hotel room, a meal or a spa between flights, with the airline’s driver dealing with the traffic. The shuttle is free; the room, food and everything else are at your own cost.

1. After landing, go to PAL’s Transfer Desk in Terminal 1, show your boarding pass, and complete eTravel if you haven’t.
2. Clear immigration and be at the shuttle pickup point 15 minutes before your shuttle. Seats are first come, first served.
3. Spend your time at Newport World Resorts.
4. Take a shuttle back to Terminal 1 that leaves Newport at least 2 hours 30 minutes before your flight: the ride takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and PAL wants you at the airport 2 hours before.

Terminal 1 to Newport	Newport to Terminal 1
1:30am, 6:30am, 7:30am, 2:30pm, 3:30pm	10am, 11am, 4pm, 5pm, 7pm, 8pm

PAL’s own pairings: the 6:30am shuttle suits a landing around 5am, the 2:30pm one a landing around 12:20pm and the 1:30am one a landing around 11:50pm. On the way back, the 4pm shuttle suits flights from about 6:30pm and the 8pm one flights from about 10:30pm. The planner pairs each outbound shuttle with one return, but you can take any later one that still leaves 2 hours 30 minutes before your flight.

The rules. Both flights must be PAL international flights (not a non-partner airline), your layover at Terminal 1 must be at least 8 hours, and you need a visa if your passport requires one. Unaccompanied minors can’t use it. Bring hand luggage only: checked bags go through to your final destination. PAL publishes the shuttle times but not the days it runs, and can change them without notice, so check its City Layover page before you fly and confirm your shuttle at the Transfer Desk when you land.

Overnight: rest at the airport, then Fort Santiago

Rest at the airport, then Fort Santiago at opening

For a night landing and a flight from about 12:15pm, if you can enter the Philippines.

1. Rest at The Wings Transit Hotel & Spa on Level 4 of Terminal 3: a capsule costs ₱1,800 for 7 hours 30 minutes, with a shower (seen November 2026). Or, if you’ve cleared immigration, sleep at a Newport World Resorts hotel over the Runway Manila walkway.
2. Leave the airport by coupon taxi at about 6:45am, which is the start of the morning rush: allow about an hour.
3. Be at Fort Santiago for its 8am opening, and give it about 75 minutes.
4. Leave by about 9:15am, back at the airport by about 10:45am.

That gets you to the airport about 10:45am, so your flight should leave after about 12:15pm. Add Casa Manila, which opens at 9am (closed Mondays), and you need a flight after about 1:15pm. At weekends the fort opens at 6am, so you can start two hours earlier.

24 hours

A full day and a night: time to see Intramuros properly, sleep in a real bed and still be back at the airport rested.

• Arriving in the morning: do the Intramuros, National Museum and Rizal Park plan at an easy pace, adding the Museo de Intramuros (Tuesday to Sunday) and the walls at Baluarte de San Diego. Spend the night in a Newport World Resorts hotel over the walkway from Terminal 3, so the morning trip to your flight is a walk, not a drive.
• Arriving in the evening: sleep at The Wings or a Newport hotel, then take the overnight plan above, with the museum after Casa Manila.
• Flying Philippine Airlines on a Friday to Sunday? Combine the Transit Tour’s morning tour with an afternoon of your own, as long as PAL’s 2 hours before your flight still fits.

A layover this long is far inside the 30 days that US, UK, EU, Canadian and Australian passports get without a visa.

Rest at the airport

Only one connection at NAIA has a published airside route, Philippine Airlines to Philippine Airlines in Terminal 1, so most travellers can rest airside only in the lounges past security. The Wings doesn’t say whether it’s before or after immigration, and the hotels over Runway Manila are outside the airport, so you need to have entered the Philippines to use them. At the airport covers rooms, lounges, terminals and Wi-Fi.

The Wings Transit Hotel and Spa, Terminal 3

On Level 4 of Terminal 3, in the concession area, open 24 hours. Rooms are sold in blocks of 7 hours 30 minutes, each with a shower and a hygiene kit (prices seen November 2026):

• Male or female capsule: ₱1,800.
• Twin room or family capsule room: ₱3,600.
• Family room: ₱4,500.

Book on its own website. The shortest block is 7.5 hours, so it’s poor value for a short wait, and best for a night landing. It doesn’t say whether it’s before or after immigration: if you can’t enter the Philippines, ask before you book. Landing at Terminal 1, it’s a road ride away on the free inter-terminal shuttle, after immigration.

Hotels beside Terminal 3 over Runway Manila

Runway Manila is a covered, air-conditioned footbridge from Terminal 3 to Newport World Resorts, where several big hotels stand side by side. You need to have entered the Philippines to use it.

• Belmont Hotel Manila is about a 5-minute walk, and sells short-stay packages for travellers between flights, without published prices.
• Manila Marriott Hotel and Sheraton Manila Hotel are reached over the same walkway. Neither runs an airport shuttle.
• Hotel Okura Manila, Hilton Manila and Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport City are in the same complex.

None of them publishes a day-use rate, so ask the hotel for a day room before you book a night. From Terminal 1, Philippine Airlines passengers can use the free City Layover shuttle; anyone else takes the inter-terminal shuttle to Terminal 3, or a taxi.

PAL Mabuhay Lounge, Terminal 1

Philippine Airlines’ own lounge, on Level 4 of Terminal 1, past security. PAL sells one visit for ₱2,850 (seen November 2026), from 3 hours before your departure, so it suits the end of a layover, not a long wait. Terminal 2’s South Wing lounge, for domestic flights, costs ₱1,750.

Other lounges, Terminals 1 and 3

NAIA lists these lounges past security as open 24 hours:

• Terminal 1: A Lounge (East Concourse), PAGSS Lounge (Level 3, East Concourse) and MARHABA Lounge (Level 3, West Concourse).
• Terminal 3: First Meridian Lounge, Cathay Pacific’s, on Level 4, plus A Lounge and PAGSS Lounge.

None publishes a walk-in price or says whether it has showers, so ask at the desk, or check whether your airline status or lounge membership gets you in.

Tips that make a Manila layover easier

• Register on eTravel at etravel.gov.ph in the 72 hours before you land. It’s free; never pay a site for it.
• Take pesos. Coupon taxis, metered taxis and the ticket desks at Fort Santiago and Casa Manila charge in pesos. Every terminal has ATMs and exchange, most of them open 24 hours.
• Keep your taxi’s dispatch slip, and don’t give it to the driver: it’s how you complain if something goes wrong.
• Leave on time. The drive back is the part you can’t control. If it’s raining or nearly rush hour, leave Intramuros earlier than the 3 hours this guide allows.
• Book the ride back from where you are. Grab works across Manila if your phone has data, which is why an eSIM set up before you fly is worth it.
• Keep valuables out of sight in busy streets and on the walk to your taxi.
• Watch for typhoons. If one is forecast, check PAGASA’s warnings and your airline before you leave the airport.