When in Baguio City

I have been to Baguio City 4 times since January of this year (2014), beat that! Actually most of my trips to Baguio are work related, so here you go, some more tips about the summer capital of the Philippines

• Cold Temperature. Baguio City is at its coldest temperature from November to February, in which the temperature would drop as low as 8° C.If you want to experience Baguio at its coldest, then be sure to climb up during these months.
  

Cold Baguio in January

We went up north just this weekend to experience the very cold Baguio City. Daytime temperature in Baguio this January ranges from 18°-20°C, but drops to as low as 8°-10°C at night. 

Planning the Trip

Planning a trip to Baguio starts from deciding what to do when you're there and finding an inexpensive, but nice place to stay.

I've found several blogs on the different must-try food and food shops around the city, so we decided that we'll visit the city this time to try the "eats in Baguio".

Next on our list is finding the place to stay. My goal is to find an inexpensive place to stay near the commercial area, so we could save up on transportation. I looked up google maps, listed some nearby hotels based on the map and looked them up for reviews via tripadvisor.com.  

One review caught my attention. Its actually a negative review of the hotel which is very near the place we stayed. According to the review, the hotel does not have good supply of water and the guest had a hard time sleeping because of the noise from the passing-by vehicles. They transferred to the small inn beside that hotel and that is how I knew about the small inn's name. Its along North Drive, near DILG and just right across the NBI office. The name of the place is Reyalta Inn. 

We arrived in Baguio at around 8:30 AM. The map says that Dagupan Bus Terminal is very near the inn where we reserved a room so we walked up to Session Road corner North Drive. We walked further after the DILG office and there it is.

Adobado Hanit

I know the price of seafoods are a bit cheaper in the province when compared to prices in Manila, so I included seafoods on our list. We don't have any idea which restaurants serve the best seafoods in Legazpi, but thanks to the free wifi connection in the apartelle, we had access to google. Some of the search results pointed us to food shops in embarcadero, but another one caught our attention, the Sibid-Sibid Food Park. 

We just hired a tricycle to get there. Looking at the menu, my guess is right. The prices of the food is way cheaper than that of restaurants in Manila. I particularly wanted to eat crabs, so we ordered Adobado Hanit. Hanit is a bicolano term for mud crabs. We also ordered rice and ensalada on the side.

Rice wrapped in banana leaf and Adobado Hanit

Sili and Tinutong Ice Cream

When I planned the trip, I listed some unique food to try in Legazpi. One of those that are on my list is Sili ice cream at the 1st Colonial Grill. The nearest branch accessible from the place where we were staying is that one in Pacific Mall, so we decided to go there to try the sili-flavored ice cream which can only be found in Bicol.

The 1st Colonial Grill serves 3 unique flavors of ice cream: Sili, Tinutong, and Pili

Legazpi/Albay

We went back to Legazpi after lunch via a van in Donsol central terminal. As usual, we had to wait for the van to be full for almost an hour. We arrived in Legazpi at around 3PM and took a tricycle for PhP30.00 to RMJ Appartelle.

RMJ Appartelle is located at Rose St. Imperial Court Subdivision Phase 2. It is just a few steps away from Metro Gaisano and Pacific Mall. The Room that we rented for 3 days/2 nights costs 650.00. It is air conditioned with private CR and free wifi access. They also serve meals.

RMJ Apartelle