When travelling to Northern Philippines, you can think about highland, mountains, hills, old cities, (and beaches also - if you like it). Some famous places: Baguio, Laoag, and Vigan. Information from my friend: Baguio is a high land (like Dalat in Vietnam), and there's so much fun there. However, I like something more different and I decided to go to Laoag and Vigan.
Information from Wikipedia: Vigan is a World Heritage Site in that it is one of the few Hispanic towns left in the Philippines, and is well known for its cobblestone streets, and a unique architecture that fuses Philippine and Oriental building designs and construction, with colonial European architecture.
Vigan is a mall town but it's worth to visit. You can spend 1-3 days here to see it, feel it and then you will like it. We had 2 days here and it was a very good time.
VIGAN
How to go to Vigan
The cheapest way is by bus which will take you 7-10 hours, you can go at night to save time and energy. But I think the best and economy way is getting in by bus and getting out by plane.
Vigan is located on the way of Manila - Laoag. Our plan at first:
- Take a night bus from Manila to Vigan (7 hours) - The bus station is located in Quezon city, you can choose a bus to Laoag and it will pass by Vigan.
- Arrive Vigan in the morning and spend the whole day and a night in Vigan
- On the next day, take a bus to go to Laoag which takes 80 km, approx. 2 hours to go. And then spend the whole day here
- Take a plane to come back to Manila in the afternoon (or you can go with bus again)
Bus ticket price from Manila to Laoag is about 500 peso, and from Laoag to Vigan is 110 peso/one way.
However, the plan was changed because of the flood in Manila and finally we got in and out by plane. It's good enough because the flight tickets were not so expensive, it was around 80-90US$ for 2 ways with Philippines Airlines or Airphil Express
The final routine:
- Flight to Laoag from Manila at 6PM, and stay here until 2PM of the next day
- Take a bus to Vigan, and stay here until 2PM of the next day and come back to Laoag by bus again
- Flight back to Manila at 6PM
Where to stay in Vigan
Though people can travel to Vigan within a day an d leave before the night, however we recommend you to stay at least one night to feel the cozy atmosphere as well as the fresh and quiet morning here.
The hotel is not very cheap but it's acceptable. You don't really need to book it before the trip but just come and go around to pick (and bargain) and choose the one you like most. (The tip here is paying about 100 peso for a motor tricyle and he will drive you around the town to choose).
We went to look at 5 or 7 hotels, I don't remember exactly but it was quite many. Almost hotels in Vigan have nice looking from outside. But the quality inside the room are very different. What you get depends on what you pay.
Our choice was Cordirella Inn which is at the heart of the old squares. The room is a little bit small and the bathroom is not equipped, but it's clean enough and it's valued for money (the room rate at low season is around 1,500 peso/a night). We recommend Cordirella because of its location (at the heart of the town), the atmosphere, the host and especially their rooftop. (We were excited a little bit when we discovered it, you can view the whole square streets from here, it's very nice at night or day).
For whatever you pick, the tip here is you can bargain, and if you see a not good room at first, you can ask for another one (with the same type). The gift will always be for the patient people.
Where to go in Vigan
Vigan is a small town and it's interesting because of the architecture. There are not many things to see or discover, in comparison with Meleka (another same same town in Malaysia). We think that you will easily find what you want to see here with a tourist map (you can get it from the information desk in the town). However, just remind you not to miss the Bantay Church and Bell Tower which is 2 km far from the heritage streets.
Where to eat in Vigan
Tacos, Bagnet, Poqui-poqui... are popular in the Northern region. They're all quite sour and salty. If you cannot taste it, there will be many fast food restaurants here (Fillipinos must love fast food much, we think).
LAOAG
Though Laoag is more about a transitional location to Vigan, but you can still find something interesting here. Some of our experience in a day here.
- Stay in La Elliana Hotel: We arrived at a rainy evening and went through 4-5 hotels with very tired and disappointed experience with them, and after all we paid 900 peso/ one room/ one night here. It's not so good but may be the best choice at that time. However, we thanked to that choice 1 hour later when we came to the restaurant La Preciosa.
- La Preciosa Restaurant: right opposite to La Elliana Hotel: a small (and old, too) but really nice restaurant with local foods and live music at night. If you're lucky enough, you can meet "Susan Wongs" and "Louis Amstrongs" here. A very jazzy feeling.
- Museo Ilocos Norte and things around: We didn't enter the museum but just had a look from outside. They have a good outside space.
- Augustine Church
- The sink bell tower
Laoag also has the beach and a small desert (a sand dune, in fact) which is 30km far from the Laoag city, and we skipped it.
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