Banaue

14 Things to Know when Visiting Batad, Banaue, Ifugao

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Most people know the popular Banaue Rice Terraces but never heard of Batad Rice Terraces. In my personal opinion, you should know Batad as the Rice Terraces there is my favorite among my favorites.

This post will list down things that you need to know when you visit Batad. In short this is my Batad Travel Guide.

The amphitheatre-like Rice Terraces of Batad. #Batad #Banaue #Ifugao #Philippines #TravelPH

A photo posted by Lakas ng Trip (@lakasngtrip) on

1. Where is Batad?

Banaue is a municipality of Ifugao. Batad is a barangay of Banaue. In short Batad is inside Banaue. In reality Batad Rice Terraces is actually a part of the Banaue Rice Terraces.

Travel from Banaue to Batad

During our transit from Banaue to Batad

2. Going to Batad

You will first have to reach Banaue. To do that you should read about my bus ride from Manila to Banaue. At Banaue you can either ride the Public Jeepney to Batad or you can hire a Jeepney or a Tricycle.

Batad Rice Terraces & Tappiya Waterfalls in Batad, Banaue, Ifugao

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On my first visit to Batad I was only around 140 Pounds and I learned how much muscle aches my body could achieve. On my second visit I brought along an additional weight of 20 pounds in the form of muscle and body fat (mostly body fat) and my muscle ached to the point that I think that fat aches also exist.

On my third visit to Batad, I added 50 pounds from my previous visit because I can. If you think about it, my body is like a barbell bar which I could add weights to it. I’m weirdly cool like that.

The original plan was just to visit the Highest Viewpoint of Batad Rice Terraces and the next day we would visit Tappia Falls because I do not want to abruptly stress my body from the additional weight. When my brother heard that we could still head to Hapao Rice Terraces if we visit Tappia Waterfalls on the same day, he encouraged us to do everything we can in Batad and move on to another destination the next day. And that was when we did not follow my workout schedule.

8:27 AM We arrived at our accommodation in Batad – Simon’s Viewpoint Inn and ordered the tasty Porkchop with Rice for breakfast (highly recommended). We decided over breakfast that we would start our trek around Batad at 1:00 PM so that we could still get enough sleep and have lunch before the trek.

Going around Batad Rice Terraces and Tappia Falls

12:00 NN We decided not to have lunch since we did not really do anything but sleep. Got ready for the trek and asked for a guide from the Batad Tourist Information Center to guide us to 3 main points of Batad Rice Terraces.

  • Highest Viewpoint
  • Tappia Waterfalls
  • Main Village

Guide fee is 800 Pesos/guide for the three points of interest above.

Ifugao: Journey from Banaue to Batad

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After the bus ride from Manila to Banaue, the jeepney we were riding on was heading into the town center of Banaue. We first stop at a lodge with a restaurant. Breakfast was definitely on my mind and stomach, but I had to make sure that we get a jeepney and hopefully we would get others to join us to lessen the cost.

The town center of #Banaue, #Ifugao. #Philippines #RiceTerraces

A photo posted by Lakas ng Trip (@lakasngtrip) on

I approached the guy who was helping us arrange the jeepney to Saddle Point in Batad. He was already talking to another tourist.

He told us that the price for the jeepney rental from Banaue Town Center to Batad Saddle Point was 2,800 Pesos/jeep and we had to split it among the passengers. Lucky for us that the other group was composed of a family of 7 persons. Since we are 3 persons, the payment for the jeepney would be 280 Pesos/person.

The guy continued explaining that it was now different from my previous visit to Batad. The roads are cemented and extended nearer the Batad which cut the hiking time from 1 hour to around 20 minutes.

Ohayami Trans: Bus from Manila to Banaue, Ifugao

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Advance Booking

Booking the bus from Manila to Banaue, Ifugao was one of the challenges in our trip for Batad-Hungduan-Banaue since we were booking on a long weekend. Very challenging that it went to a point that we almost backed out of the whole trip. Thankfully, with a lot of adjustments and persistence we were able to proceed with the trip.

We found out that Ohayami Trans had an e-mail booking last June 6, 2015. So we decided to try the e-mail booking and when they replied we will be able to transfer the amount immediately to their bank account. Unfortunately, they replied with this.

Screenshot from 2015-07-29 13:26:41Since the option to do e-mail booking is no longer available, we decided right away that we would visit their station the next day and book directly with Ohayami Trans in Sampaloc, Manila for the night of June 11, 2015. This is what was written in their ticketing office when we arrived.

Ohayami Trans: Fully Booked

NOOOO!!! But not yet. I really want us to go. I asked the lady on the other side of the counter if we could book going to Lagawe, then we will just ride a jeep from Lagawe to Banaue. I’ve done it before, I could do it again. And she answered “Sorry, fully booked na rin po kami papuntang Lagawe.” (Sorry, we are also fully booked going to Lagawe.) This is what we get from being tardy with advance booking of a bus that is scheduled to leave on a long weekend. (June 12 is Independence Day here in the Philippines.)

NOOOO!!! I travelled from Palawan to Manila just to do this trip again and I could not go because the buses are fully booked. I called my brother and told him of the unfortunate situation. We also presented alternative places that we can go to, but none of them were appealing to the traveler in us. We were too focused in going to Banaue and visiting the Rice Terraces that alternatives were no longer a choice.

I asked my brother that night at home if he was open to the idea if we move our trip from June 11-15 to June 12-16. He thought about it, eventually he agreed that we could travel on those dates, he just needs to adjust his office schedule. And we had to rebook some flights going back.

Yes, it was expensive to rebook the flights. But this is a planned trip that involves us blocking our busy schedule and paying for flights. We have invested time and effort for this trip. It would definitely be more expensive if we did not push thru. Rebooking of flights and adjusting our schedule is way more cheaper than for us to go back to our respective places and plan the whole trip again.

Itinerary: Batad – Hungduan – Banaue, Ifugao

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I have a feeling that my effort to layout all the expenses on our trip to Batad, Hungduan and Banaue will somehow make you confident on traveling to these places, but I also have a feeling that just laying them out there as a list is still not enough so I am also providing our somewhat real itinerary.

The itinerary below is very close to what we really did in our trip but I’ve modified it so that it would be easier to understand if you are also planning on a trip to these places.

To be specific, I adjusted the time to be closer to the nearest 10 minute of what really happened to us.

Check the itinerary below.

ITINERARY