Give two days to the heritage core and one to the water. Walk Calle Real, then the two great churches at Jaro and Molo, and spend a morning on the Museum of Philippine Economic History and the Oton gold death mask at National Museum Western Visayas. Eat batchoy in La Paz market. Cross to Guimaras for mangoes, or ride south to the UNESCO church at Miagao.
Iloilo City is the heritage capital of the Philippines and its first UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. Spanish churches, American-era shopfronts and Beaux-Arts mansions share one flat, walkable grid, and the food that won the designation is sold in a public market for the price of a coffee.
The commercial spine of American-era Iloilo, declared a heritage zone by the National Historical Commission in 2013 and since cleared of its overhead wires. Neoclassical, Beaux-Arts and art deco facades run about 750 metres. Walk it in the late afternoon, when the light reaches the upper storeys.
Built in 1864 for the new diocese of Jaro, and the rare Philippine cathedral whose belfry stands across a public road in the plaza. The image of Our Lady of the Candles sits in a niche on the outside of the facade, reached by its own staircase, and the saints lining the nave inside are all male.
Finished in 1888 in coral stone, Gothic Revival to its twin spires, and the church Ilonggos call the feminist one: sixteen female saints stand on the pillars down the nave and not a single male saint among them. The plaza outside is the right place to follow it with a bowl of pancit molo.
The National Museum's account of how Philippine trade actually worked, staged inside the Ynchausti y Compania building beside City Hall. Sugar, textiles and the galleon economy, told from the province that financed a good deal of it. Admission is free, as at every National Museum site.
The 1911 provincial jail, reopened as a national museum in 2018. Its case of record holds the Oton gold death mask, a declared National Cultural Treasure, alongside elephant and stegodon molars from Panay dated to roughly 790,000 years ago. Free, like the rest of the network.
A bahay na bato of 1865, built for the Avanceña family and still furnished as a house rather than staged as a museum. The guided visit ends with tsokolate beaten from local tablea, and weavers work looms on the ground floor with their cloth for sale beside them.
A 9.29 km linear park running both banks from Carpenter Bridge to Drilon Bridge, and the clearest sign of what the city has done with its waterfront. Ilonggos walk it at dusk. The Mandurriao stretch by Iloilo Business Park is the busiest and the best lit.
The birthplace of La Paz batchoy, and still the honest place to eat it. Four rival stalls trade inside one market hall, and Madge Cafe has been brewing beside them since 1940. Come for breakfast: a bowl, then coffee fifteen paces away, is the Ilonggo morning.
Twenty minutes by pump boat from the City Proper, and the reason people arrive in Iloilo with an appetite. Guimaras mangoes were listed by Guinness in 1995 as the sweetest in the world. Mango farms, the Trappist monastery and small beaches are all within a tricycle ride of the wharf.
The Church of Santo Tomas de Villanueva, finished in 1797 and inscribed by UNESCO in 1993 as one of four Baroque Churches of the Philippines. Its yellow sandstone facade carries Saint Christopher under a coconut palm, a local reading of a European scene. A working parish, not a monument.
Built 1869, and the only church facade in the country carved with a battle scene.
Completed 1845. The revolt against Spain outside Luzon was declared from this convent in 1898.
The Lopez house of 1928, Beaux-Arts with Corinthian columns, and the grandest in Jaro.
The Yusay-Consing house, completed 1926, neoclassical shading into art deco, on Molo Plaza.
Opened 1971 as the first government museum built outside Manila, by the Provincial Capitol.
The publisher’s own house in Molo, holding the first Hiligaynon editions of Rizal’s two novels.
Traces itself to Federico Guillergan Sr., a La Paz market butcher who set up a batchoy stall in 1938.
Open since 1945 and now the chain most visitors meet first, with branches across the city.
The fourth name in the argument, and the one locals send you to when the others have queues.
Opened by the sea at Arevalo in the 1970s, first for native chicken stuffed with lemongrass.
The other half of the Arevalo seafood argument, ordering by weight from the day’s catch.
Trading since 1978. The Queen Siopao packs adobo, bacon, Chinese sausage and egg into one bun.
The Spanish and American core: Calle Real, the plaza, the Capitol and both national museums.
The old Chinese quarter, and the source of pancit molo. Church, plaza and mansion in one block.
The new city: Iloilo Business Park, the convention centre, ILOMOCA and the busiest stretch of Esplanade.
Karst cliffs, a saltwater lagoon and scallops, reached from Bancal port at Carles, about three hours north.
A working farm at San Joaquin with a 456-step pilgrimage stair climbing past biblical tableaux.
Pine ridges an hour and a half inland, cool enough that Ilonggos call it the summer capital.
The city’s Santo Niño festival, on the fourth Sunday. Ati tribes dance to massed drums at judging areas across the centre.
Dinagyang’s Saturday opener, when festival contingents from across Western Visayas parade through the city.
Jaro’s patronal fiesta on 2 February, with the candle procession and a week-long agro-industrial fair.
Third weekend. Outrigger sailboats race the Iloilo Strait off Arevalo in Asia’s oldest traditional craft event.
Holy Week empties the offices and fills the churches. The southern coastal parishes hold the largest processions.
Guimaras marks its mango harvest across two weeks of tastings, competitions and a street parade.
The city marks its 1937 charter on 25 August, the anniversary of Ilonggo cityhood.
Molo and the City Proper, the old Chinese quarters, run lion dances and open houses for the fortnight.
The regional gateway, at Cabatuan about 24 km northwest of the centre. Shuttle vans and jeepneys run into the city; allow an hour when traffic is heavy.
Fast craft cross the Guimaras Strait to Bacolod in about an hour, with more than ten sailings a day from the Iloilo terminal and the last in the late afternoon.
Boats leave Parola Wharf in the City Proper for Jordan Wharf on Guimaras and take about 20 minutes. Tricycles wait on the far side for the mango farms and beaches.
Jeepneys link the seven districts on fixed routes and fares are paid on board. Tricycles handle hops inside a district, and Grab covers the city and the airport run.
Pork and beef bone broth, egg noodles, liver and crushed chicharon, born in La Paz market.
Pork dumplings in chicken broth, named for the district. Despite the name, no noodles.
Kadyos, baboy kag langka: pigeon peas, pork and jackfruit soured with native batwan.
The Ilonggo vegetable soup, okra and squash and greens in a thin shrimp broth.
Chicken simmered in coconut water with young coconut meat, traditionally cooked in bamboo.
Banana slices fried in caramelised sugar and sesame, sold rolled in paper cones.
Twice-baked bread brushed with butter and sugar. The standard box to carry home.
Pounded young rice with grated coconut, pressed into cakes. Pavia makes the known version.
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