Star City: The perfect family escape

Star City is the longest-running, free-standing amusement park within the metropolis.

Unlike the itinerant "country fairs" that pop up for a week or two during a district or town "fiesta" and the flea markets with rides that come alive only during the Christmas season, Star City has become a year-round, weekday and weekend affair.

Star City sprawls, in typically unplanned Filipino fashion, over 35,000 square meters, about one-fourth the size of HK Disneyland and with as many rides (21 in all).

In addition, there is the obligatory House of Horrors ("Gabi ng Lagim" or "Night of Evil" in Pilipino) and five other arcades, five more game stations (including a set of stationary rides for the little ones), and two theaters. — DBL