I’ve been to Baguio a total of three times. First when I was too young to remember most of it. Second when my officemates and I ended up on a tour group with inconsiderate other people that just annoyed us. And third, just last month which is just hands-down my favorite visit out of the three I did so far. I ended up with my extended family this time around, which is becoming a yearly thing and I am not complaining at all.
Day 1, 6:00 AM
We arrived at Baguio when it was still dark out. As soon as the van doors opened, I realized that I was not dressed for this weather. It was 13 degrees Celsius, I was wearing pants and a shirt along with a thin, filmsy jacket. It felt lower than ten degrees and we spent the first thirty minutes layering up. I felt like I was in Korea/Japan all over again. This weather is pretty sweet if you’re wearing the right clothes for it. I ended up wearing my hoodie over my shirt. Ahhh, warmth.
Our first stop for the day was at Baguio Cathedral. And we were right on time, as mass just started! Fun fact: yes, all of us, try to travel yearly. Yes, we are this many on one side of the family. No, we aren’t complete yet lol.
9:00 AM
After a quick breakfast, we went on to Wright Park. We then borrowed some traditional attire (for PHP20 each) then went on to have some fun photos together:
We also didn’t miss trying out our first strawberry taho of the trip!
11:30 AM
After a quick stop at The Mansion (which wasn’t much to talk about, imo), we headed straight to Mines View. It. Was. Crowded. I didn’t enjoy it that much just simply by the amount of people there were. You were bound to literally bump into people. I did love the plants they were selling at a very affordable cost.
We just ended up roaming the shops near Mines View for pasalubong and walis! Then we had lunch at Grandma’s Kitchen which was good and affordable.
04:00 PM
We debated whether we were gonna check-in at the apartment already… but majority wins and we ended up at Diplomat Hotel. It was a quick stop as kids were getting cranky and adults want to rest, but as fans of horror movies, we had to make a visit here. There wasn’t anything scary about our visit. The whole place was crowded. What was interesting was that they installed art pieces in most of the rooms on the upper floor.
5:30 PM
We finally checked-in! This place is the best transient house I’ve been locally. I, unfortunately, can’t remember the name of the place but I’ll be sure to link it up here once I asked around. I just washed up and zzz-ed before we left for the night.
7:30 PM
Our last stop of the day is at Burnham Park. I’ve only been here during mornings before so it was different to see it under the nightlight. We rented out some bikes for half an hour and just past the time like that. Fun fact: I don’t know how to ride a bike or drive so this was scary to me!
After the biking activity, we then searched for dinner. Good Taste is a common, popular choice for a big serving of food with an affordable price. It’s just walking distance from Burnham Park, but as expected, the line is crazy long. We walked a bit further and then dined in at a sizzling steak place. The price was good and the meat was big. I loved the gravy most of all, though.
After dinner, our van headed back to the transient house while the others stayed for the night market. #titamode. We did stayed up until the other van when home then played cards before calling it a day.
Day 2, 8:00 AM
By 8:00 AM, most of us were already dressed and ready for the day. We did ask the caretakers of the house to provide breakfast for us. For PHP90 each, we got a hotdog, 2 longganisa (YUM), egg, and sinangag. We were full before we had to check-out of the transient house. We loaded up all our bags back to the van then off we go.
10:30 AM
Our first stop for our second and last day of our Baguio trip was the Tamaw-an village. This is also just near our transient house so the first ride only took about ten minutes. There’s a small fee required to be paid before entering Tamaw-an village but I think it’s worth it. Here you can see a café, a small museum, seven Ifugao huts, and two Kalinga houses.
12:00 PM
Our next stop was the highly anticipated one: the Strawberry Farm. Here you can pick your own strawberries for almost the same price you’ll be paying for them. Sweet, right? The thing is though, the place was hit by a storm a few months back so there’s not as many strawberries ready for picking. ☹
I did saw some lettuce picking signs around the farm so I was happy enough to do that. For only PHP50, you can have three lettuce for your picking! We had enough for a week worth’s of salad after our Baguio trip haha.
We did make sure to buy some strawberry jam and strawberry fruits after our lettuce picking activity. 😊
2:30 PM
Thisis my first visit to Camp John Hay, and I loved it. It also reminded me of Nami Island, too. There was an abundance of greens and picnic tables. I would have loved to spend a few more hours here just for a picnic, but we needed to headed back to Manila pretty soon. Here are some snaps we took:
4:00 PM
This ends our Baguio trip. We just had a quick lunch in a restaurant on the way back then off to a few hours long drive ahead. I fall asleep pretty easily in drives so I literally just slept the hours away. This has been a great weekend trip. I’d love to visit Baguio next year again, when the weather’s just as cold.
Our main driver and tour guide for this trip is Kuya Eric. He’s been driving us around local places since 2016 so I highly recommend him. Feel free to send him a message in Facebook if you’d like to avail of his services.
When and where’s your last trip with your family?
That’s it for now.
Ciao.
9 Comments
RoseBonniee ~
February 9, 2019 at 4:28 amI seriously love this kind of posts! Lovely photos◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜
Blog de la Licorne
Richel V.
February 9, 2019 at 11:57 pmThank you. 🙂
Audrey | Brunch at Audrey's
February 9, 2019 at 8:25 amWow it’s so amazing that so many of your extended family travel together annually! I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen my extended family besides my grandparents, who I don’t see all that often either. // That sunrise is beautiful and the smallest kid wearing the large red hoodie is so cute hahha. Gotta do what you gotta do to stay warm 😛 // I want to try all of the food!! -Audrey | Brunch at Audrey’s
Richel V.
February 14, 2019 at 1:11 amWe try to every summer and Christmas break hahaha! // That’s my youngest cousin – such a cutie! <3
Leta
February 12, 2019 at 1:51 amWow, such a big bunch! I don’t have such a big family to travel with but family travels are so fun. Perfect bonding time! x
Richel V.
February 12, 2019 at 7:40 pmThere’s definitely a lot of stories to look back to when we travel as a big group! 🙂
Claudine
February 15, 2019 at 12:45 pmLooks like Baguio has changed so much since the last time I’ve been there! The whole vibe looks different based on your photos 🙂
Strawberry picking is my favorite activity in Baguio, along with horseback riding! <3 It’s so cool that there’s also a lettuce picking spot! I used to buy lots of veggies for my pet guinea pigs, so that lettuce pickimg place looks like a place they’d consider paradise <3
Richel V.
February 15, 2019 at 8:45 pmI’m definitely trying out strawberry picking when we go back! I love buying (aka hoarding) veggies at Baguio. Not only are they affordable, they’re also really fresh. Even my dog eats some veggie haha.
Jane
October 23, 2019 at 3:19 amHonestly i haven’t visited Baguio yet. I always heard about this place. I hope seeing chance to visit after taking our tours in Bohol. Thanks for your write ups Richel.