I was 5 months old and inside my mommy’s tummy the
first time I experienced Baguio. Well, I really can’t say I experienced
it because I don’t remember anything from it, being a fetus and still
cooking inside my momma. But perhaps, this is a place I’ve been to more
times than anywhere else in the Philippines and I just keep coming back.
For
this trip, I went with 6 other friends from work who were, like me,
bored out of their heads and decided to go out of town on a whim. As
with all of our budget travels, we decided to rent out a transient house
at Yangco Rd (Near Baguio Cathedral, Session Road, SM, 50’s Diner,
& Botanical Garden) for P350/head per night. The house had 3
bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen with complete utensils, parking space,
wifi, Cable TV, Refrigerator, Hot & Cold Shower and tons of extra
pillows.
The
homestay check-in time was really 12nn but the owner was kind enough to
allow early check-in since we arrived at around 7am in the city. Always
negotiate an early check-in when needed because it’s a lot convenient to
leave your things than go around town with it. Just make sure to bring
all your valuables (money, gadgets, etc) with you.
Since we were 7 in the group, we also decided against
commuting all the way to Baguio because 1) we would always need to get 2
cabs to go around and 2) because of the traffic situation in downtown
Baguio, we are not guaranteed to visit all the places in our itinerary
within the limited time we had.
Tessa found a van
rental from baguiotransient.com for P18,500 for the 3 days/2 nights trip
we had initially planned. This included gas, toll, driver meals and
accommodation. We were free to use the van around Baguio for 14 hrs the
first day and 12 hours for days 2 and 3. Our driver, Kuya Nestor, was
very courteous and knew his way around Baguio so we were able to visit
most of the places we wanted to see.
Here is the itinerary we followed.
Day 1
Morning
A – Yangco Road
B – Good Taste – breakfast
C – Baguio City Public Market – bought vegetables/visited wagwagan
D – Mt. Cloud Bookshop
E – Vizco’s – bought strawberry shortcake
F – Ili-Likha Artists Village – got all-meat burgers from BrrrGrr
Afternoon
A – Mother’s Garden – *we skipped this because we were still so full from BrrrGrrr
B – Bell Church Road – it was closed when we got there
C – Balili Barangay Hall
D – La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post
E – Strawberry farm – *skipped, strawberries were not in season
F – Tam-Awan Village
G – Amare La Cucina – *skipped. We found out that the meals were expensive and decided to buy ingredients to cook sopas at home instead.
Morning
A – Yangco Road
B – Good Taste – breakfast
C – Baguio City Public Market – bought vegetables/visited wagwagan
D – Mt. Cloud Bookshop
E – Vizco’s – bought strawberry shortcake
F – Ili-Likha Artists Village – got all-meat burgers from BrrrGrr
Afternoon
A – Mother’s Garden – *we skipped this because we were still so full from BrrrGrrr
B – Bell Church Road – it was closed when we got there
C – Balili Barangay Hall
D – La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post
E – Strawberry farm – *skipped, strawberries were not in season
F – Tam-Awan Village
G – Amare La Cucina – *skipped. We found out that the meals were expensive and decided to buy ingredients to cook sopas at home instead.
Day 2
Morning
A – Yangco Rd, Baguio, Benguet, Philippines
B – Ben Cab Museum
C – Wood Carvers Village
D – Glenn’s 50s Diner
Afternoon
A – Laperal White House
B – Camp John Hay
C – Cemetery Of Negativism
D – Bell Amphitheater
E – Bell House Museum
F – Chocolate de Batirol Garden Restaurant
G – Good Shepherd
H – Mines View Park
I – Ketchup Food Community
J – Baguio Craft Brewery
Day 3
We mostly spent the last
day sorting all the things we bought; vegetables, pasalubong, clothes
from the ukay-ukay. We asked our driver to pick us up from our homestay
at 9am, to allow enough time for us to shower and have breakfast. We
then headed to the Baguio Public Market to buy more vegetables and walis
tambo. We also dropped by Session Road to buy Strawberry Shortcake from
Vizco’s and grab some takeout burgers from BrrrGrrr from Ili-Likha
Artists’ Village. Last stop was Good Taste where some bought more
pasalubong before finally heading home.
Estimated Expenses:
I went over my budget because I spent P900 for clothes
at the Wagwagan (Ukay-Ukay). I got a Mango dress (150), a plaid polo
(150) and a leather jacket from Italy (600).
Here are some photos from the trip. (Cameras used: Z2 phone cam and Olympus E-PL3 with kit lens).
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