HELLO. I’m Atom, and you’ve received my Travel Notes:
→ On the weeks I travel, I share stories, reflections, and lessons.
→ On the weeks I stay home, I share tips, tools, and templates.
The plan was to leave Wednesday night so we could arrive in Quirino early Thursday morning. We would visit Landingan Viewpoint and Governor’s Rapids before spending the night in a homestay. From Quirino, we would spend Friday driving up to Illagan, which we would use as a halfway point, before driving up to Baggao, Cagayan, for the Lipit Canyon and Blue Waterfalls. On the way home from Cagayan on Sunday, we would stop by Nueva Vizcaya to paraglide. 1250 km and 4 new provinces in 4 days with an average of 7 hours on the road per day.
That’s what you call a road trip!
But if I was being honest, I was a lot more exhausted than excited. Besides driving, we needed to find three separate places to sleep in, and we needed to plan our drives to arrive at our activities before they closed.
Then my Montero broke down the Tuesday before our trip.
Now, not only did we not have accommodations, but we also didn’t have a car.
I called Johann.
Should we push through? Out of desperation and frustration, I asked if we were pushing it too far with this road trip. In a lucky sort of way, Johann had already filed his leaves, so we had to go.
Instead of trying to fit so much into our schedule, we forced ourselves to consider: what do we want to do the most?
The answer? Paraglide. Definitely, paraglide.
Ultimately, that was enough to drive the whole trip forward.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up with one objective: find a car.
I searched for Facebook groups with the keywords “manila car for rent.” I found two groups (VAN/CAR 4RENT PHILIPPINES and Manila Car for RENT Self Drive/ with Driver).
I posted:
LF self-drive car rental
From: July 5, 10 PM
To: July 10, 10 PM
Destination: Nueva Vizcaya
I was very pessimistic, given how soon we needed the car, but I surprisingly got dozens of messages. Come lunchtime, we had a 2023 Toyota Rush for only 2,500 a day.
We began to plan our trip.
No more Cagayan and no more Ilagan—they're too far. Although we can still do Quirino because it's very near Nueva Vizcaya. We agreed.
How about Baler? Johann suggested. Apparently, Andrea and Atew haven't been too.
Ok, let's do Baler. We can drive to Baler first, then feel our way to Nueva Vizcaya by Sunday… And if this is the case, it looks like we don't need to leave on Wednesday night anymore... What if we go on Thursday morning so we don't need to drive at night and can get some sleep?
It's a plan!
Later that night, we went on Agoda and found a place to stay in Baler. Our budget was 600 a night.
From a jam-packed, 4 province, 1250 km, 7-hours-a-day-driving road trip, we suddenly found ourselves with a wealth of time.
We ended up leaving Manila at 6 AM, so we found ourselves in Baler at 12 NN underneath a scorching sun. We grabbed lunch before checking in at our hotel and taking a nap to pass the afternoon heat. Waves were nonexistent, so Atew and I decided to go for a 10km run, where we happened to cross the Zabali Hanging Bridge just as the sun decided to set. The colors were spectacular.
Over dinner, we discussed our options for the next day.
If we stay in Baler, we can stay on the other side. I found a resort with daily morning yoga…
If we go to Quirino, we can go river tubing and boat cruise in Governor’s Rapids, we can hike to Landingan Viewpoint, go spelunking in Aglipay Caves, or chase waterfalls…
Ultimately, we did more research, found Siitan Nature Park, and discovered it excited us more than our original options. It was very near Landingan Viewpoint, too, so we could do the two activities on Friday then on Saturday, we could visit Governor’s Rapids before heading to Nueva Vizcaya.
It’s a plan!
The problem was that Quirino isn't a tourist-dense province, so accommodations were hard to find and reach. We called all the numbers on Quirino Tourism's list of accommodations, but none answered.
New plan? We drive straight to Siitan Nature Park and stop by all the homestays we find on the way. We couldn't find the first on our list, D'Fields Homestay, but we saw a sign for Balai Gardenia Cafe. We turned around and cautiously entered the place, as there were no cars or people. Tao po… Tao po… Atew and I called. Eventually, someone called back. We went in and met Mama Chita, the owner's mother. Mama Chita allowed us to look around; they had more than enough space to accommodate the four of us.
It was 2:30 PM by this time.
Siitan Nature Park and Landingan Viewpoint were no more than 20 minutes away, so we took our time to enjoy the rest of the afternoon, our minds at peace knowing we had a place to sleep.
We caught both sunset and sunrise in Landingan Viewpoint, which was spectacular with its stone steps framed by the Cagayan River and Sierra Madre mountain range.
From here, the plan was to leave our homestay at 10 AM so we could pass by Governor's Rapids before heading to Nueva Vizcaya. Instead, when we returned from sunrise at Landingan Viewpoint, we went back to sleep, our homestay being more comfortable than we expected.
We checked out at 12 NN, making passing by Governor's Rapids impossible. I was disappointed because I didn't want to spend the day driving to Nueva Vizcaya. As a final effort to find adventure in the day, I asked my contact person from Nueva Vizcaya Paragliding if they had recommendations for places to see or eat.
Here’s what they sent:
EATS IN NUEVA VIZCAYA - going towards Ambaguio Road
Mais sa kalsada - Diadi (along the main road)
GB BUKO PIE - Bagabag (along the main road)
CAFE ANGELO by BALAI GLORIA - restaurant in Solano
MRS. BAKERS - restaurant in Bayombong town
KAINYUGAN - open air restaurant in Bayombong main road
KAPE JUAN - cafe and restaurant coming up here to Ambaguio
ROADWAY restaurant - local food coming up here to AmbaguioPLACES:
LMET - Lower Magat EcoTourism Park - an ecoPark in Diadi
NUEVA VIZKAWA - kawa hot bath - Magapuy, Bayombong Nueva Vizcaya (malalagpasan nyo ang road going up to Ambaguio though)
COURAGE MOUNTAIN - Magapuy, Bayombong
When in doubt, ask the locals what to do!
My eyes zeroed in on Nueva Vizkawa. I've always wanted to try a Kawa hot bath. I clicked the link to their FB page and called them. I reached Sir Red, inquired about the price, and made a reservation for 6 PM.
It's a plan!
Things were straightforward from here. We drove to the campsite of Nueva Vizcaya Paragliding with lunch in the city of Bayombong along the way. At night, we went to Nueva VizKawa for a much-needed kawa hot bath, body scrub, and massage. The following day, we caught the sunrise from our camp, our third in as many mornings! Later, we were lucky to find some fantastic wind and weather conditions for Paragliding. By 2:30 PM on Sunday, we were on our way back to Manila.
I’m giving it straight up. This was the best road trip I’ve ever been on. There was adventure. There was novelty. There was beautiful views. There was nature. And there was rest.
In posting on Instagram, I received a lot of messages asking me for more details, so here it is:
Day 1
5 AM - depart Manila
12 NN - arrive baler, have lunch (Coffeedocia x Gayuma)
2 PM - check-in (Blue Coco House), rest
5 PM - sunset run to Zabali Hanging Bridge
8 PM - dinner (Taste Budzz for live music)Day 2
8 AM - pack up and checkout
9:30 AM - breakfast (The Shack)
11 AM - depart from Baler
2 PM - arrive at Quirino homestay (Balai Gardenia)
3 PM - late lunch at Nagtipunan (MJ’s Pancit Cabagan)
4 PM - river tubing and boat cruise at Siitan Nature Park
6 PM - sunset at Landingan Viewpoint
8 PM - dinner at homestayDay 3
5 AM - sunrise at Landingan Viewpoint
9 AM - breakfast at homestay
11 AM - pack up and checkout
12 NN - depart from Quirino
3 PM - late lunch at Bayombong (G&B Buko Pie, Kamayan sa Kainyugan)
5 PM - arrive at Nueva Vizcaya Paragliding, check-in
6 PM - kawa hot bath and massage at Nueva VizKawa Wellness FarmDay 4
9 AM - paragliding orientation, wait for winds
1 PM - checkout
2 PM - late lunch at Ambaguio, Nueva Vizcaya (Roadway Cafe)
3 PM - depart from Nueva Vizacaya
11 PM - arrive in Manila
If you followed our itinerary, I'm confident you would have an amazing road trip, but I doubt it will be your best. This was the best road trip for me because it was exactly what we needed at each moment. We allowed ourselves to consider how we felt, and we allowed ourselves the flexibility to do what excited us the most.
Here's the thing to remember on a road trip: you have a car, and having a car is the ultimate travel luxury.
The least you need to do is have a general direction or route you want to take for your road trip; then, you can let each day decide for itself what it wants to do. In our case, we decided to drive from Manila to Baler to Nueva Vizcaya. Everything in between was decided at the moment.
Try this! Book your first night and nothing more. I bet you'll be surprised by how well spontaneity can take care of you.
Until next week,
Atom
Are you interested in exploring the Philippines too? Here are some ways I can help...
Travel can be expensive. Here is my list of hacks to spend less on PH travel and a spreadsheet template to help you budget your next trip.
I make a spreadsheet for every trip. Here’s the guide to my Google Drive with all spreadsheets.