Summer Capital and The City of Pine! These are the words that best describe the highly urbanized city in northern Luzon, Philippines – Baguio City. Baguio is the place where you can enjoy the cold climate and fresh air of Cordillera mountain range. Aside from different tourist destinations, Baguio is famous for Panagbenga Festival (Flower Festival)– a much awaited event every February wherein local and foreign travelers enjoy the colorful parade of floats enriching with different kind of flowers and delightful street dancers.
I been in Baguio way back years ago and came back here last August 2009. This was when my previous company assigned us to go here for 18th North Luzon Area Business Conference held in Baguio Country Club. The Baguio Country Club boasts with good architecture and wide range of golf field and this is the most prefer place for business conferences, special events and the like. We landed in Baguio at 5am and stayed in an affordable Inn in Jungle Town Street (minutes away from Victory Liner and Session Road). On top of the 3 days event, we took the opportunity to go around in different tourist places in Baguio – Burnham Park, Botanical Garden, The Mansion, The Mines View, The high landmark which is the Baguio Church as well as the bars in Nevada.
Few months after, we went back here to see and experience the annual event of Panagbenga Festival and treat this as a birthday gift for myself. We left Manila at 1am and arrived here at 7am and stayed for 3 days and two nights in an Inn on Downtown Baguio (another few minutes away in Session Road). After putting our things and eating our breakfast, we went to Session road and saw the Parade of Floats for Panagbenga Festival. It was quite difficult to see the street dancers and the floats covering with colorful flowers because of the high density of people who wanted to witness and see this highly anticipated event.
As we go along that day, we went to several places and did our itineraries prepared by my friend who stayed to this place couple of years ago. First stop was on Botanical Garden followed by Wright Park and Camp John Hay. It was really nice to walk and stay in Camp John Hay while enjoying the non-polluted air of Baguio sponsoring by the fresh breeze of Pine trees and the native foods alienating the taste of known foods in urban. At night, we ate our dinner in a Chinese restaurant in SM Baguio, walked around and stayed in one area wherein you will enjoy the top view and mainstream of Baguio City.
The next day, we went to Mines view not only to see what best known for this place moreover to buy souvenir items and pasalubong for our friends and family. Every single minute was counting during our last day. So after walking around from Session Road where you can see the busy traffic of people doing several activities and in Burnham Park wherein people enjoy the company of their friends and family we ended up and ate in another Chinese Restaurant near Burnham Park. Then, we decided to spend our last night by staying in one private room and enjoyed bottles of drinks while singing pieces of song in a videoke machine.
TRAVEL GUIDE
How to go to Baguio?
If you don’t have a private vehicle, from the following starting points: Cubao, Caloocan, Pasay and Sampaloc take a ticket in Victory Liner Bus Station. This Bus will lead you to NLEX passing by the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan and La Union. Travel time is approximately 6 hours away from Manila and depends on the volume of traffic in sub-urban. The travel fee is Php 445 and it is advisable to buy and take a ticket ahead of time for you to have a definite schedule of departure and arrival.
The following reference links could help you in finding best Inns and hotels in Baguio City:
Want to know more on Baguio?
Click this link to view the official Government website of Baguio:
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