From the air-conditioned tiangges near hotels in San Juan, Manila to the crowded streets of Divisoria — your quest for the ultimate bargain will take you to a lot of places in Metro Manila. Take a pick from these popular shopping and bargaining grounds or try to visit them all for an outstanding, if a bit exhausting, shopping experience.
1. Divisoria
Heaven for bargain-hunters and shoppers on a tight budget, hell for demophobes — that's Divisoria. This colorful and crowded market district somewhere between Binondo, Tondo, and San Nicolas offers a wide assortments of low-priced goods spread across various shopping malls and side streets. Cooking ingredients, dry goods, pirated DVDs, everything under the sun can be found in this area, and most of them come with a cheap price tag. The site was founded back in the Spanish period when non-Christianized Chinese, who were forbidden from operating in Intramuros, settled in a new commercial community which was eventually called Divisoria.
2. Greenbelt
Internationally renowned brands certainly have a home at Greenbelt but that's just a fraction of the shops you'll see when you go to this shopping mall in Makati City. Aside from well-known names, the 5-section complex also has family restaurants, fast food chain outlets, clothing stalls, boutiques, and a lush garden with an aviary and chapel in its midst. Most shops selling electronic products and gadget accessories are in Greenbelt 1, Greenbelt 2 has fine dining restaurants, Greenbelt 3 and 4 house coffee shops and high-end retails stores, and finally, Greenbelt 5 proudly displays the works of Filipino designers. Aside from shopping, eating, and simply hanging out in the garden, you can also witness the different shows that take place in the mall's free spaces.
3. Greenhills
Greenhills is a bit like an indoor, air-conditioned, and well-organized flea market. It's far from the chaos of Divisoria, yet the goods are priced much, much cheaper than those found in Greenbelt. The shopping center has over 2,000 stalls devoted to clothes, electronics, toys, jewelries, among many others. Arcades and activity centers, trendy restaurants and bars, antique merchandise, boutiques and salons, as wells as a Catholic church and a Muslim prayer room can also be found in the mall premises.
Should you fail to finish scouring these areas before the setting of the sun or before you run out of energy, you can choose to stay at the posh hotel accommodations in San Juan, Manila. There, you can take a nice break to prepare for the second day of your shopping adventure.
