The best things to do in Baguio are Burnham Park and the Session Road spine above it, the BenCab Museum out on Asin Road, the rebuilt Ifugao houses at Tam-awan Village, and the pine trails of Camp John Hay. Give the city three days and come between November and April. Travel by taxi and jeepney: the centre is walkable but the good things sit on hills.
Baguio sits at about 1,500 metres in the Cordillera, which is why Filipinos have called it the summer capital since the Americans built it as a hill station. Below are the ten experiences worth your time, plus the months, fares and permits to sort before you go.
The city was planned around it. Daniel Burnham drew the lake and the lawns in 1905, and the park still works as Baguio's front room: rowboats, rented bicycles, a rose garden and an orchidarium, ringed by pines. Come early, before the boats and the school groups.
Benedicto Cabrera, National Artist for Visual Arts, built four floors of galleries into a slope above Asin Road. His own work hangs alongside contemporary Philippine art and a serious Cordillera collection of bulul rice gods and tribal craft. The terraces and duck pond below are part of the visit.
The 1.7 km spine of the central business district, climbing from Governor Pack Road past the cathedral stairway. Bakeries, bookshops, second-hand clothing stalls and the city's oldest dining rooms sit along it. During Panagbenga it closes to traffic for a week of stalls and bands.
Ifugao and Kalinga houses, dismantled in the Cordillera and rebuilt on a hillside by the Chanum Foundation from 1998. Artists work in the studios at the bottom and the path climbs through the huts to a viewpoint. A few of the houses are let overnight.
The United States kept a rest camp here from 1903 and handed the site back in 1991. What is left is the best stand of pine inside the city: the Yellow Trail through the forest, the Bell House and its gardens, the Cemetery of Negativism, and a Jack Nicklaus golf course.
Benguet's harvest arrives here first: strawberries, broccoli, sayote and mountain rice, alongside sacks of highland arabica and the jars of ube jam people carry back down to Manila. The dry section sells woven blankets and second-hand jackets, which is why half the city shops here.
The deck looks down the Benguet valley toward the copper and gold workings at Itogon that gave the park its name. It is also the most crowded spot in Baguio, ringed by stalls selling woven goods and highland brooms. Come at opening, or trade it for Mirador at sunset.
A 9.4 km ridge traverse an hour out of the city, crossing open grassland spurs between pine stands with the Cordillera on both sides. Register at the Ampucao barangay hall and take the guide: both are required, and the ridge is exposed once the cloud comes in.
The official summer residence of the President sits behind an ornamental gate, and there is nothing to do but photograph it. Cross the road for Wright Park instead: the Pool of Pines runs downhill to a stable yard where the riding horses have worked for generations.
The rose-pink cathedral on Mount Mary is the building Baguio puts on its postcards, reached by a stairway straight off Session Road. It sheltered civilians through the bombardment of the city in 1945, and the terrace in front of it is the best free view of the central district.
Kidlat Tahimik's treehouse food court on Assumption Road, built almost entirely from salvage.
The ethnographic museum on the University of the Philippines Baguio campus. Strongest on textiles.
Boating lake, rose garden and orchidarium, laid out at the centre of the city in 1905.
Igorot house replicas and a shaded loop, ten minutes downhill from Mines View.
A bamboo grove, the Stations of the Cross, and the sunset the Mines View crowd misses.
Opened by Baguio artists in 1988 and still the clearest introduction to Cordillera cooking.
A wide-ranging kitchen inside Casa Vallejo, the oldest surviving hotel building in the city.
A vegetarian rooftop of ponds and salvaged timber above Session Road, built by artists.
The dining room at Camp John Hay's hotel, and the steadiest formal kitchen in Baguio.
Thick tablea chocolate whisked at the table, in a garden hut at Camp John Hay.
Strawberries, highland arabica, woven blankets and the second-hand clothing aisles.
About 3,000 titles, most of them Filipiniana. Run by the Perez sisters since 2010.
Pick your own in the Benguet valley, fifteen minutes downhill from the city.
Ibaloi mummies preserved by smoke in cliff caves, declared a National Cultural Treasure.
Weeks of flower floats and street dancing, closing with the grand float parade in early March.
Session Road closes to traffic for a week of stalls, food and bands at the end of Panagbenga.
La Trinidad's harvest fair, fifteen minutes downhill, with the picking fields at their fullest.
Pilgrims climb the grotto stairway through Holy Week and the city fills with lowland visitors.
The region marks its 1987 founding with cañao rites, gong ensembles and craft fairs.
Act No. 1963 made Baguio a chartered city on this date in 1909, and the city marks it yearly.
The UNESCO Creative City festival: craft markets, exhibitions and open studios across town.
Benguet's provincial harvest and culture fair, held down the hill in La Trinidad.
The nearest international gateway, about 185 km south. Buses and vans run up through TPLEX in roughly four hours, and it is the route most foreign arrivals take.
Inside the city at Loakan, on a short runway hemmed in by ridges. Commercial service has come and gone over the years, so check whether anything is flying before planning around it.
Victory Liner, Genesis and Solid North run all day from Cubao, Pasay and PITX. Four to six hours by way of TPLEX, and the non-stop deluxe services are worth the difference.
Metered taxis are cheap and everywhere, which matters on hills this steep. Jeepneys run fixed routes from Kayang and Magsaysay out to the suburbs and down to La Trinidad.
The Cordillera's smoky chicken broth, cooked with etag and served at gatherings.
Pork salt-cured and smoked over a wood fire for weeks. Used as seasoning as much as meat.
Smaller and far more garlicky than the Manila sausage. A breakfast plate with rice and egg.
Silken tofu and sago pearls, with Benguet strawberries in place of the usual brown syrup.
Purple yam cooked down for hours. The Good Shepherd jars are the ones people queue for.
Sticky rice and muscovado sugar, sealed inside a coconut shell you poke open.
Cordillera blood sausage, grilled hard on the outside and sold by the market stalls.
Coffee grown on the slopes around the city and roasted dark for the public market.
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Philippines