Manila & Central Luzon

Before the Spanish arrived, Maynila was a fortified Muslim settlement on the mouth of the Pasig, trading with Brunei and China, with Tondo across the river. Miguel López de Legazpi took it in 1571 and made it the capital of the Spanish Philippines. Intramuros, the walled city, became the seat of church and government, Chinese traders settled in the Parián and later Binondo, and for 250 years the Manila galleons carried silk and porcelain to Acapulco in exchange for Mexican silver. The British held the city briefly from 1762 to 1764.

The provinces around the capital led the revolution against Spain. José Rizal was born in Calamba, Laguna, in 1861; Emilio Aguinaldo declared independence from his house in Kawit, Cavite, on 12 June 1898; and the Malolos Congress in Bulacan drafted the constitution of the First Philippine Republic. Under American rule Manila grew into a planned colonial capital, and the United States established Clark Air Base and greatly expanded the former Spanish naval base at Subic Bay.

The Second World War struck hardest here. American and Filipino troops held out on Bataan and Corregidor until April and May 1942, and the Bataan Death March followed; in February 1945 the Battle of Manila destroyed most of Intramuros and killed around 100,000 civilians. After independence the Central Luzon plains were the base of the Huk peasant rebellion. The 1986 People Power protests filled EDSA, Metro Manila's main avenue. In June 1991 Mount Pinatubo erupted in one of the largest eruptions of the 20th century, burying towns under lahar and hastening the American withdrawal from Clark and, in 1992, from Subic.

The region is the Tagalog heartland — Filipino, the national language, is built on the Tagalog of Manila, Bulacan, Batangas and the southern provinces — but Pampanga speaks Kapampangan and parts of Tarlac and Nueva Ecija speak Ilocano or Pangasinan. Batangueños are known for their emphatic accent and pride, and Kapampangans for taking food more seriously than anyone else in the country. The Aeta, among the Philippines' earliest inhabitants, live on the slopes of Pinatubo.

The festival calendar is dense. Every January the procession of the Black Nazarene draws huge crowds through Quiapo in Manila. In May the town of Lucban in Quezon decorates its houses with rice wafers, fruit and vegetables for the Pahiyas harvest festival, and Obando in Bulacan dances in the streets to pray for children. Holy Week in Pampanga is known for its penitents, some of whom are nailed to crosses in San Fernando, a practice the church discourages. December belongs to San Fernando's giant lanterns, the parol, which turned a village craft into the city's trademark.

Craft towns keep older skills: Paete in Laguna carves wood and papier-mâché, Taal in Batangas makes embroidery and the balisong, a folding knife, and Bulacan is known for its jewellery. Manila itself mixes Chinese-Filipino Binondo, the Catholic crowds of Quiapo and the malls and galleries of Makati and Bonifacio Global City.

Metro Manila, a cluster of sixteen cities and one municipality, has about 14 million people; Quezon City is its largest, with about 3 million, and the City of Manila has around 1.9 million on a small, very dense area. Calabarzon is the most populous region in the country and Metro Manila the second, so commuter towns now spread well into Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.

The economy is the national economy in miniature. Makati and Bonifacio Global City hold banks, head offices and call centres; Cavite, Laguna and Batangas are lined with factory parks making electronics and car parts; Batangas City has refineries and a busy port. Central Luzon grows much of the country's rice, particularly in Nueva Ecija, while Subic and Clark have become freeports and Clark is being developed as a second airport and government centre.

Days start early to beat the traffic, with long commutes by jeepney, bus, train or motorbike, and malls serve as air-conditioned town squares at weekends. Flooding in the rainy season, congestion, housing shortages and informal settlements along the rivers and bay are the recurring issues, alongside land reclamation in Manila Bay and the recovery of towns around Taal after its 2020 eruption.

Pampanga is the region's kitchen. Sisig, chopped pig's face and ears grilled and served sizzling with onion and chilli, was popularised in Angeles; the province also makes sweet cured tocino, longganisa sausages, and buro, fermented rice with fish. Kapampangan tables often feature kare-kare and other stews prepared with extra care, and Pampanga makes turrones de casuy, cashew marzipan wrapped in wafer.

Batangas cooks for cold nights on the ridge: bulalo, a clear beef-shank and bone-marrow soup, is Tagaytay's signature, and lomi is a thick noodle soup eaten at roadside stalls. Kapeng barako, strong coffee from the liberica bean, is grown on the Batangas hills. From Taal Lake comes tawilis, a small freshwater sardine found nowhere else, fried whole.

Laguna produces buko pie, a custard-like pie of young coconut, and espasol, rice-flour rolls, while Lucban in Quezon is known for oregano-flavoured longganisa and pancit habhab, noodles eaten straight from a banana leaf without cutlery. Bulacan makes pastillas de leche, carabao-milk sweets wrapped in paper, and the region's markets sell kakanin rice cakes every morning. In Manila, Binondo's Chinese-Filipino restaurants serve hopia pastries, dumplings and noodles, and the city's food scene runs from carinderias to international restaurants.

Metro Manila's historic core is Intramuros, with Fort Santiago, where Rizal was held before his execution, and the San Agustin Church, one of the Baroque Churches of the Philippines on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Nearby are Rizal Park, the National Museum complex, Binondo's Chinatown, the Quiapo Church of the Black Nazarene, and sunsets over Manila Bay; Makati and Bonifacio Global City are the modern face of the capital. Ferries from Manila cross to Corregidor, where the Malinta Tunnel, ruined barracks and gun batteries tell the story of 1942.

North of the capital, Bataan has the Mount Samat shrine and the Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar heritage resort, and Malolos preserves the Barasoain Church. Subic Bay offers forest trails, beaches and a former naval base; Clark has its old airfield and hot-air balloon festival grounds. From Capas in Tarlac, a 4x4 ride across grey lahar fields and a walk lead to Mount Pinatubo's crater lake. Zambales has the pine-fringed coves of Anawangin and Nagsasa, and Aurora's Baler is the region's surf town.

South of Manila, Tagaytay sits on the ridge of an ancient caldera above Taal Lake and Taal Volcano, whose island remains off-limits during periods of unrest; the town of Taal has ancestral houses and a large basilica. The Batangas dive coast centres on Anilao, where reefs on the Verde Island Passage are known for nudibranchs and macro life, with Nasugbu's beaches to the west. Laguna offers Pagsanjan Falls by boat, the hot springs around Mount Makiling, and Rizal's birthplace in Calamba.