My first trip to Baguio City
To be able to go to the summer capital of the country, Baguio City is one of the places I wanted to go eversince and at last I am here now enjoying the fresh cold air and the city’s various scenic and historical spots. I planned our Baguio trip for 2 months, secured an early promo booking for our plane ticket, trying to look for the best hotel to stay, constructing itinerary, list of things to bring, the budget and even acquire our own personal map – my travel partner’s idea.. 
I just want to share how the whole trip goes and why it is such a successful, memorable and blessed trip even for a short time.
Exactly 8:25 am – A very fine weather makes our flight and arrival to Manila safe and sound. I already feel the excitement even if our craft captain announced the delayed of our arrival due to the problem of frequency signal in NAIA.
10:30 am – We ride an airport taxi to bring us to the nearest Victory Liner terminal in Pasay. Just in time we got the last ticket for the 10:30 am trip. We make ourselves comfortable bringing with us food and drinks for I’m already aware how long the trip to Baguio base on my research. But the clean and cosy bus did not give me any discomfort plus I have the comforting company of my hubby. I enjoyed the view while on our way and when we were nearing Baguio, the fog almost covered our view and I’m so amazed to see that Baguio is a city within a mountain.
6:30 pm – It drizzled when we reach the bus terminal of the city and when I stepped out of the bus, I already feel the gentle cold breeze and it excites me the more. When a man approached us and offered us a ride to our hotel and later learned he is a tourist guide, I decided to hire him for only 2,500 for a whole day trip the next day.
Burnham Hotel is the hotel I booked for our whole stay in Baguio, It is a simple, small and old hotel in the city. It is accessible and a walking distance to most of the popular tourist spots so even if it isn’t the best choice of a hotel, I don’t mind.
7:30 pm – We go out and take a walk in Session Road and trying to find a restaurant where we can eat dinner, I have no idea what is the best place to eat here aside from the common, Jollibee, KFC, Don Henricos, Pizza Hut, etc… until I sight “Solibao”, they served Filipino cuisine and it’s worth a try because I’m satisfied with the food I ordered and the service is good.
Our 2nd day in Baguio is the highlight of this trip. I’m so excited to wake up early and the rain doesn’t stop us to tour the whole city of Baguio. Our tour guide is good for he was able to tour us around almost all the places of Baguio City from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm and the rest of the day we do it ourselves.
These are the scenic places in Baguio where we spend the rest of the day (in order):
Lourdes Grotto. Early morning and I got an exercise by climbing the 252 steps, whew!
Baguio Heritage Hall and Prayer Mountain. We are so lucky to get inside this heritage hall, for this place is supposed to be restricted to ordinary travellers, good thing our tour guide has an access so the guard allowed us to see inside. It is a ruined yet historical building and I cannot state the whole history here, our tour guide is very good in explaining to us. I find the place spooky yet magical, especially when we got to go to the top of the ruined hall where you can see the other side of Baguio.
Easter Weaving Room Factory. I can’t believe I finally saw weaving in action!
Botanical Garden. The very famous scenic spot in Baguio, very wonderful place and I cannot forget the photo shoot we have with the natives. It’s perfect for postcards… hehe
Wright Park. The horseback riding in Baguio, and it’s my first time riding at the back of the horse! Haha, super fun!
The Mansion. Right in front Wright Park is another long stairs, and even how tiring it is I have to hike about another 100 steps just to add the fun! We took this way towards the Mansion, exactly a perfect frontal view even if I am still a very long walking distance towards it.
Mines View Park. The place is very cold as if you are on top of the mountain. There are lots of souvenir shops and I got confused what to buy because there are so many.
Camp John Hay. On our way to Camp John Hay, I got a perfect view of different and beautiful pine trees surrounding our way, we passed by the Golf Estate, Camp John Hay Manor, took picture at the mini statue of Liberty, and tour around the beautiful place.
Paintball Republic. I don’t want to miss to see how this famous Paintball Republic in Baguio is set up. Indeed it is a big game site, where pine trees become one of the obstacles of the game. Butterfly Sanctuary is beside the paintball game site but because I’m so hungry already, we missed it.
Ibay’s Silver Shop. After our late lunch, we dropped by the most famous silver shop in Baguio.
Burnham Park. The very heart of Baguio City! I don’t want to miss the boat riding in the park’s lagoon, wonderful experience… when we get out from the boat, the rain began to pour but it did not stop us to stroll around the park. We dropped by the Orchidarium where it is in this place I am so amazed with different kinds of orchids that I haven’t seen ever since… the more I get inspired to install one mini orchidarium at home.
Baguio Cathedral. After a short rest back in the hotel which is a walking distance from Burnham Park, we took another walk and trekked another long stairs towards Baguio Cathedral. It’s 5:30 in my watch and we have to catch up the 6:00 pm anticipated Mass.
SM City Mall. After the mass, we planned to end our Baguio tour going to SM City Baguio. I think this is the only mall I know in the country that does not have AC installed… well, the coolness of the city already serves as aircon. And indeed it is very cold inside that I had to wear my jacket on.
Classic Savory Chicken Restaurant. We had a sumptuous dinner on our last night in Baguio. The restaurant is nice and clean and the service is good and the food we ordered is delicious!
It was a beautiful and enjoyable day… an occasion that I will never forget. I will definitely go back to Baguio and bring the rest of my family and friends…
