Go Baguio! Your Complete Guide to Baguio City, Philippines

All About Baguio City, Philppines

Ours is a tiny mountain resort town with a big reputation. Baguio is gifted with a variety of cultural, historical and scenic attractions that make it an important and interesting destination, favorited by local and foreign tourists, whole families on vacation, honeymoon couples and large convention groups.

Boasting great natural beauty, chilly weather, a tourist-friendly people and extraordinary vistas, the City of Pines is the culmination of your search for the idyllic escape from the tropical heat of the Philippine lowlands.

Geography

Baguio City occupies about 57 square kilometers of hilly land about 1,524 meters high in the southwestern portion of the Cordillera Central mountain range in northern Luzon in the Philippines. It is completely surrounded by the province of Benguet, which Baguio used to be a town of before being made into an independent city. It is bordered by the municility of Tuba to the south and west, by Itogon to the east and to the north by Benguet's capital, La Trinidad.

Climate

The average temperature is from 15-26˚C, and it can drop down to 8˚C from December to early February. The weather follows the typical Philippines' seasons: Dry Season from October to May and the Wet Season from June to September.

In general, Baguio is 8˚ cooler on any given day compared to any place in the Philippine lowlands. When Manila heats up at at 35˚C, Baguio seldom exceeds 26˚C at its warmest. The lowest temperature reading made was 6.27˚C, recorded in January 18, 1961. Recently, on January 29, 2007, the temperature dropped to a chilly 7˚C.

Baguio can get pretty foggy and damp during the Philippines' rainy season, with the largest amount of rainfall in the country, due to the high altitude and the heavily forested areas of the Cordillera mountain range. The record for the heaviest volume of rainfall occurred in July 1927 when it measured 4.77 meters.

In November, wild sunflowers appear on the hillsides signaling the end of the rainy season, and Baguio becomes a tropical paradise until May. Christmas season is when it glows with the nippy wintry air, and coats, hats and scarves are the outfits of choice.

The Official Seal of Baguio City, Philippines

QUICK FIGURES

Location

240 km north of Manila

Land Area

57.49 square km

8.2 km east to west

7.2 km north to south

Climate

> Temperature is 15-26˚C, can drop down to 7˚C

> Dry Season from October to May

> Wet Season from June to September

Population

301,926 as of Aug 1, 2007; more than 45% are students

Language / Dialect

English widely used

Ilocano - 55%

Tagalog - 25%

Other dialects - 20%

Currency

Philippine Peso (Php) in denominations of 1000, 500, 200, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 1 in pesos and 25, 10, 5 and 1 in centavos

see Currency Converter

Economy: Tourism

Baguio retains its title as the Summer Capital of the Philippines no longer because it is the seat of the entire national government in April and May (as only the Supreme Court of the Philippines remains true to the tradition of holding its sessions in Baguio during the summer) but because its cool temperature is a much needed respite from the tropical heat that the rest of the country endures on those months.

It is a favorite vacation place for Filipino families, balikbayans (Filipinos returning from living and working overseas), American tourists nostalgic

for the country's "Little America," and other foreign visitors who want to sample an altogether different Philippine setting.

Throughout the year, Baguio is also popular as "Convention City," boasting of several convention centers and conference halls that can accommodate up to 4,000 guests at a time.

Economy: Education

The past decade has seen a surge in the student population as Baguio schools have been mushrooming all over the city, and as same-sized "campuses" have been permitted an unhampered increase in enrollment.

This massive number of transient residents has affected tourism economy somehow because it is the main cause of the congestion of the city center, as the big schools are located there, and a rising unemployment rate. This has also led to an overpopulation of Baguio (as it was designed originally for just 30,000 residents), and taxes the city's resources.

One big source of revenue for the city is the proliferation of Korean English Academies. Though their numbers are

unknown, just a cursory look around at all the business signages with Korean characters on them, as well the Koreans walking around on weekends, will reveal that they are here in large numbers, especially in from July to September and December to February.

Economy: Exports & Manufacturing

Baguio Export Processing Zone

The home of numerous garments factories, Texas Instruments Philippines and Moog Controls Corporation, BEPZ is responsible for generating jobs for the locals as well as contributing to a great extent to the Gross National Product of the Philippines.

Woodcarvers & Weaving

Another source of exports are the works of ethnic woodcarving and weaves that are sought after in the international market.

Agricultural Products

The Cordillera Region is the Philippines' best and primary source of highland vegetables such as lettuce, broccolli, cauliflower, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, and other greens. These are brought to La Trinidad Valley in Benguet and are retailed at the very popular Baguio City Market.

Service Providers

Recently, due to the huge population of fresh graduates from the Baguio schools and universities in Baguio, there has been an influx of call centers in the city with international companies outsourcing their technical support facilities in the Philippines.