This post is part of my North Luzon Road Trip Series

I have enjoyed road trips since I was a young adult. That feeling of being free to stop where you please, take your time, make split moment decisions is liberating. To while away an afternoon staring out of a window at the passing landscape pleases me.

Having kids in tow makes it a little different. Less of the ‘whiling away’ and more of the negotiating the next toilet stop. But there again, on the road you can stop anywhere you like.

A road trip is a great way to spend time together as a family. And it is kind of fun when the kids invent new rules to ‘I Spy’ and suddenly memories are included in the game. It is rewarding to see your children’s sense of wonder aroused. When they talk about previous adventures and compare. It is important to us that we instil in our children a sense of freedom, adventure and risk-taking. We want them to question (most of the time), we want them to be blown away by the possibilities. Taking them on adventures like this is kind of the point, and right now we are able to do this so we want to make the most of it while it lasts.

Now, before we get started, let’s just clear the elephant on the page shall we. Taking a road trip with children is not all fun and games. There I said it, I am not one to gloss over things. Here’s the thing, despite the whinging and whining, I do love experiencing their excitement levels, which are on the highest frequency when we are travelling together.

It is so rewarding when you get to see your kids experience something extraordinary. After a day of full-scale complaining, to then hear them debriefing each other saying ‘best day ever’ makes me shake my head and sigh, but it also kinda makes my heart sing.

We did think it rather ironic that while on our holiday this meme came up on Facebook…

So, to be clear, as you read this series on our North Luzon Road Trip, insert ‘whinging and whining children noise’ every three words. That should just about get it right…

 

Planning a Road Trip

When planning a road trip I do believe you need to have a vision for what you would like to achieve during the time you have. For us, we had set places that we wanted to check out. We are very much needing to be in nature to replenish us from life in Manila which is chaotic, and so our goal was to experience the beauty of the coastline and waterfalls up into North Luzon, while also visiting Vigan. And if we stumbled upon some other stuff along the way, well we would check it out.

When travelling with kids, you also need to consider what they will enjoy and build your itinerary to include appropriate stops and suitable rest and play times. We know our kids love the beach and waterfalls, so that was our sell point for them and we know that after a long day, just letting them run free in the sand and surf is all they need to re-energise.

 

Travel Options in the Philippines

It was important too, that we made the best use of our time, and so with only five days we decided to drive up to the top, then fly back from Laoag, leaving our driver to drive the car back home.

For a roadtrip up to North Luzon you have a few travel options. There is an International Airport in Laoag Ilocos Norte, and so you can easily fly up and hire a car or hire a car and driver. There are also various tour companies as well who will take you around the area.

All hotel accommodation will provide rooms for drivers, so if needed, just ask for it at the time of booking. 

 

North Luzon Road Trip Itinerary

Our itinerary looked like this:

Day 1: Manila – Baguio – San Juan, La Union

Day 2: La Union – Vigan

Day 3: Vigan – Badoc Island – Paoay – Pagudpud

Day 4: Pagudpud

Day 5: Pagudpud – Laoag

And it covered three provinces.

Because our trip was so huge, this series will cover each province, beginning here with our trip out of Manila. But you can use the shortcut links by clicking on the image above, and it will take you to the related post.

 

Day 1 Manila – Baguio – La Union

We left Manila at 6am and made it out of the city within an hour. The road to Baguio is new, it is now straight and easy. The one hiccup is there is about an 80km stretch with no fuel station or toilets and nowhere to pull over and squat behind a tree. There is a Starbucks and McDonalds in a little group of shops near a service station, right before the long stretch so stop here first.

Once off the freeway the drive into Baguio is lovely with winding twisting roads. Steep inclines and incredible green mountains with waterfalls pouring out of them as you drive past. Houses hanging onto mountainsides by their toenails, should they have toenails. I craned my neck to figure out the entry and exit points to some of these houses, seeing only narrow wire bridges crossing vast mountain chasms.

When you reach the giant lion’s head, the gateway to Baguio, stop and enjoy fresh air and strawberry ta-ho. You won’t really find it elsewhere. Taho is a lovely street food served warm, and made with silken tofu, tapioca beads, sugary syrup and in this case, strawberry syrup. It is mostly a breakfast meal but served throughout the day as it is hearty. Find the pedlar who has the chunks of strawberry in his syrup. It is way better than the other guy…sorry other guy, but it’s true.

We each filled up on the taho, bringing back memories for the children of our first trip here.

While you rest, check out the souvenir stalls.

 

Baguio

Baguio is a mountain city and it is gorgeous. Sharp, narrow windy streets will keep you guessing as you navigate around. You can read more about what to do in Baguio in an earlier post about our time there, here.

This time we were on a fly in-fly out trip so I could try and replace a small caribou carving that had broken. I brought a pair of carvings from the Easter Weaving Room two years ago. One of them was dropped and it broke. Yes these carvings are all over the place, but I particularly loved the character of these ones so wanted to replace it.

Stopping at the Easter Weaving Room, I discovered that sadly it didn’t seem to be caribou carving season, well not for the little tiny ones anyway. We made a quick departure and went to visit the Ifugao Wood Carvers Village on Asin Road, to see what we could find.

Ifugao Wood Carvers Village, Asin road, Baguio

Asin Road is lined with wood carving stalls, and you can walk between them all to find the right kind of wood carving for your collection. The kids got back scratchers they insisted they had to have, and I must say, Noodles is loving this new style of tummy rub.

You can also spend time here on the street watching the Ifugao people at work making their carvings. I found a caribou, not the right one, but one nonetheless, and for now I am happy with that. His little neck is outstretched, that way they do that, and he stares at me while I write.

From here we found a restaurant for a quick lunch before heading off again, down towards the western coast, into La Union for the next part of our adventure.

 

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