A travel & adventure blog by Kara Santos
Sometimes we all just need a quick getaway somewhere refreshing, but accessible. In the busy urban sprawl of Metro Manila, not everyone is lucky enough to have green spaces and gardens in their homes. Dining in garden restaurants can give you that quick fix of the great outdoors. Here are just a few garden restaurants in and near the metro worth hunting down for your next date, or food-trip session with friends.
From festivals to food, the Philippines is amazingly vibrant and colorful. Lakbay Museo aims to give visitors a chance to travel around Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao and experience the best that the Philippines has to offer in under two hours right in Manila. We recently got a sneak peek of the museum inside S Maison at Conrad Manila right beside Mall of Asia (MOA), before its official opening on July 12.
Featuring hourly cultural dances and shows, free samples of native delicacies and even lambanog and fruit wine tasting (for adults), this is kind of like Nayong Pilipino for the Instagram generation.
Continue reading “Lakbay Museo: Explore the Philippines without leaving Manila”The last time I visited Japan, I made it a point to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum in Hokkaido, which I previously thought was the only beer museum in Japan. During a recent family trip, I found out that there’s another smaller museum dedicated to one of Japan’s oldest beer Yebisu, which is easily accessible by train from any point in Tokyo. There’s no admission fee to visit and you can easily just walk in without making reservations, making this a good stop for beer-lovers.
Like other surf towns in the Philippines like La Union and Siargao, the food scene in Baler is growing. During previous visits years ago, it seemed there were only a few usual favorites to eat in town. This 2019 during our #LakbayNorte8 trip, I noticed a lot of cool new restaurants have popped up, with some establishments making an effort to highlight the tropical surf vibe and local flavors and ingredients on their menu.
Baler, the capital town of the province of Aurora, is a haven for surfers and bikers. This laid-back coastal town is known primarily for its waves. Numerous surf shops are situated along Sabang beach catering to novice and the seasoned surfers.
The local craft beer scene in the Philippines is really booming as brewers infuse local flavors and creativity to homegrown beers. You can find now find a growing number of Philippine craft beer breweries when you travel around the country, with cozy brewpubs and craft beer joints in top tourist hubs like Baguio, Sagada, Vigan, La Union, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Palawan, Davao and Iligan.
Continue reading “Craft Beer Bars in Manila”Maginhawa Street in Quezon City is one of the top go-to places for a food trip around the metro. However, the turnover rate in the area has become really high lately. I’m having a hard time keeping this list updated every time a new restaurant opens or closes in the area. To make my life easier, I’ve decided to just narrow down this list to 10 places to eat in the Maginhawa area (which are still open as of January 2019).
Continue reading “Top 10 Places to Eat in Maginhawa (2019)”Culion Island in Palawan is not your typical mainstream tourist destination. Locals say that most people have either never heard of Culion, or know it only for once being the world’s largest leper colony. In fact, the island was isolated for over a century. The Culion leper colony was established in 1906, and patients from different parts of the Philippines and hospital staff were brought to Culion. But in 2006, the island was declared leprosy-free by the World Health Organization.
For international travelers, Auckland, the largest city on North Island is the main entry and exit point to New Zealand. Traveling from Manila, Auckland was our first and last stop during our family trip / backpacking tour in 2016. This diverse and multicultural city is home to the largest Polynesian population in the world. It’s just one of the amazing places in the sovereign island country of New Zealand located in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean, which I consider one of the best places I have ever visited in the world
INGREDIENTS: ginger, sakurab (white scallions) and sili (native chili)
PREPARATION: Chop one part scallions, one part ginger and one part chili peppers into small pieces. Crush ingredients finely and pound everything together with a mortar and pestle. As soon as it is blended, the palapa can already be eaten in its raw form.
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