Bacolod

Sugar baron Mariano Lacson built it for the wife who died before him; during the war it was set alight to deny it to the Japanese, leaving the shell. Guides credit egg white in the concrete for the marble sheen, and many come at dusk to see it lit.

Walls of coral stone quarried on Guimaras, raised in the 19th century, with a bell tower either side of the front. Masses are frequent, so look inside quietly in the gaps; to frame both towers, stand by the bandstand in the plaza opposite.

A long pool stretched before the neoclassical provincial capitol, with a statue of a figure leading a carabao at both ends, the two facing each other. Come evening its edges fill with joggers and walkers.

Housed in the old provincial capitol building, it runs from the island's indigenous artefacts through to the story of the cane plantations and the sugar trade. Sharing grounds with the Capitol Lagoon, the two pair naturally, with a break at the courtyard cafe.

The Gaston family house of 1897 in Silay, now a museum of how the sugar elite lived, its upstairs floors and furniture left as they were. A jeepney north from Bacolod reaches it, and several more heritage houses nearby make a walk.

A resort in Murcia on the flanks of Kanlaon volcano, where sulphur pools and a chain of seven waterfalls are strung along forest paths. The trail steepens towards the upper falls, and at dusk swarms of fruit bats lift out of the trees all at once.

A banana-curved island of white sand off Cadiz, the whole of it run by a single resort. It means about two hours' drive north from Bacolod to Cadiz and then a boat across, with an entrance fee paid on arrival.

The square opposite San Sebastian Cathedral, with a bandstand at its centre. During the October MassKara festival the stages and street-dance parades converge around it, and on ordinary evenings it belongs to food carts and people out for the breeze.

An island off Cauayan bought by a conservation group and made into a reserve; staying or just visiting, entry needs booking. The lagoons and reefs are toured with a guide, and the drive south from Bacolod takes more than three hours.

Designed by an Italian architect, it carries a large dome on its roof, a rare form among Philippine churches. Balay Negrense is a short stroll away, so Silay's heritage streets and the church fit into one day.

Bacolod's October festival, when troupes in smiling masks dance down the avenues to Latin beats. It began in 1980, a year of collapsing sugar prices and a ferry disaster, to make the city smile. Evenings bring stages and stalls to Lacson Street.

A pink timber house built in Silay in 1908, known simply as the Pink House. The furniture, dolls and old photos of Silay left by its sugar-planter family remain in place. It pairs well with Balay Negrense on the same day.

An old family house in Silay, the first home in the city to open to the public as a museum. Its rooms are crowded with modern Filipino paintings and old documents the family collected. It is privately owned, so it is safest to arrange a visit time in advance.

A chapel inside the Victorias sugar mill compound, famous for the Angry Christ, a wide-eyed Christ painted across the whole wall behind the altar by Alfonso Ossorio in 1950. It is a drive north of Bacolod.