Bacolod & Iloilo
The two great sugar towns of the Western Visayas are an easy ferry hop apart and an underrated stop between the Cebu axis and the Manila air bridge. Bacolod, on Negros Occidental, is the home of the MassKara Festival every October — performers in elaborate smiling masks dance through neon-lit streets, a tradition begun in 1980 to lift local spirits during the sugar-price crash. Twenty minutes south, the burned 1900s sugar baron mansion known as The Ruins glows at golden hour. Across the Guimaras Strait, the heritage town of Iloilo holds the UNESCO-listed Miag-ao Church, an earthquake-baroque coral-stone facade carved with a relief of Saint Christopher amid coconut palms. Both cities are famous for food: Bacolod for chicken inasal, Iloilo for La Paz batchoy and pancit Molo.
