Ilocos

Ilocos

“The gladdest moment in human life, me thinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Travelling to me is not just something you do because you want to be away from your daily routine, but you do it out of passion, and to me those are two different things. Ilocos has been sitting in my bucket list for quite some time already and I am glad to finally have checked it!

I and my husband have this yearly travel thing to celebrate our anniversary and this year we have chosen Ilocos. We’ve put so much thought about it, considered all the pros and cons there are and have finally decided to do it. On a more personal note, I love vintage and antiques. Ilocos, I reckon has plenty to offer when it comes to that. This place, is so far the farthest that we’ve been to and the 1^st province in Luzon we’ve traveled to.

How we got there? I know you are itching to hear the answer to that question. Well, okay, I’m not prolonging your agony anymore. For every budget conscious traveler like us, any promo is music to our ears. Yep, booked our flight from Cebu-Manila and vice versa early this year (wahooo.. early bird here). And by early I mean even before we have arranged any tour that would take us to Ilocos (fearless, aye?) well, you’ve got be one when traveling is your thing. Now, about our tour, there’s an array of pleasing package deals you can see on social media sites. However, bear in mind that you have to be very vigilant about it as more often than not scams are everywhere waiting for victims. We chose TRAVEL GALORE as our tour provider, it wasn’t easy to finally put your trust on to someone or something you haven’t dealt with in the past, but you have to be brave enough to explore. I looked them up on DTI website to see if this business is legit, lo and behold, found ‘em! I didn’t stop at that. I stalked(yes, I can go to that measure –evilgrin-) some people who have previously availed a tour package from them and privately messaged them via FB to ask about their experience. I got positive feedbacks so far so I contacted them via FB, emailed and booked for a 3D/2N joined tour with them. Yes, you can book an exclusive tour with them if you like. We braced ourselves for a long drive and left Manila at around 10PM with high hopes for a good weather despite the rainy season during our 3D/2N tour.

The well known Calle Crisologo (and our 1st stop) !!

Few of the places we've visited during our 3D/2N tour.

We checked out from our accommodation at around 8AM and did a little side trip on our way to Ilocos Sur for lunch. Arrived at Vigan half past 10 and spent a little leisure time having an early lunch and a short “kalesa” tour (not included in the travel tour package) around Vigan and of course bought “pasalubong” for family and friends back home. We finally left Vigan City at around 1:30PM and arrived in Manila few minutes past 10PM.

The whole tour was tiring and amazing at the same time. If you are not fond of long drives, then I don’t think this is for you, but if adventure and experience is what you are after, then you should book your Ilocos tour now! As stated above, it was a joined tour that we availed, so we barely knew our companions during the trip, but we were blessed to have traveled along with very jamming and fun loving people. Who says it’s not fun to be with strangers? There are certain joys in meeting different types of people once in a while. Will I do it again and risk another long tiring drive to visit other places? Certainly! Wherever you are planning to go, don’t exclude Ilocos in your bucket list!

To God be the Glory!