The Manila Starter Kit.

Manila is not a place. The district is.

This is the single most useful thing in this guide. Global indices rate "Manila" near the bottom of the world for safety and quality of life. Numbeo scores it around 35 for safety. It scores Makati around 62.

Those are four kilometres apart. Nobody moves to Manila. They move to Makati, BGC, Rockwell or Ortigas, and almost every frightening statistic you have read is about somewhere you were never going to be.

It cuts the other way too. Some districts genuinely are rough, and the same averaging that unfairly damns Makati unfairly flatters the places you should avoid at night. Ask about the district, never the city.

Three things, and one of them is a trap.

• Most nationalities get 30 days visa free, extendable in country for up to 36 months total. Check your own passport, because the free period varies.
• There is no digital nomad visa. Executive Order 86 created one in April 2025 and as of this writing it is still not live on the DFA portal. Anyone selling you one is selling you something else.
• Book your first three nights in Makati or BGC, even if you plan to move. Arriving somewhere walkable with reliable wifi makes the first 48 hours survivable.
• Bring an onward or return ticket. Airlines check it at the gate, not immigration, and being turned away in your departure city is a genuinely bad day.

The trap: people plan a month and book 30 days of accommodation, not realising the visa is 30 days and the extension takes a trip to a government office. Plan the extension before you need it.

Your phone is the whole problem.

Almost everything that goes wrong in someone's first week in Manila traces back to not having a working local phone number. Not data. A number.

• Travel eSIMs are data only. No phone number, so no SMS codes. Grab, Maya, GCash, food delivery and every bank here verify by text. No number, none of it works.
• A native Globe or Smart eSIM gives you a real +63 number with no plastic and no carrier queue. Registration under the SIM Registration Act needs your passport, proof of local address (a hotel booking is fine) and a return ticket.
• A tourist SIM stops working after about 30 days unless you show an approved visa extension. A dead SIM locks your wallet, because the login codes go to a number that no longer exists. This is the single most common way month two goes wrong.
• Use Maya, not GCash. GCash KYC is built around Philippine government IDs, which for a foreigner means an ACR I-Card you will not have. Maya verifies on a passport.

Cards get declined. Bring a plan B.

• Tell your bank you are coming. Philippine merchant codes trip fraud filters constantly.
• ATMs charge a local fee on top of your bank's fee. Withdraw larger amounts less often.
• Carry cash. Plenty of good places are cash only, including most of the best food.
• You cannot open a bank account as a tourist. Most banks want an ACR I-Card, which only exists once you pass 59 days on an extension. Plan around it rather than being surprised by it.

Traffic is not a complaint. It is a planning constraint.

Metro Manila loses around 143 hours per driver per year to congestion and is among the worst in Asia. Do not think in kilometres. Think in hours, and check the hour.

• The same trip can take 20 minutes or 90, depending entirely on when you leave.
• Grab is the default and surges hard in rain and at rush hour.
• Live near where you will actually be. The single biggest quality-of-life decision here is not the apartment, it is the commute.
• Friday evening is the worst time to move anywhere. Plan around it and the city gets noticeably easier.

And when not to.

• Typhoon season runs roughly June to November, peaking August to October. Flooding closes roads and occasionally offices.
• December to February is the best weather and also the busiest and most expensive, because the diaspora comes home.
• March to May is very hot. Not unbearable indoors, genuinely draining outdoors.
• Holy Week empties the city. Lovely if you are here, chaotic if you are travelling.

What we would tell a friend.

• English is everywhere and it is the single biggest practical advantage this city has over Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh.
• It costs about what Bangkok costs and gets a fraction of the visitors. Cost is not why you come here.
• The air is not good. If you have asthma, factor it in.
• It is not a walkable city outside a few districts. If walking everywhere is how you like to live, be honest with yourself about that.
• People are extraordinarily kind. That is not a brochure line, it is the thing everyone says afterwards and it is true.

None of this needs us.