A Weekend Getaway in Baguio [Part 1/3]life story

Date: March 14-15, 2009

Destination: Baguio City, La Trinidad, Benguet

Travel via: Land (bus, jeepneys, FX taxis)

Note: This is for archiving purposes. But still worth sharing. :)

The Mansion: where the President take a vacation during Christmas and Holy Week.

Baguio City ranks one of my favorite places to have a vacation.Every year, I go this place to relax and spend my summer vacation. During the year 2009, I, together with my friends and officemates went to Baguio for a weekend getaway, away from stress of work, and hotness of Metro Manila. We went there during Summer and it was indeed more fun of staying there.

How do we go to the Summer Capital of the Philippines? Well, it's plain and simple:

1. We went to Victory Liner in Cubao, Quezon City. Fare costs PHP435 (during year 2009). There was an additional PHP5 pesos insurance but it was inclusive in the fare that you will purchase in the ticket booth. There were many trips to Baguio especially Summer where it leaves every 20-30 minutes. More schedules and updated rates to this website: http://www.victoryliner.com/

Our bus ride to Baguio with my friends/officemates.

2. We took the bus at 12:30am. So we calculate the travel time. Since it will be a 6-hour journey, we expected to arrive in Baguio at 6:30am. We spent at the bus to sleep and rest but we never stopped taking photos while inside the bus. Good thing we are seated in-front so we were not disturbing the other passengers sleeping.

Picture time!

The insomiacs... :)

3. Victory Liner has one of safest bus records in the country. No wonder that many passengers in the terminal. Seats are comfortable. Going to Baguio via Victory Liner has two stops: first at Siesta Bus Stop in Tarlac City, and the other one in Sison, Pangasinan. The moment we left from the 2nd stop were excited because in an hour, we will be at Summer Capital of the Philippines. From Marcos Highway, it took 45 minutes before we reached Baguio and we were greeted by thick fogs and a 13 degrees Celsius coldness! But nevertheless, the 15 of us were delighted that we are finally arrived in Baguio. But wait, we have another picture moment in Victory Liner Baguio terminal. :)

Welcome to Baguio! :)

Just arrived from Manila.

Picture time at the Bus Terminal.

4. We took a jeepney ride to Trancoville and the travel time was only 15 minutes from the bus terminal. By the way, Trancoville is one of the residential district in Baguio where majority of transient houses were located. Our transient house we stayed for two days was huge. I'm sure that it can house 20-25 people. There were three rooms, huge living room, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and dining table. The caretaker was very nice and accommodating to us. The rate of our stay is per person. And the cost was PHP250 only. How cool is that!