The intersection at 5th Avenue is dominated by the Fairway Tower, a luxury condominium on the border of Bonifacio district. The road winds past the southern edge of the Manila Golf Course as it heads toward the club's entrance at Harvard Road. The Manila Polo Club entrance is on the southern side of McKinley opposite the golf course on a small side street not far from Harvard. Continuing a further 400 meters (1,300 ft) as the road bends slightly to the northwest, it reaches the San Antonio Plaza of Forbes Park. From Banyan Street just past the Plaza to Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA), McKinley marks the eastern boundary of Dasmariñas Village. The road terminates at EDSA, between a Shell gas station and the McKinley Exchange Corporate Center.

West of EDSA, the road resumes as Ayala Avenue as it heads into the heart of Ayala Center and the Makati CBD. In the Bonifacio Global City east of 5th Avenue, it continues as the McKinley Parkway, which heads east to the Serendra mixed-use development and the SM Aura Premier and Market! Market! shopping malls.

The road originally served as a northwest–southeast route between Fort William McKinley and Pasay, then in the province of Rizal,^[2] known as Pasay–McKinley Road, Pasay–Sakura Heiyei Road, Manila-Makati-Fort McKinley Road, and other various names recognized by the government per section,^[3][4][5] alongside the present-day Antonio Arnaiz Avenue.^[6] It also formed part of Route 57 or Highway 57.^[7][8] The road eastern terminus was the Carabao Gate at the entrance to the Fort, on what is now the intersection with 5th Avenue. The road became disconnected in the 1950s when the Makati Commercial Center complex (now Glorietta complex at Ayala Center) was built over its section between Highway 54 (now EDSA) and Makati Avenue.^[9] The section between Highway 54 and Fort Bonifacio was then realigned to continue Ayala Avenue and became a separate road subsequently named for the U.S. military reservation to which it leads, which was, in turn, named after William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, responsible for the U.S. colonization of the Philippines in 1898.

There are two other streets in the area named McKinley: McKinley Parkway, an extension of McKinley Road in Bonifacio Global City; and Upper McKinley Road, an unrelated road on McKinley Hill further south on Lawton Avenue in Fort Bonifacio.

Bonifacio Transport Corporation provides bus service (called BGC Bus) along McKinley Road to different points within Bonifacio Global City from its terminal at the McKinley Exchange Corporate Center on EDSA beside the Ayala MRT station.

Jeepneys bound for Washington Street in Pio del Pilar and Fort Bonifacio Gate 2 ply this road. These stop at the terminals adjacent to the road's intersection with EDSA, respectively.^[10]

• Holy Trinity Church Manila, an Anglican church in Forbes Park^[11]
• Fairway Tower
• Manila American Cemetery and Memorial
• Manila Polo Club
• McKinley Exchange Corporate Center
• San Antonio Plaza
• San Antonio Plaza Arcade
• Santuario de San Antonio Parish

• Ayala Avenue

•   Media related to McKinley Road at Wikimedia Commons

14°32′50″N 121°2′17″E / 14.54722°N 121.03806°E / 14.54722; 121.03806