For this location we stayed in an Air BNB which can be had between £40-50 a night, the latter ones being direct overviews of the 'canal' of the mall. It scored me immense romance points and is recommended. This review though is not about the air bnb which you can easily find and see pictures of yourself but the mall itself which is a very well maintained and beautiful mall in a clean thriving area of Manila. Like the name suggests the mall is an imitation of the Venice canals, complete with pedalo swans and manned gondolas that will take you up and down the built-in canal for a fee. This is quite a popular attraction though so expect queues or sharing a gondola with others unless you want to offer a few more pesos for a personal trip; we didn't take the gondola ride so I can't comment on prices. The canal is regularly cleaned and makes a great backdrop for a romantic picture, you can hang a lock from the bridge (if you are into that sort of thing). It's not the biggest of malls and the shops are mainly novelty souvenirs/trinkets and restaurants but it is a good trip if you want to impress on a budget. You are spoiled for choice when it comes to restaurants at this mall, many canal-side restaurants offering all manners of cuisine, you can see a full list of stores and restaurants here: https://megaworld-lifestylemalls.com/malls/venice-grand-canal-mall#
Personally in all honesty I wasn't particularly impressed by VGC, I thought it was a quite tacky american casino style mall although I don't believe it actually has a casino in it. My kids enjoyed it but they haven't really experienced the real world yet, it was my daughter Janna who was keen to visit this place but we moved on to BGC later, Bonifacio Global City in Taguig and we enjoyed that walk and wander more. This is VGC in December 2022, I've not got pitcures of us on the water as they are on another computer (taken on my good cameras) but this is one of my phone shots while waiting to get on the boat, the restaurants are no better or worse than any other mall in Metro Manila in my opinion. My eldest daughter Gemma who has really been to the real Venice was actually impressed by this picture which I found odd she has sent me many really beautiful pictures from the real city.
I agree it probably doesn't compare with the real Venice and could probably compare with the Vegas style casino gimmicks, however I felt it was a nice looking mall with a unique quirk with the canal feature but there are definitely better malls if shopping is your goal, I feel it will certainly score you romance points if you take your non-local filipina there though hence the review.
Yeah it's nice to walk around, we spent some money, I'm just getting a bit jaded with all the malls I took my kids and their mother in December 2022 they all liked it and it is different from the vast majority of other malls in Metro Manila that is certainly true, I was just expressing my personal opinion.
