Summer capital of the Philippines
- Andrea Ayala
- Dec 5, 2015
- 9 min read
Last year's thanksgiving holiday, Me and my sister went up north, to the summer capital of the Philippines. Baguio.
Before, traveling to Baguio takes almost 5-6hrs but because of the new CAVETEX highway and the raising Deluxe Bus services for long distance travel, travel to Baguio can be achieved for 4hrs or less. The Deluxe bus is very spacious, its nonstop and it has its own bathroom on the bus. Plus they have a stewardess that takes care of your needs. They also have free snacks.
When we arrived at Baguio, we directly went to our first hotel. Yes, 1st hotel, because this is the perfect hotel to stay in when you’re in Baguio solely for shopping ^_^
The Ibay Zion Hotel located at the heart of Mine’s view Park. It’s not really that flashy but it is a smart place to check into when you would like to go shop and see the sun rise in Baguio. And they are actually an accredited hotel under our Department of Tourism.
Reasons to stay in Ibay Zion Hotel:
It’s affordable. It’s only p1,580/night for two with breakfast.
It’s just less than 5 minutes walking distance to Good Shepherd Baguio. The home of the famous Ube Jam.
Walking distance to Mine’s View Park. The best place to shop for souvenirs and plants and flowers and my personal favorite… hats ^_^
This was our first stop in Baguio after we drop off our things at the hotel.
Their products are the best, they are yummy and I have to admit quite expensive from the other brands being sold along the street on Mines view. But these products are made by students of Good Shepherd and proceeds go to their education. So me and my sister don’t mind that it’s more expensive because we are actually helping this kids to get a better a future. Besides, as I said, all their products are YUMMY.
Baguio isn’t really that bad. The first time I was here is when we went to Sagada with my sister. Sagada is a great place, but I don’t think I will go back there. I don’t like walking up and down the hill. I am not fit to do it. I mean, I can walk, but on flat roads, but up and down the hill? I’m just going to have a heart attack if I keep on doing that. It was a struggle in Sagada. But anyway, that was years ago and this blog is about my recent trip to Baguio.
We got hungry after we went Good Shepherd. We decided to eat at one of the carinderia near the hotel. This is a place famous to be cold, so we made a mistake of not asking the person in charge of the restaurant to heat our food. So we ate it cold. LOL we are not really that picky anyway.
After we ate, we went to Mine’s View Park itself. It was late afternoon already on a Thursday but people are starting to flock into this famous tourist spot. What we did is that we just went through all the shops and check and compared prices coz tomorrow will be the day that we will be buying souvenirs and all the things we find fancy.
Mine’s view park is not what I expected. I was expecting a big park. I didn’t expect something like a mini view deck overlooking Baguio city. But there are a lot of nice things to buy here. Plants that is cheaper than buying here in manila. We retired to our hotel room early, coz we were planning to wake up very early the next day to catch up the sunrise of Baguio.
The shops at Mine’s View won’t be open till 10am, so after taking photos around the place, we went back to the hotel to pack up our things and showered. Yes, packed our things coz we will be moving to a different hotel. After we did that, we ate our hotel breakfast before going back to shop
After we did our shoppig at Mine's View, we left for our 2nd hotel on this trip. We got there early, check in time wasn't till 2pm. So what we did, we left our things at the hotel and they were kind enough to allow us to leave our things and even offered that they will take our things inside the room once its 2pm.
So 2nd day officially started and we hired cab for p250 per hour to go on a tour around Baguio.
1st Stop: BELL HOUSE
The Bell House was built as a summer house for an American general when we were under American rule. Ever since then various political and army people have stayed here. Even the first President of the Philippines has stayed here before. The house is your typical American house. No one lives here anymore and it’s just there as a tourist attraction.
We didn’t stay long at the Bell House; we just walked around, took some photo and went to the next site. We dropped by the Christmas Village at Baguio Country Club. Entrance fee was p150 and it was not worth it -_- If it weren’t for the false snow I would demand my money back.
So its pass 12 already and we were getting hungry but not that hungry. So sister took me to…
Chocolate de Batirol, a somewhat coffee shop that specializes in chocolate drinks or locally known as “tablia”
After we had some munches, we went to the White House of Baguio, but we made a quick stop at The Mansion. This is the new summer house of the President of the Philippines. Tourists are only allowed by the gate, not even allowed to peek inside the house. So I find it boring. We just took a quick photo for souvenir and we were on our way to the White House.
This is the place that I was looking forward to in this Baguio Trip. As the sign says, the famous Haunted House in Baguio. The white house. They have an entrance fee of php50 for the preservation of the house and the Bamboo art.
The house was actually still in good shape. Heck, it’s even in better shape than our house back in the province. They could turn this house into a bed and breakfast, I’m sure a lot of people will like to stay here, especially ghost enthusiast. But I got disappointed coz I didn’t see nor feel any ghost.
After the White house at Lateral st. We went back to our hotel.
The Forest House, located not far from Victory Liner Bus Station and SM Baguio. In fact, you can walk from the bus station till here. Our accommodation here was a bit funny.
In our first day, we were in Kahlil room. I believe this is their Honeymoon suite coz it has a very nice balcony that leads to the hotel garden below and I think the only room that has a bathtub. The funny part here is that, we weren’t able to book this room straight because there online booking system made a mistake. We booked this room from Friday to Sunday. But unfortunately someone already booked first that the system didn’t recognized. So what the hotel people did is that after Friday, they will move us to a different more expensive room, but with the same price ^_^ I so love them already.
But first let’s talk about the Kahlil room.
The Forest House has only 5 rooms. So if you really want a private quiet vacation in Baguio, this is the perfect place. But their restaurant tends to be full on lunch time and dinner. Their food is yummy to, but we haven’t tried anything outside their free breakfast ^_^
That night, Ate scheduled to meet one of her friends that live in Baguio. We met him at the famous Baguio night market. The Ukayuka, they closed up an entire street to have vendors who sell second hand clothes, shoes, toys etc. It’s like a flea market. And boy oh boy it is a paradise for people like me who has limited budget.
This is one of the most enjoyable times I had in Baguio. Can you imagine, I managed to buy 6 long sleeve shirts and 2 leggings for less than php1,000. In manila, with my size, that will cost me over 5,000 already. I am looking forward in going back here.
The next morning, we were up early for breakfast coz we were planning to tour the remaining sites we wanted to see early before tourist pours in or crowd the place.
The Deplomant Hotel, when we got there, there are a bunch of students practicing school stuff and a photo-shoot which I believe is a pre-debut photo-shoot. Which I overheard the photographer saying “Wala akong maisip” in english “I can’t think of anything” and I go WHHAAAAAaaat? There are a lot of places here or even concepts you can do with the shoot… Like c’mon dude… are you really a photographer? I mean I have lost my mood in photography but even so I can still think of things to shoot. I wanted to step in and show this person that there are lots of things that can be done for his client that would look good. But nah... let him figure it out. So we left them alone and went to another spot or I may lose it and push him off the stairs. LOL I know I’m mean.
This hotel is actually undergoing reconstruction again; I think they are turning this into a monastery again. What I know about this is that, this was a monastery years ago then was turned into a hotel and now they are going to turn it into a monastery again.
Next stop was at an art show room or an art museum. Travel time was like almost an hour. It was a bit far from the city proper.
BenCab, his national artist. When we got there, it’s really a tourist destination because as early as 10am the place is already crawling with tourist. They have an entrance fee p150. The museum doesn’t allow monopods or selfie sticks inside the museum. So the receptionist told me to put it in my bag, but I was just bringing a pouch for my wallet and cellphone. So I just left my monopod at the receptionist. However, as usual for Filipinos, a natural born people who doesn’t have any respect in rules, once we were inside, there were a lot of people who got their monopods out from their bags and started using their monopods. When we got my monopod back, I told the receptionist that there were a lot of people using their monopods inside. Told her they should be strict with their rules if they will expect people to follow them.
Anyway, moving on, these are some of the artworks that somewhat amused me.
Next stop, Hill Station, it’s like a mini arcade. Ate wanted to go here to visit the Mt.Cloud Bookshop. I didn’t know this is also where the North Haven Spa is located. It’s the famous strawberry spa in Baguio that after you have your strawberry spa, you will walk out smelling like strawberries. It was expensive so I skipped it. Maybe next time.
The Mt. Cloud Book store is not your ordinary bookstore. They actually carry local books, meaning local authors from novels to reference books. Ate bought one book about our local folk lore supernatural beings. After the book store we ate at their restaurant.
Little did I know that this is the restaurant of Casa Vellejo. Considered a posh hotel in Baguio. Looking at the Rates, it’s more or less the same with the rates at Forest House. But when we look into their rooms, the rooms are small. So my recommendations will still be at Forest House, their rooms are big and cozy and has a homey feeling compared to Casa Vallejo.
After we had our lunch and had a mini tour in Casa Vallejo, we just walked home to Forest House. It wasn’t that far. When we got back, our things were already in our new room. This one is bigger, but we don’t have a bathtub anymore.
The room has two twin beds and one sofa bed. This room is actually good for three people. The bathroom is by the balcony or porch overlooking the garden. That afternoon, there was a wedding being held.
I can say this is the perfect place to stay if you want to relax in Baguio. Less people due to the fact that there are only 5 rooms available in this bed and breakfast place.
We were home before 3pm, we were planning to go to this new place in Baguio called the “Beer Brewery”. They specialize with gourmet beers. However they open late night till dawn and we got lazy already. So we just spent the rest of the day procrastinating. If we were not watching T.V we were editing the photos we took for the past days and uploaded some in Instagram. We basically fell asleep early that night.
The next morning, we were early to meet Ate’s friend again at People’s park to walk his dog.
Over all, I really had fun. I thought I will not enjoy Baguio with all its walking. I enjoyed Mine’s View Park with all the hat’s I can choose to buy. The yummy food at Good Shepherd, the strawberry wines and all the food that Baguio has to offer. Also the food at Forest House is yummy. The ghost places were a disappointment, there were no ghosts.
The night market was heaven. And if I will go back to Baguio I hope that time I can afford the strawberry spa already. Also, another thing that I got disappointed to is that it was not that cold. I was expecting a 10 degrees or below but nope, according to my phone it’s just around 20 degrees. Downside of Baguio hotels or Inns is that they don’t have ACs. It wouldn’t be a problem if it was actually cold, but that time it wasn’t.
I cannot break down the expenses on this trip since I wasn’t the one paying for it. The only thing I can tell you is that over all I just spent 1,000pesos on this trip. That includes 6 long sleeve shirts, 2 leggings, 2 socks, 1 belt, 2 cookies, 1 ube jam and 1 lengua de gata and one Money Magnet plant.
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