Baguio City - Do It Yourself Tour

Baguio City - Known as the City of Pines and the Summer Capital of the Philippines, Baguio City is situated amidst the mountainous region of Cordillera, approximately 5200 feet above sea level. The city is blessed with cool climate and most part of the city is built on uneven, hilly terrain. On average, Baguio is at least eight degrees cooler than any place in the lowlands.

Because of its inviting temperature and culture, together with my friends, we visited Baguio City last August 2013. Our trip started from Olongapo City (click here for Olongapo-Subic trip) since we took a stop over at Olongapo on our first day of trip.


Olongapo City to Baguio

From Olongapo City, ride a Victory Liner bus bound for Baguio City from Victory Liner Terminal. If you are facing the Ulo ng Apo Monument, Victory Liner Terminal is on its left.

Ulo ng Apo Monument

Travel time from Olongapo to Baguio City is approximately 6-7 hours via Marcos Highway and Pugo-Rosario Road and expect couple of stopovers for 15 minutes each. Fare is around 400+ (sorry, it's right off the top of my head). Kennon Road is closed during that time due to repairs of DPWH Cordillera. So if you wish to visit the Gigantic Lion's Head located on Kennon road, you need to have your own vehicle or rent a cab from the city.


Baguio Day 1

We left Ologapo City around 6:00am in the morning and we arrived at Baguio at 1:00pm. Famished from the long bus ride, we headed to Burnham Park and found Solibao Restaurant inside the Melvin Jones Football Ground. Solibao is a Filipino restaurant. Solibao means drums used by the Igorot in the Cordilleras. I personally love the Bicol Express and the Puto Bumbong.

Solibao Restaurant

Melvin Jones Football Ground

Right after our lunch, we hailed a cab within the city to take us to Mines View Park Hotel. The hotel is located uphill and near Mines View Park. Since there are 5 of us, we had the Family Room with 3 double beds. The room has no air condition. Baguio's temperature is sufficient.

Mines View Park Hotel Entrance

One of the 3 beds

After checking in and a little rest, we proceeded to Botanical Garden. The garden features a beautiful landscape where you can find numerous plants and trees.

 

Inside Botanical Garden

Variety of plants found inside botanical garden

Right across the Botanical Garden is the Wright Park. The park is named after the architect, Governor Luke E. Wright. The park offers a range of activities such as picnic and the popular horse back riding. You can also buy several things on this park like plants, native handicrafts, souvenir items and strawberry taho.

Parked pink pony. Its name is Tanya.

The strawberry taho is worth 20php, pricey than the regular taho but its really yummy. :)

As we head to the rectangular man made lake (right above the area where there are parked ponies), 2 ladies approached us and asked if we want to dressed like an Igorot and take unlimited pictures with the costume for only 10PHP! Without hesitation, we all said 'yes', why not? :)

After we had enough pictures, we climbed up the stairs and went to the lake.

Beautiful Landscape of Wright Park

Across the street is the Mansion House, unfortunately we're not able to enter the house because the rain suddenly poured. So we headed to Ketchup Community instead to have our dinner.

Ketchup Community is a cluster of 5 restaurants. You can sit down and dine on one of these restaurants but you can order among the other 4 restaurants inside the community without changing tables!

We settled ourselves in Ruma Sate - an Indonesian-Malaysian restaurant. We ordered some of our foods here and also ordered the famous baby back ribs of Canto. The baby back ribs was superb!


Baguio Day 2

We started our day with a free breakfast on the hotel.

Yummy breakfast

The Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad Benguet was the first stop of the day. We rode a taxi from the hotel to La Trinidad. The good thing about the taxis in Baguio is it's bigger than the usual taxi. Cabs are painted white and have proper identification markings. The rate flags down at 35.00PHP for the first 500 meters with 2.00PHP per 100-meter increments thereafter. Riding a cab is cheaper specially when you're in groups. ;)

Baguio City taxis

On our way to La Trinidad, Benguet

August is not a strawberry season so when we arrived at the Strawberry Farm, we were greeted by vegetables such as lettuce, romaine and spring onions. Instead of picking up strawberries, I picked fresh lettuce.

Romaine Lettuce

Baby strawberries

Fresh Lettuce

This bunch of fresh lettuce costs 50PHP.

We bought a kilo of strawberries and oranges on booths located outside the farm.

Strawberries!

We went back to the city and had our lunch at Good Taste. The restaurant is located near Burnham Park. The restaurant looks like a foodcourt. The place is huge, it even has a second floor. Since it was lunch time, it was very crowded. You can see long lines from outside the restaurant.

They have big servings and the foods are really cheap. It also speaks for itself 'Good' Taste. It was very worth it.

The next place on our itinerary is the PMA grounds in  Fort Del Pilar. We rode a taxi cab going to PMA.

Huge beautiful tree

Salute!

We asked our taxi driver to wait for us. We left the PMA grounds immediately when the skies got darker. After which, we entered Camp John Hay and headed straight to Tree Top Adventure.

Tree Top Adventure has 2 branches: In Subic and Baguio City. The place offers unique and exhilirating outdoor adventures. A short orientation is given in the park's entrance before buying the tickets.
Their website: http://www.treetopadventureph.com/
The following are their packages.

Tree Top Adventure Baguio Branch Packages

My friends and I chose different packages. Here are some of our adventures.

Tree Drop

Canopy Ride

Superman Ride

Silver Surfer

Pines all over

Muddy trail after the rain

The most exciting part of this adventure was it rained so hard when we had the Silver Surfer Ride while others had their Superman Ride. It was so cold and all you see are fogs. Literally wet and wild!

We went back in our hotel soaking wet.


Baguio Day 3

Our third day at Baguio City is quite memorable to us. Not because it was fun but it was my first time to experience heavy rains and strong winds brought by the typhoon 'Labuyo'. Benguet province was at Signal #3 that day. The whole city was very foggy and the rain seems to poor endlessly.

We were supposed to visit the Mines View Park, Good Shepherd Convent and the public market to buy pasalubongs. Somehow, we were able to get out of the hotel and rode a taxi to Mines View Park not to stroll around the park but to check for open stores outside the park that sells pasalubongs. Almost all of the stores were closed but luckily, there was one store that is open and so we bought our pasalubongs from there.

Strawberry jams, peanut brittle, fresh strawberries

After pasalubong buying we went back straight to the hotel to organize our things and prepared for our trip back home via Clark.



Baguio to Cebu via Clark Airport

From Mines View Park Hotel, we rode a taxi to Victory Liner bus terminal and hopped off a bus bound for Dau. Travel time is approximately 4-5 hours.

Rain didn't stop from Baguio to Pampanga

After arriving at Dau terminal we walked outside the terminal and looked for public transportation to take us to SM Clark (we had our dinner at SM). You can ride tricycles for 70PHP or jeepney for 8PHP. We opted for jeepney so we walked few more meters to reach the intersection where Hilcres Builders Center is located (you need to cross the street). Jeepneys bound for SM Clark are parked outside this establishment.

After having our dinner at SM Clark, we rode a taxi again to DMIA for a fixed price of 350PHP. Since there are 5 of us (the taxi has a max capacity of 4 pax), we gave an additional 50PHP.

Dinner at Reyes Barbecue in SM Clark

Domestic flights of DMIA has 150PHP Terminal Fee.

Pampanga that time was at Signal #1. Good thing that our flight was not cancelled, but was somehow delayed for an hour. Better late than never.


It was really a fun trip with friends. Despite the bad weather, we still enjoyed our 3 days in Baguio. Will definitely come back but not so soon. Pag may time and money of course :)

Credits to Ate Jamaica Marie and Jennifer for most of the pictures :)