Venice Grand Canal Date: The Gondola Ride, Then BGC

A Venice Grand Canal date is one outdoor set piece, the gondola ride, at ₱500 a person in 2023 and 2024, followed by a ride of about ten minutes to BGC for dinner. The canal is in McKinley Hill, which is not walkable from the BGC core, so plan the night as two places joined by a ride and do the gondola first.

What the gondola ride is

The ride takes you along a canal with a Venetian backdrop. It is outdoors, and it was ₱500 a person at 2023 and 2024 prices. For two, that is about ₱1,000, and a little more now, so bring extra.

Check the ride's own page for opening hours before you go, and arrive early enough that a closed ride does not end the date.

Why it is a ride, not a walk

People often file the canal under BGC. It is in McKinley Hill, about ten minutes from the BGC core, and not walkable.

That has two consequences.

• Two fares. One to get to the canal in the first place, and one from the canal to dinner. Leave room for both.
• One direction. Do McKinley Hill, then BGC. Going back and forth spends the evening in a car.

The plan in order

1. Late afternoon: the gondola. Arrive while it is still light. The ride is the weather-dependent stop, so it goes first. If it is rained off, the rest of the night still stands.

2. The ride to BGC. About ten minutes. Book the ride while walking out, not after.

3. Dinner in BGC. Three restaurants suit two people, all indoors and all ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head:

• Em Hà Nội, known for phở gà and nem rán, with a Michelin Bib Gourmand.
• Los Tacos MNL, tacos made with Oaxacan technique, also a Bib Gourmand.
• Hikiniku to Come, charcoal-grilled hamburg steak served three ways.

Choose before leaving the canal and send the driver the map pin from the restaurant's link, not an area name.

4. If it's going well: one drink. Bank Bar is a speakeasy entered from behind a convenience store on 26th St, open until 1am. After a gondola, a second small surprise suits the mood.

The budget for two

• Gondola: about ₱1,000 at 2023 and 2024 prices.
• Rides: add both legs.
• Dinner: ₱1,000 to ₱3,000.
• Optional drink: ₱1,000 to ₱3,000.

Without the bar, that is ₱2,000 to ₱4,000 plus transport.

The rain fallback

The gondola is outdoors, so rain takes away the reason for going to McKinley Hill. Do not go and hope. Move the whole date to BGC instead.

By day, The Mind Museum is indoors and open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 6pm. By night, The Back Room is a 1920s-style gin speakeasy inside Shangri-La The Fort, a hotel with eight food and drink outlets under one roof. Either one keeps the date dry, and the gondola waits for a clear evening.

Who this date suits

It suits a second or third date better than a first. A gondola is a commitment to sit side by side in a boat for the length of the ride, and the trip between the two halves of the night needs two people who are already comfortable in a car together. For a first meeting, the shorter shape in first date ideas in Manila is kinder.

It also suits anyone who likes a photograph with the plan. The Venetian backdrop is the point of the place, and the profile for that kind of night, somewhere worth the outfit, is the Main Character.

For a date that stays on foot inside BGC, see the dinner, mural walk and speakeasy plan in BGC date ideas. For everything open in the evening, grouped by address, see things to do in BGC after 6pm.

The planner covers Cubao now and BGC is next. See which areas are live.

The planner covers Cubao now. BGC is next, and this post is written from the same kind of checked list.