A moment in Manila can take away your breath. A day in a museum could give you a breath of inspiration for the rest of the year. To help you find creative stimulation, we have listed the top three museums in Manila.

Switch off your smartphone, and let these museums take you on time travel to local history, culture, and national identity of the Filipinos. Museums, too, have responded to the demand of the modern traveller, and in Manila, you can learn about the Philippine heritage through interactive museum apps and discounted all-day passes. And many of the museums are less than 15 minutes away from Red Planet Manila Bay.

San Agustin Museum

Sitting in Manila’s bustling walled town of Intramuros and surrounded by historic buildings, the San Agustin Museum is next to its namesake church. But it’s also entered through the monastery doors. Although the church dates back to the 16th-century, the abbey was converted into a museum only in 1973. And when you walk through the cold stone halls of the church, you’ll see remarkable pieces of art and artefacts from the Spanish colonial period. Not to mention the crypt where many notable Filipinos and Spaniards are buried. Sadly, in all but the hallways, the museum bans all sort of photography.

Adults pay 100 pesos for entrance, and students get in for half the price.

National Museum

Situated close to the urban Rizal Park and its beautiful gardens, National Museum is the haven for Philippine natural and cultural heritage. The early 20th-century museum now has mostly contemporary pieces and is also the resting place for older art that has not been on display since the 1990s. For the same reason some people go to the Louvre for Mona Lisa, you could come here to see the Spoliarium, Juan Luna’s gold-winning entry to Madrid’s Exposicion Nacional de Bellas Artes in 1884. The building is like a product of careful renovation and retrofitting, and we like it, especially the free entrance.

Casa Manila Photographer: xiquinhosilva

Casa Manila

On the other side of San Agustin Church, Casa Manila is a house-museum that shines a light on the Spanish colonial period in Manila. If you like art with a side of architecture, you would feel at home in this tasteful imitation of a mid-19th-century house on Calle Jaboneros. It was built in the 1980s, but the art takes you back all the way to the Spanish period. With its richly decorated lounges, lavish bedrooms, and opulent kitchens and bathrooms, it’s unsurprising that only Spaniards and Filipino ilustrados (educated class) could have afforded it. Houses like this became a status symbol in the Spanish period for families in the educated and elite class.

You’ll get in by coughing up 100 pesos as a regular adult and 60 pesos as a student.

That’s why Manila, with its rich cultural history (and cheap museum admissions), is a perfect destination for museum hopping.