Ilocos-Baguio-Cavite Trip on a Budget: Itinerary

A couple of months ago, I shared this post about our trip to Baguio, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Cavite (with little bits of Manila in between) last summer. It’s not an extraordinary trip (though all of us enjoyed it!), but what makes it a fun trip to organise is that it was all done on a budget — of P3,500 per person!

I was really supposed to make a followup to that post for our complete itinerary, but it completely slipped my mind. Good thing my best friend George asked me about it yesterday. She’s trying to pull off a copycat move and embark on exactly the same trip. Tsk tsk. Love you George hahaha. Anyway, instead of writing her a copy of our itinerary, I figured out I’d write it on the blog instead. Here you go!

Day 1: Flight to Manila and Road Trip to Baguio

11:30 am – Flight from Davao to Manila

1 pm – Arrival at NAIA, met up with Mang Leo our driver. Send me a message if you want the contact number of our service and please ask for Mang Leo. I highly recommend him!

Some of our companions (actually, my cousins) were quite late even though they took an earlier flight (long story) so instead of leaving for Baguio at 1pm, we were only able to leave at 2. 

2 pm – Start of our first roadtrip, which is from Manila to Baguio

At around 4pm, we had a stopover in Bulacan for a super duper late lunch.

8:30 pm – Arrival at Baguio. Since it was already late, we just went straight to our transient house, Zeus Transient House (more info about our Baguio transient house here), checked in, ate dinner, fixed our stuff, and slept.

Day 2 – Baguio Tour

4 am – Woke up and got ready for the day, had coffee, etc. We wanted to start the day early to cover a lot of tourist spots!

5:30 am – Left our transient house for our first stop

6 am – Arrival at our first stop, the Strawberry Farm in La Trinidad Benguet

7 am – Second stop, Bell Church in Baguio

7:30 am – Third stop, Lourdes Grotto

We also had our breakfast in a hotel near the grotto. 

9 am – Wright Park

10 am – The Mansion

10:30 am – Mines View Park

1 pm – Good Shepherd

We were there to buy strawberry jams and ube jams, but we found them to be too expensive. We decided to buy pasalubong in the public market instead!

1:30 pm – Botanical Garden

2 pm – Burnham Park

We also had late lunch at one of the restaurants in the park.

4 pm – Baguio Public Market

5 pm – Went back to our transient house

7 pm – Had dinner at the first restaurant we saw which had an empty table (seriously, all restaurants were full and it was raining), which happened to be Central Park, a Chinese restaurant.

Because it was raining hard, we just went back to our transient house, packed up our things because we’re going to check out early the following day, and caught some zzz’s.

Day 3 – Road trip to Vigan

4 am – Woke up, had coffee, prepared our stuff, and got ready for a long road trip ahead

5 am – Left Baguio and started the long drive to Vigan

11 am – Arrived at Bantay, Ilocos Sur

Travel from Baguio to Vigan usually take just 5 hours, but ours took a lot longer because of the extreme traffic along La Union. There was a truck build-up and we were barely moving.

11 am – Bantay Tower and Belfry

11:30 am – Vigan

12 nn – Checked in at Green R Hotel and had lunch at a nearby carinderia, a decision I’m still regretting until now haha

1 pm – We were allowed to check into our rooms early so we took much needed naps

3 pm – We were off to our first tourist spot, which is Baluarte

4:30 pm – Pagburnayan

We were supposed to check out the museums first but, alas, they close early. So when in Vigan, check out the museums in the morning or at least before 4 pm. During my solo museum tour in Vigan, I started at 3 pm and went back to the hotel by 5.

5 pm – Calle Crisologo Calesa Tour

After our tour of Vigan and Calle Crisologo (one of the best history lessons, btw), we just walked along the famous calle while I savoured the sensation of old buildings and cobblestone. Everything you see in the pictures is really what you will see in person.

6 pm – Dinner by Plaza Burgos

We ate empanada from Empanadahan, the popular place that serves empanada but weren’t quite impressed. Maybe their recipe was off during that day? Hehe

7:30 pm – Plaza Salcedo to wait for the Dancing Fountain show

8 pm – Dancing Fountain show

It was fun, but it started to get old too soon so we didn’t finish the show and just went back to our hotel instead to rest. And sleep.

It was during that night when I had my first bout of food poisoning. I was so weak so I knew I couldn’t come with them on their trip to Ilocos Norte. For Day 4, there are 2 itineraries.

Day 4A: Ilocos Norte

I wasn’t on this trip so I can’t give you exact times. My mother’s too busy to answer my questions haha, but maybe I can update this over the weekend. I also don’t know the exact time they left the hotel because I was still snoring. All I know is that they visited these places:

• Laoag
• Paoay Church

• Malacanang of the North in Paoay
• Pagudpud
• Cape Bojeador Lighthouse in Burgos

• Kapurpurawan Rock Formation in Burgos
• Windmills in Bangui

• Marcos Museum and Mausoleum in Batac

They weren’t able to visit the sand dunes because it was already getting late. They got back in Vigan at around 7 pm.

Day 4B: Vigan Museums

I was alone in a strange city. Good thing Vigan felt safe. I woke up from my slumber at around 10am and was just watching television (I remember watching Shake, Rattle, and Roll on Cinema One haha), but soon enough, I knew I had to eat even though I wasn’t feeling hungry. I was actually still feeling weak and was still running to the bathroom every now and then, but I had to put something in my stomach. Good thing there was a small supermarket right in front of the hotel where we were staying. I bought a bunch of bananas, a bottle of energy drink, and a bottle of water. I also ate one of our baons, a grapefruit.

I went back to sleep after eating and woke up at around 1 pm. I decided I didn’t want to spend my day in Vigan sleeping in a hotel, so once I felt better, I took a bath, dressed up and prepared to go out for a museum tour.

3 pm – Hailed a tricycle and asked the driver to take me on a museum tour. I was so blessed because the driver was kind and didn’t charge a lot for the tour. He didn’t charge actually, just told me he would take whatever I was willing to give.

3 pm – Crisologo Museum

I wanted to visit the Syquia Mansion, house of the former President Quirino, but it was closed on Tuesdays.

4 pm – Burgos National Museum and Gregoria M. Rivera Memorial Library and Museum

Burgos Museum was unfortunately closed when I got there, so I just went to the next museum, Gregoria M. Rivera Museum, which was just a few metres away from the former. 

4:30 pm – Buridek Children’s Museum

5 pm – I asked the driver to take me to where I can buy longanisa because I’m sure it would be too late if I waited for the others.

We went to this house, and when we arrived, they were still making the longanisa. I didn’t want them to spoil so I didn’t buy yet, so the driver offered to take the orders and take them to the hotel before we leave the next day. We were scheduled to leave early, around 4am again, but he agreed to take them to the hotel at 3am. I told you he was really nice. I wish I could remember his name though! 

7 pm – My family and companions arrived back in Vigan and I joined them for dinner. We just ate in Chow King near Plaza Burgos.

I thought I was already okay, but later that night, my stomach ached again like crazy. It was sooo painful, probably even more painful than the first night. I wasn’t even around when the tricycle driver delivered the orders because my mother took me to the emergency room at around 2 am. He just left the packs of longanisa with the front desk officers and would just return for the payment.

Day 5: Road Trip Back to Manila

3 am – We were back from the emergency room trip and had to prepare to check out from the hotel because we were going back to Manila that day. I wasn’t feeling well yet, but I had no choice unless I wanted to be left behind in Vigan haha.

5 am – Road trip back to Manila

11 am – Stop over at San Fernando, Pampanga to check out the outlet stores. Unfortunately, they were still closed so we just decided to leave.

1 pm – Arrived at Go Hotel in Ortigas where we were staying for the night

I just stayed in the hotel while they went to the malls to shop and have dinner. I slept my food poisoning off (but the meds given to me by the doctor in Vigan have taken effect so I wasn’t feeling as bad as I was a few hours earlier). They just brought me takeout food for dinner.

Day 6: Road Trip to Tagaytay and Kawit, Cavite

7 am – Left our hotel to travel to Tagaytay

Mang Leo was no longer our driver since he had another group to cater to. Instead, the owner of the van drove us to Tagaytay and then back to NAIA.

My cousins already went back home and didn’t join us at the hotel. Thus, during our trip to Cavite, the van was only half-full.

9:30 am – Arrived at Tagaytay, went to see Mt. Taal at People’s Park

We didn’t know where to go so our driver just took us to People’s Park. Had we known better, we would have chosen another spot, one which was more developed haha.

10:30 am – Aguinaldo Shrine, Kawit, Cavite

12 nn – Mall of Asia for lunch

2 pm – Back to NAIA to wait for our flight

3 pm – NAIA

6 pm – Flight from Manila to Davao

7:30 pm – Home sweet home!

Read about our entire Ilocos-Baguio-Cavite and Manila trip here:

1. Baguio Tour

2. Bantay and Vigan Tour

3. Ilocos Norte Tour

4. Vigan Museums

5. Tagaytay and Aguinaldo Shrine

6. Hotels and Transport Service