As much as I could remember, I think this is the most awaited trip we have ever planned. We have been planning this for months and at last, it happened!

Who: 7 persons
What: DIY trip!
Where: San Juan Beach and Baguio City
When: August 29 – 31, 2015
How?

• How much: approx. budget is Php 2,500.00/ea (maximum)
• How we get there: Public transport
• How long: 3 days and 2 nights

Let’s do my itinerary type of quick blogging for this one. ^0^/*

Day 1

06:50 AM | Meet-up at MRT Ayala Station

From here we went to the Partas Bus Terminal. We met up with Jel’s sister and bought our tickets. The ticket cost is P449.00/ea up to Laoag.

The bus took off at 08:30 AM and had one pit stop somewhere around La Union by 12:20 PM.

02:49 PM | Arrival at San Juan

Our drop off was at San Juan Surf Resort as it is the closest to where we are staying.

We just walked a few distance to find where the Circle Hostel is, this is where we would be staying for the first day of our trip.

The place was as cool as how it is presented at their website: http://www.launion.thecirclehostel.com/. Here are few shots I took of the place:

The vibe of the place is very fun and setup to mingle with the other guests of the place. They have this huge common area where everyone can stay and just chill out.

Once we have confirmed our reservations, we got our stuff settled and looked for a place to eat. We were lucky to find a small eatery by this time as it’s already 04:00 PM.

After eating our late lunch, we decided to check out the beach front; it’s at the other side where the Circle Hostel is. It was really windy and the waves are fairly “friendly” compared to Baler.

We just took few photos of the beach front and went back to the hostel. We hanged out at the common area to kill time; played card games and jenga with few beers until the rain stopped. When the weather calmed down, we went out again to had dinner and check out some of the open bars nearby.

Day 2

06:00 AM | Surfing yey!

We woke up early to make most of our time and get the first waves before it gets crowded. We were able to get a good deal of P350/ea per hour along with the rental of the board. We settled to share instructors since all of us already experienced surfing and didn’t pretty much need help like when it was at Baler.

It was the usual stuff before we started, signed wavers and had refreshers on the what-to-do’s. Comparing with what we have experienced with Baler, the briefing of our surfing session is much more informative and detailed.

Here are some shots of our surfing experience at La Union:

We had fun instructors and we even extended more than an hour since we were taking as much photos as we can. We didn’t had any back at Baler, lol.

After surfing we had our buffet breakfast at Sebay, perfect since we were all tired and thirsty.

Done with breakfast, we head back to the hostel, took showers and got ready to pack up. We spent time at the common area once we have packed up our things and waited for the rest to finish. We checked out at exactly 12:00PM

12:47 PM | Halo-Halo de Iloko

We made one more stop before we head our way to Baguio, at Halo-Halo de Iloko. The place was so full when we came in but we were willing to taste their specialty. There was a waiting list but we easily got in and had a table to dine in. And hey, we spent more time finishing our meals more than we waited outside. Just look at these delicious foods:

By 02:37 PM we took our bus ride to Baguio. Jel recommended that we ride the ordinary bus since it’ll get cold along the road, well, she was right. 

05:03 PM | Hello Baguio!

We dropped off at the bus liner’s terminal and head to Victory Liner to purchase our tickets back home to Manila. After purchasing our tickets, we head at Jel’s place, got our bags settled and had dinner at 50’s Diner.

We dined here before too when we had our Ilocos road trip with my sisters.  The food was still great as always and the place is most likely the same as I could remember.

Once our stomach was full, our night began! We went bar hopping! So much fun!

Now here, I didn’t remember what time we got back at Jel’s place but I could remember it was barely morning when we all snuggled to our thick blankets. :P

Day 3

07:00 AM | Goodmorning Baguio!

This is the last day of our trip and we did lots of walking and taxi rides today. Our first stop was at Good Shepherd. After failing to find the pasalubong we were looking for, we just did photo ops at the place then head to our 2nd destination.

Second stop was at The Mansion House. It’s huge! Did our photo ops of the place and walked to our next stop. (I badly wanted to buy flowers… TT__TT)

Next up was at Ketchup Food Community where we had a snack. There’s a few restaurant to choose from and Canto was our choice and they have generous serving of their meals. Just look:

After all charged up again, we went to the market and bought all our pasalubongs here. We separated ways and did our best to get good deals with the budget we have at hand. We each all had medium sized bags that the boys brought back at Jel’s place while us the girls went to the next place we agreed to meet up at.

Cafè Cueva was the most interesting place (for me). The place was built with scrap things but it was really beautiful, the whole establishment was more of like contemporary art itself and I really love the ambiance. We were still so full by this time so we just ordered shakes to pass time to wait for the boys.

When the group was complete, we headed to Baguio Craft Brewery, and had the six pack sampler to taste their beers.

I love the taste of the fruit beers more, it’s sweet and has a mild taste. I’m not that of a beer fan, but if you’re a beer lover, you would definitely love to stay here. They have bottled beers that you could take home too.

We had our last dinner at Baguio at Good Taste. They have fast serving time, delicious food and a very pocket friendly menu! :D

*******

Woah! That’s a long one! Our budget was really well spent at this trip. Let see….my tips for this trip:

• Bring extra money (if you want to go to any other places and buy any additional stuffs :P ).
• Pack a good pair of slippers and a pair of sturdy shoe.
• When surfing at La Union, the instructors are more than happy to assist you with your shots! If you have an action camera, they would even tie it with an empty plastic bottle. Pretty smart huh.
• The free breakfast at the Circle Hostel is served for the whole group. There’s a pack of pandesal, peanut butter, your choice of hot drink and unlimited banana!
• The bunk beds at the Circle Hostel have mosquito nets already but if you want to be extra sure, you would want to bring your own mosquito repellent.
• If you’re not as a backpacker, the Circle Hostel is not for you. You may want to check in at Sebay or the hotels nearby but they're a bit pricey.
• Travel as light as you can. Replace pants with leggings, and one jacket or a thick scarf is good to use at Baguio.
• Taxi is really cheap at Baguio so don’t hesitate to ride ‘em when you want to go places. They even give change, a very rare incident with the taxis in Manila, lol.
• Food at Baguio’s food joints are really generous (as far as for this trip), so the more price you pay, expect more servings. ^_^
• Make sure to bring your extra bag for your pasalubongs!

*******

I would rate our La Union experience a 5/5, this is because of the accommodation we had at the Circle Hostel and the friendly surf instructors we met. I would most likely stay more than a day here if we had the time.

For the Baguio experience, well, I have been having vacation at Baguio for a few times now and this time was a different feel since I was with friends. I give it a 3.5/5, if we were able to book a place closer to town I would have given it a higher score.

That’s it! As for my usual reminder, if you are planning to visit the places we went to, make sure to "Leave NO Trace". Thanks for reading!

More photos and clips here:

• La Union Tumblr Photos
• Circle Hostel Tumblr Photos
• Baguio Tumblr Photos

Helpful links here:

• San Juan Surf Resort
• The Circle Hostel
• Sebay Surf Resort
• Halo-Halo de Iloko
• 50’s Diner
• 2600 Gastropub
• The Camp (Sala and Just Another Damn Good Sick Joint)
• The Red Lion
• The Good Shepherd
• The Mansion House
• Ketchup Food Community
• Cafè Cueva
• Baguio Craft Brewery
• Good Taste

**The photos used at this post are collectively gathered, grabbed and provided by me and the friends I had the trip with.