North

Family travels are the best. You won't be spending that much, and in my case, not even a peso. 

 Actually our Ilocos Trip was biglaan, our main purpose of going to the North is to pass my requirements at the FDA office in Region I, which is at San Fernando, La Union. Since Ilocos is adjacent to La Union we decided to have a glimpse of her and go on an adventure.

 Be blown away by her beauty. See her and you'll surely fall in love at first sight.

  It took us 4 hours to travel from Manila to La Union via TPLEX. We had lunch at Halo-Halo de Iloko , a restaurant known for its good food and cozy ambiance. We highly recommend you to eat out at this resto. Their variety of halo-halo are must tries.

We also had a quick stop at Thunderbird Poro Point, a mini- Santorini. The place is grand and nice but it's kinda pricey. If you have watched the movie No Other Woman, this is the resort where they had their shooting.

From La Union, we headed straight to Vigan, Ilocos Sur.

Vigan is known for its preserved old houses and establishments giving you the Spanish era feels. Every 7:30 in the evening, a dancing fountain show is held at the plaza. Luckily we arrived there on time so we were able to watch it. 

At night,Vigan looks like Divisoria because of the many tourists buying souvenirs around the city. So we decided to wake up early and stroll around at dawn. The architecture and design during the Spanish era is really something to look forward to. The delicate, intricate, and detailed patterns are picture perfect.

 

After lunch, we went next to Baluarte Zoo which is also located in Vigan. Kids and even adults would actually enjoy visiting there. It's clean, well maintained, and very child- friendly. You'd see wide variety of  endemic animals in the Philippines and animals from other countries too.The animals are well taken cared of and are tamed and trained. They also had animal shows by which people can have personal encounter with the animals. I am not fond of animals but I enjoyed our visit there.

That was our last stop in Ilocos Sur , and then we drove up to Ilocos Norte. Paoay is just a two hour drive from Vigan.

Our first destination in Norte is Paoay Church. So far, Paoay Church is the most beautiful church I've been to. It's actually one of the four Baroque churches in the Philippines that are inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After which, we went next to Paoay Sand Dunes. It is known for its desert like appearance and the late FPJ's Panday movie location. We highly suggest to come here before the sun sets to fully enjoy the view and the thrilling experience of the  4X4 Adventure Ride and Sand boarding. Since we came there late we didn't have any decent photo hihi. The ride and sand boarding are must tries. The view, the experience, the adrenaline rush, ahhhh its ahhhaaammaaazing.

Here's a photo I grab from the q10travelandtours.com.ph. LOL.

Our next destination is  Pagudpud, but  everybody's tired from the activities and the long hours of travel so we spent the night at Laoag City.We got back on our road trip the next morning.

After breakfast we headed straight to see the Bangui Windmills. I never thought that these windmills are huge as it were in pictures. It is gigantic , actually it was once featured in National Geographic as one of the mega-structures in Asia. 

 We headed next to Saud Beach in  Pagudpud, just an hour away from Bangui.

Pagudpud is said to be the Boracay of the North- just with less tourists, less garbage, less noise. If you're looking for a place to swim, relax, rejuvenate, and just enjoy the beach with your loved ones, Pagudpud is perfect for your getaway. 

Our stay on the beach was limited because we needed to go back to Manila the next day. We just had our lunch and then  vamoose we go. On our way back to Manila we passed by at Kapurpurawan , Burgos where there is a white rock formation along the hills and the sea shore. A majestic art it really is. 

From Pagudpud it will took us about 12 to 14 hours of long drive before we reach Manila, so we decided to spend the night at Laoag City. 

And for our last stop in Ilocos, we visited Marcos Museum and Mausoleum in Batac, Ilocos Norte.  I have these hunger to learn about our history so I kinda enjoyed going to museums. But this one is different ,I actually doesn't like the fact that Marcos' dead body is preserved, actually you would doubt if it was really him , he looks like a waxed manikin. After stopping by at Batac, we drove back home to Manila.

Our family trip up North was one of the most tiring travels we had because of the long drive, but it is indeed worth of our pagod. Ilocos Region is such a beauty. I love the fact that we were able to try and eat legit Ilocano delicacies,  they were so delicioso, my goodness gracious. And the thing I loved most about our trip is the bonding time we shared as a family. Cheers to more family trips like these!