Wandering Nomad: Rediscovering the City of Pines:Baguio City

Baguio City, it is widely recognized as the summer capital of the Philippines. Many tourists visit the place during February because it is the month in which the famous and luring Panagbenga Festival.

It takes about six hours to travel the approximately 250 km distance between Manila and Baguio City by way of Kennon Road. It is about fifteen to thirty minutes longer through the Aspiras-Palispis Highway, and could take three more hours if going up from Manila via Naguilian Road—which is the usual route for travelers from the Northern areas of Luzon such as Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and northern La Union province.

For those who will visit Baguio, it is not difficult to look for a transport. The most popular bus transportation to Baguio is Victory Liner. Its cost is around P455. It has terminals in Pasay, Cubao, and Sampaloc, Manila. The buses leave for every hour.

But if you prefer the deluxe coach it will cost around P715.00, but I would prefer the night trip, so that you could still sleep in your journey, and it would take around 6-7 hours trip to reach Baguio.

When we arrived in Baguio, I felt the cold breeze of the place. For me it was relaxing, since we came from a 32 degrees place; Manila. I really thought that there are air conditioned in the terminal, but I was wrong. When we reached the terminal there are men in who will offer accommodation and transport group. However, we already had reserved an accommodation. We availed the transient house, since we stick to our budget.

We reach our accommodation in Scout Barrio via taxi. As you are going to observe most taxis there are SUV/AUV type, because it would be difficult for a sedan type to go to higher places in Benguet province. The flag rate of taxis is 35 pesos. I admire the taxi drivers in Baguio, because they are honest. One contributing factor is they will give you an exact amount of your change.

There are several tourist spots in Baguio City.

Super sweet Strawberry Jam

Fresh Strawberry fruits from Strawberry Farm

Mines View Park

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto

Philippine Military Academy

Camp John Hay

Baguio Museum

Wright Park

The Mansion

Session Road

Strawberry Farm

Ben Cab Museum

Balatoc Mining

We rented a revo taxi to tour us in Baguio, its cost is around P2000 – 2500 pesos, and kuya arnel is very generous and strategic. He knows that small streets in Baguio, in order to avoid the traffic there.

But for us the highlights of our out of town trip there is the Balatoc Mining, in which I will create a new blog for that place, Ben Cab Museum in Asin Road another blog for Ben Cab Museum, and of course the Philippine Military Academy.