Ultimate Philippines Data Sheet: Manila, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, GenSan, Butuan
04-06-2013, 11:06 PM
Iloilo City: With a population of about 420,000, I figured it would be worthwhile to check out, a medium sized city, just the size that I like and I'm happy to report that I had a pretty good time there and recommend you guys to check it out as well.
Getting there: There's an international airport there with lots of daily flights from both Manila and Cebu, but be warned that its quite far from the city centre. I went early morning on a Saturday (little traffic) and arrived in about 30 minutes but if its during rush hour, the taxi said it would have been at least an hour. Myself I took a Ceres bus from the port on Panay Island (where you land after the 15 minute ferry ride from Boracay), the ride was about 6 hours to the bus terminal in Iloilo City.
Where to stay: Due to a lack of planning (which happens often), when I arrived at the bus terminal, I took a taxi downtown and stayed at the Harbor Hotel, it was fairly cheap at 900P and the room was decent but like most Filipino cities, the downtown area is a rundown dump. It was close to Iloilo University, city hall and a couple of shitty malls and strip clubs but I walked around downtown during the day and didn't see many good looking women and most of the people on the streets seemed working class or down right poor. I highly recommend staying over by SM Mall which is about a 10 minute taxi ride from downtown and where all of the action that guys like us would be interested in anyway.
So, there's 3 areas where you want to go during the day and night and they are conveniently located very close together and they are: SM Mall, Plazuela de Iloilo and Smallville. All of these places were built in the past few years, they are very artificial, kind of like the big box stores and fake venues you'll find in any North American city, but this is where the action is and where you'll find the best restaurants, cafes, clubs and women.
SM Mall: The same as all of the SM Malls in the Philippines, lots of stores, restaurants and a cinema and full of people who aren't buying anything, just walking around and eating shitty food. Probably the best day game location in the city.
Plazuela de Iloilo: Located right next door to SM Mall, this is an out door shopping plaza that has higher end stores than the mall, boutiques and nicer restaurants and cafes. The design and architecture is quite appealing, Spanish style, and there's also a big court yard in the back where they have a market during the day and often host concerts at night. Plazuela is also a solid day game spot, although I didn't check it out in the evening, I was told it gets packed there, especially on the weekends. Here's a video I found to give you guys an idea of what this place is like:
Smallville: The best night game area in the city, as far as I could tell and this is where I pulled. Its about 500M from SM Mall, you can walk there or take a quick taxi. Its basically a couple of square blocks full of bars, cafes, restaurants and the best night clubs in the city. I hit up Smallville twice and went to a club called ICE, it was packed both nights (Wednesday and Thursday). There's another club called the Super Club which seemed more upscale, but I checked it out and there weren't many people inside so I just went to Ice instead. Another spot I went to was Pirates, its a restaurant with live bands every night and the food is pretty good there. I hit this place up for some Mexican food and drinks both nights before I went to Ice.
I'd estimate that there's about ten drinking venues (clubs, bars, KTV) in Smallville and another ten or so nice restaurants (Japanese, Italian, Mexican, etc). Its definitely an evening spot though as I went there in the early afternoon and it was dead, most places (except a couple of cafes) were closed. If you go to Iloilo, Definitely hit up Smallville:
I'll report more info on Iloilo city later as the notch I got there was one of the weirdest stories in all my years of sexual activity haha, the things we do sometimes to get the notch!
Getting there: There's an international airport there with lots of daily flights from both Manila and Cebu, but be warned that its quite far from the city centre. I went early morning on a Saturday (little traffic) and arrived in about 30 minutes but if its during rush hour, the taxi said it would have been at least an hour. Myself I took a Ceres bus from the port on Panay Island (where you land after the 15 minute ferry ride from Boracay), the ride was about 6 hours to the bus terminal in Iloilo City.
Where to stay: Due to a lack of planning (which happens often), when I arrived at the bus terminal, I took a taxi downtown and stayed at the Harbor Hotel, it was fairly cheap at 900P and the room was decent but like most Filipino cities, the downtown area is a rundown dump. It was close to Iloilo University, city hall and a couple of shitty malls and strip clubs but I walked around downtown during the day and didn't see many good looking women and most of the people on the streets seemed working class or down right poor. I highly recommend staying over by SM Mall which is about a 10 minute taxi ride from downtown and where all of the action that guys like us would be interested in anyway.
So, there's 3 areas where you want to go during the day and night and they are conveniently located very close together and they are: SM Mall, Plazuela de Iloilo and Smallville. All of these places were built in the past few years, they are very artificial, kind of like the big box stores and fake venues you'll find in any North American city, but this is where the action is and where you'll find the best restaurants, cafes, clubs and women.
SM Mall: The same as all of the SM Malls in the Philippines, lots of stores, restaurants and a cinema and full of people who aren't buying anything, just walking around and eating shitty food. Probably the best day game location in the city.
Plazuela de Iloilo: Located right next door to SM Mall, this is an out door shopping plaza that has higher end stores than the mall, boutiques and nicer restaurants and cafes. The design and architecture is quite appealing, Spanish style, and there's also a big court yard in the back where they have a market during the day and often host concerts at night. Plazuela is also a solid day game spot, although I didn't check it out in the evening, I was told it gets packed there, especially on the weekends. Here's a video I found to give you guys an idea of what this place is like:
Smallville: The best night game area in the city, as far as I could tell and this is where I pulled. Its about 500M from SM Mall, you can walk there or take a quick taxi. Its basically a couple of square blocks full of bars, cafes, restaurants and the best night clubs in the city. I hit up Smallville twice and went to a club called ICE, it was packed both nights (Wednesday and Thursday). There's another club called the Super Club which seemed more upscale, but I checked it out and there weren't many people inside so I just went to Ice instead. Another spot I went to was Pirates, its a restaurant with live bands every night and the food is pretty good there. I hit this place up for some Mexican food and drinks both nights before I went to Ice.
I'd estimate that there's about ten drinking venues (clubs, bars, KTV) in Smallville and another ten or so nice restaurants (Japanese, Italian, Mexican, etc). Its definitely an evening spot though as I went there in the early afternoon and it was dead, most places (except a couple of cafes) were closed. If you go to Iloilo, Definitely hit up Smallville:
I'll report more info on Iloilo city later as the notch I got there was one of the weirdest stories in all my years of sexual activity haha, the things we do sometimes to get the notch!