Must-see attractions in North Luzon

  • Craft store on historic Crisologo Street, Mestizo District.

    Mestizo District

    Vigan

    The Mestizo District, or Kasanglayan ('where the Chinese live'), is a grid of streets hemmed in between Plaza Burgos and Liberation Blvd and bisected by…

  • Timbac Caves

    The Cordillera

    These are the most well-preserved and interesting Ibaloi mummies that you can see in the area but unfortunately the caves have been closed since 2016…

  • Callao Cave

    North Luzon

    The most accessible part of the area's immense 25km limestone cave complex is the seven-chambered Callao Cave. The cave is reached by 184 slippery steps…

  • BenCab Museum

    Baguio

    This superb museum dedicated to the life, times and work of artist Benedicto Reyes Cabrera (BenCab) is as fascinating as the man himself. The gallery is a…

  • Echo Valley Hanging Coffins

    Sagada

    Sagada's most popular attractions are the hanging coffins of Echo Valley: some are centuries old, while others are only a few years old. Most are high up…

  • Paoay Church

    North Luzon

    Nineteen kilometres southwest of Laoag is North Luzon’s most famous church. Unesco World Heritage–listed Paoay Church was built in classic earthquake…

  • Bontoc Museum

    The Cordillera

    At this wonderful museum, powerful black-and-white photos are interspersed with indigenous art, representing each of the region’s main tribes. You may…

  • Museum of Cordillera Sculpture

    Banaue

    This museum showcases a collection of Ifugao woodcarvings, and what a collection it is. Ritual objects and antique bulol line the vast hall, among…

  • St Louis University Museum

    Baguio

    This campus museum is run by Isekias 'Ike' Picpican, one of the country’s foremost authorities on the history and culture of the Cordillera people. You…

  • More than 100 wooden coffins stacked at the lichen-lined entrance hall of Lumiang Burial Cave.

    Lumiang Burial Cave

    Sagada

    Lumiang Burial Cave is a 10- to 15-minute walk south of the main village, towards Ambasing, well signposted along the left-hand fork in the road. Steep…

  • Sumaguing Cave in the Philippines.

    Sumaging Cave

    Sagada

    The exhilarating Sumaging Cave, or Big Cave, is the most popular of Sagada's caves. Its immense chambers are home to other-0worldly rock formations with…

  • Camp John Hay

    Baguio

    A Japanese internment camp for Allied prisoners of war in WWII, and then a US military rest-and-recreation facility, 246-hectare Camp John Hay has been…

  • Tam-awan Village

    Baguio

    Nine traditional Ifugao homes and two Kalinga huts were taken apart then reassembled on the side of a hill at this artists colony. Spending the night in…

  • Hundred Islands National Park

    North Luzon

    This small national park off the coast of Alaminos, 35km southeast of Bolinao, actually consists of 123 separate islets (some are just large rocks). Over…

  • Pottery Factories

    Vigan

    Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, Chinese settlers pioneered a still-active pottery industry. You can visit a couple of pottery factories on Gomez St…

  • Ma-Cho Pagoda

    San Juan (La Union)

    The Ma-Cho is one of the most striking Chinese temples in Luzon. A loud collision of Taoism and Chinese Catholicism (think bright-red imperial Chinese…

  • St Paul Cathedral

    Vigan

    This church was built in ‘earthquake baroque’ style (ie thick-walled and massive) after an earlier incarnation was damaged by quakes in 1619 and 1627. The…

  • Padre José Burgos National Museum

    Vigan

    Built in 1788, this museum is in the ancestral home of Father José Burgos, one of the three martyr priests executed by the Spanish in 1872. It houses an…

  • Magsingal Museum

    Vigan

    This branch of Vigan's Padre José Burgos National Museum, located 11km north of Vigan in Magsingal, displays an absorbing collection of Ilocano relics. An…

  • Demang

    Sagada

    South of the centre, the small village of Demang is now a barangay of Sagada but was the area’s original settlement and remains Sagada’s cultural and…

  • Tappia Waterfall

    The Cordillera

    It’s a 40-minute gruelling but worthwhile hike across the terraces and a steep descent to the 21m-high Tappia Waterfall, where you can sunbathe on the…

  • Sand Dunes

    North Luzon

    Located along the coast near Laoag, the seemingly endless sand dunes sprawl south all the way to Paoay. Access is easiest to the La Paz stretch, only 15…

  • Bangao Mummy Caves

    The Cordillera

    The forests around Kabayan hide dozens of mummy caves that only Ibaloi elders can locate; the nearest site where you can see some (not terribly well…

  • Opdas Mass Burial Cave

    The Cordillera

    On the southern edge of town (in someone’s backyard), this spooky charnel house has hundreds of skulls and bones between 500 and 1000 years old lined up…

  • Malacañang of the North

    North Luzon

    In a peaceful location next to the scenic Paoay Lake, the opulent former estate where the Marcos family spent their holidays is open to the public. The…

  • Banaue Museum

    Banaue

    The Banaue View Inn runs this museum, which contains books written decades ago by anthropologist Otley Beyer and Igorot artefacts collected by his son…

  • Odessa-Tumbali Cave

    North Luzon

    Estimated to be at least the second-longest cave system in the country at 12.5km (it still hasn’t been explored to its terminus), Odessa-Tumbali Cave is…

  • Blue Lagoon

    North Luzon

    Paradisical Blue Lagoon holds Luzon’s whitest sand and bluest waters but the large-scale development here has eaten up a big part of the beach and it's…

  • Stingray Memorial

    North Luzon

    In secluded Caunayan Bay, this memorial commemorates the mission of American submarine USS Stingray, which delivered weapons to Ilocano guerrillas, thus…

  • Tinongchol Burial Rock

    The Cordillera

    About 3km northwest of Kabayan, near barangay Kabayan Barrio, is the Tinongchol Burial Rock, where several coffins have been leveraged into cuts in a…

  • Kabayan National Museum

    The Cordillera

    This compact museum is a good introduction to this part of the Cordillera. Ask the friendly curator to explain the difference between traditional clothing…

  • Museo Ilocos Norte

    North Luzon

    Housed in the historic Tabacalera warehouse, the snazzy Museo Ilocos Norte is one of the better ethnographic museums in the Philippines. It houses a large…

  • Juan Luna Shrine

    Vigan

    It's worth stopping in Badoc, halfway between Vigan and Laoag (about an hour by bus), for a peek inside the restored ancestral home of Juan Luna, arguably…

  • Kabigan Falls

    North Luzon

    Kabigan Falls is 120m of crashing white water and a cool, clear pool for swimming. It's accessible via group tours run by all hotels or via private…

  • Liw-liwa

    North Luzon

    A wonderful spot for surfing, Liw-liwa is a beautiful stretch of volcanic-pumice-strewn beach just south of San Felipe, which is 5km north of San Narciso…

  • Pundaquit

    North Luzon

    Oriented for perfect sunsets, this wide grey-white beach with lapping waves is strewn with colourful fishing bangka. Add to this a view of Capones Island…

  • Marcos Museum

    North Luzon

    The house where Ferdinand Marcos was born on 11 September 1917 takes pride of place in the small village of Sarrat, 15km east of Laoag. Displays embellish…

  • Tangadan Falls

    San Juan (La Union)

    A popular day trip when the surf is flat, Tangadan falls flows over pancake rock formations into a refreshing blue pool. To get there, take a tricycle…

  • Ganduyan Museum

    Sagada

    This small museum is packed with an anthropologist’s dream of sculptures, jewellery and other Kankanay artefacts. Be sure to chat to the owner, the son of…