One of the most famous tourist spot, “Banaue, Rice Terrace ” in Luzon island.
I guess what we can see is just rural senary, and everyone exaggerates it or so??
…I thought.
In fact, it is not boring, it’s fun so much, and I realized that it is great place to enjoy activity especially for trekking. Therefore, I’d like to share a whole our travel and the way to enjoy Banaue!
Sightseeing Spots in Banaue
There are 4 sightseeing spots for the begineers where they can choose as below.
- BATAD VILLAGE & RICE TERRACES
+ TAPPIYAH FALLS - BANGAAN VILLAGE & RICE TERRACES
- BANAUE MAIN VIEW POINT
- HAPAO RICE TERRACES & HOT SPRINGS
As you know, the most famous place is the Rice Terraces, but there are some different features each other. Among these places above, the most popular one is “1. BATAD VILLAGE & RICE TERRACES + TAPPIYAH FALLS” definitely. On the other hand, the spot where being easy to access is “3. BANAUE MAIN VIEW POINT”, and it takes 1 hour to see all.
Among these choices, we visited 1, 2, and 3. In my opinion, I’d like to rank them as these number, and introduce them in order!
BATAD VILLAGE
- ACCESS
BATAD VILLAGE is located in 16km far place from Banaue, and it took 40 mins by van. There must be the most famous and vastest. - TIME REQUIRED
7 hours：Rice terraces trekking, Playing in the water at the water fall - SERVICE FEE
Normally, the entrance fee including both Rice Terraces and Water fall is 50 pesos each, but we could enter there for 40 pesos because we are students. In addition, there is an additional payment for parking lot. For a tricicle, it costs 50 pesos for 1day, or 200 pesos for overnight. For a van, it costs 150 pesos for 1day, or 300 pesos for overnight.
- GUIDE FEE
I recommend to recruit guides to visit because the ways to these Rice Terraces are complecated. In our case, I contacted with some guide groups through Facebook in advance, but we hired a guide provided by the owner of the hostel because it was so affordable. The price was 1,300 pesos for 8 people, the cheapest one than others.
For your information, I got several type of suggestions from each tour guide like “It required to hire 2 guides, and the fee is 1,200 pesos each”, or “650 pesos each attendee”. Amoung them, one group suggested us a good condition, you can contact him through a Facebook account below. he said “Though you are 8 members, it’s ok one guide for 1,500 pesos because you’re all 20s or 30s.“
BANGAAN VILLAGE
- ACCESS
BANGAAN VILLAGE is located 18km far place from the city, and the direction is almost same as BATAD VILLAGE. Therefore, it’s better to visit them at the same time. - TIME REQUIRED
10 minutes：Some photo spots from high point - SURVICE FEE
None - REMARK
We can see an unique landscape that a small village is surrounded by the Rice Terraces in all directions. Perhaps, we may be able to go down and visit the village, but we passed at that time.
BANAUE MAIN VIEW POINT
- ACCESS
It is located near the city about 4km far. - TIME REQUIRED
1 hour：Some photo spots from high point - SURVICE FEE
None - REMARK
This is the nearest and most convenient spots to see the Rice Terraces. We can find 5 view spots easily when we go north from the city. I recommend to go there before visiting BATAD because the scale is not so big.
HAPAO RICE TERRACES & HOT SPRINGS(Not visiting at this time)
- ACCESS
It is located in west part from the city about 10km. - TIME REQUIRED
5 hours：Trekking at the Rice Terraces, natural hot spring. - GUIDE FEE
700pesos according to the tour guide introduced above. - REMARK
This is also trekking spot at the Rice Terrace. The goal is specifed to the natural hot spring, so, it provides us unique experience. (We passed at this time because of the schedule)
MUST visit “BATAD”!
The BATAD Rice Terrace is the best for me, so I’d like to introduce a whole way in detail!
At first, we proceed to go down the slope after parking the van. The condition of that is steep like pictures below, so it definitily slippery. It is necessary to prepare the shoes which good for trekking.
After a while, we can find the building that having the role of reception and office. We regiter information and pay 50 pesos to enter.(Notice: You can get student discount if you bring your ID. It becomes 40 pesos) .
Go on the rough road, suddenly, the vast Rice Terraces appears in front of our sight. When I saw the landscape, I’m really moved and feel happy to have be able to visit there even though I was disapointed a little to see BANAUE MAIN VIEW POINT at 1st day.
Secoundly, we ‘ll proceed to the road in the village to approach the rice fields. The way is not flat but steep and unsteady because it is constructed aside of the mountain, so we have to care our step.
Also, it seems to be complecated for a beginner. That’s why, we are required to hire a travel guide. I recommend everyone to follow it because it’s very difficult to choose correct ways, but it’s not necessary as long as you have a experienced member.
Finally, we can face the fields in front of our sight after passing the road in the village. All what we can see are filelds, fields, and fields. Besides, the conbination of both blue sky and green mountain match with them very well.
Fortunately, the moment we visited was the best season, so we could see the fields which filled with rice plants. As a side note, the best month to visit there are known as both February to March or May to June. Former one is good for observing the situation of planting, and latter one is good for seeing rice plants.
The parts of sidewalk are too narrow and steep. Sometimes, even the handrail are missed, so, I’d like to warn the person who has Acrophobia.
Following that, we go down to leave for the water fall. It is pouring at the opposite sides of their Rice Terraces, and that location is much lower then them. It means we have to pass very steep site again.
After about 30 minutes going down, we finally reach the water fall. I realized that it’s not just optional place to drop by because it’s great landscape as well as the Rice Terraces.
This place is good for swimming, also. Then, we can take advantage of simple changing space which is installed by vinyl sheet. We can take a rest for a while since we must have been tired to reach there.
Lastly, we’ll head to the entrance. However, did you notice about the difficulity to do that? A whole trip until the water fall is going down, down and down, then, it’s time to go up. This type of adventure is so hard to complete because we already got tired on the half of the way.
In fact, I found some signboard which indicade the elevesion, and it’s obvious how far we proceeded when you see the pictures below. The signboard at the entrance shows it’s sea level is 1,100m. While, the sign near the water fall indicates 752m. I don’t have any idea which proves they are true, but the gap between the top point and the bottom is hard enough to make us exhausted, actually.
Thus, we seemed to step about 10km to complete all journey. We have to prepare suitable cloths and belongings because BATAD trip is not only a trekking but also climing a mountain.
Afterword
That’s all about the activities I experienced at BANAUE and BATAD. I was surprised they provide so hard activety than I expected before I didn’t have any ideas about that and I may heve underestimated about what we can do.
In conclusion, I strongly recommend everyone to go there because I coud get precious experiences. It’s my pleasure if these informations are helpful to consider to make your itinirary. I’d like to go to HAPAO if I have a chance to go there again.
See ya!