Baguio: Up in the North | Greeting 2016
January 06, 2016
For the past years my mom and i usually celebrate new year at home. This time we decided to greet 2016 in the City of Pines, Baguio! We came up with this idea around 2nd week of December so i just had a short time preparing for it considering that it was already peak season. We stayed there from Dec 30 2015 to Jan 1 2016.
Hotel
The first thing that came into my mind was finding a place to stay. Since it was peak season, almost all hotels or transient houses are fully booked plus the prices are really high. Luckily, i saw a hotel posting in agoda.com with a pocket-friendly rate (for the peak season) and when i checked they had a room available for our chosen dates so i immediately booked it. T'was only Php 2,185.84 (USD 46.26) for 2 days and 2 nights good for 2 persons with breakfast, plus Php 400.00 per night for additional person.
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| Hotel Henrico Facade |
Another concern that i had in mind was the transpo going to Baguio. Dec 26 was when i decided to go to Cubao to reserve a ticket (yes, i know t'was a lil bit late :p ). I first checked with Victory Liner and all First Class/Deluxe buses traveling from Dec 29,30,31 are fully booked. I almost lost hope due to a lot of people lining up just to get a ticket but luckily when i checked with Genesis Transport they still had trips available for Dec 30 for deluxe bus so i immediately reserved a ticket bound for Baguio departing at 12:10PM. I chose Deluxe coz i was travelling with my mom so i wanted to have a comfortable trip for her plus the C.R inside the bus is really a must. Here's the funny thing, when i was at the Genesis office patiently waiting for my turn to reserve a ticket i found out that they accept online reservation (after kong tiisin ang init at dami ng tao may online pala sila! :D ). You can just log on to iwantseats.com.ph then create an account if you don't have one yet then conveniently reserve a ticket! Click here for the step-by-step instructions on how to reserve a ticket in iwantseats. They accept payment thru Bayad Centers, ATM Online and OTC Transactions. They don't have Credit Cards as mode of payment though :( .
We depart from Cubao via JoyBus (this is what Genesis calls their Deluxe Bus) at 12:10PM and we arrived in Baguio at around 5PM. We then hailed a taxi and went directly to our hotel, we rested for a while then went to SM Baguio for Dinner since there was no resto or fast food near our hotel. The nearest 7/11 is like 10-20 minute walk (depends on the pace of your walk). The hotel was quite creepy and the room was big enough for us but it was kind of dusty and smells old. The bed sheets and comforters were so thin and seemed like it was not changed and there were stains in the pillows (ew!) but we had no choice, we already paid it in full and we will just sleep there anyways so in short nag tiis na lang kami. There was no Wifi in the room as it was only available in the lobby (saklap!) our mobile phones can only get 3G signal inside the room, good thing the TV got a couple of basic cable channels. I'm not recommending that hotel to anyone and will never go back there. The following day we woke up early, we went to Bencab Museum, famous Burnham Park, Mines View Park and Botanical Garden. We went back to the hotel at around 6:00PM and went to Melvin Jones Park at around 9:00PM for the New Year countdown. On our last day we went to Strawberry Farm in Benguet and picked fresh strawberries (yey!). We checked out at the hotel at 1:00PM and went back to the busy world :( via Victory Liner Deluxe.
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| Bencab Museum |
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| Burnham Park |
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| Mines View Park |
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| Botanical Garden |
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| Strawberry |
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| Strawberry Farm |
I will post a different blog for our complete itinerary and other pictures in Baguio :)
To wrap things up, the things that you need to do if you want to visit Baguio, especially during peak seasons are:
- Plan ahead. a month or so if possible.
- Book a hotel a month or so prior to your desired dates.
- Reserve a Bus ticket 1 or 2 weeks before your travel. 1 month in advance if possible.
- Plan your itinerary.
- Always have a plan B and/or C in case plan A doesn't work.
Thank you for reading and have a safe trip! :) Lagaw pa more!!!
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