Visiting Ilocos Norte for the first time? Perfect Guide here!

Smooth Drive 

Ilocos is like a giant diamond in the north and shining that never been seen from the south, however, it takes some 8-10 hours drive from Manila to Ilocos and it would be easier to get there if we have wider and no traffic roads, we have toll gates and expressways and that is much easier and convenient but some bus companies like Fariñas, Florida, RCJ, and Partas has different routes, so in regard to speed and smooth drive I could recommend FARIÑAS as one of my best choices to go to Ilocos, that is - they have newly made buses and you can also choose from

P700 – First Class

P750 – First Class with CR

P800 – Super First Class (individual monitor)

P850 – Deluxe with CR and Lazy boy seats.

P900 – Super Deluxe (individual monitor)

I'm also planning right now to go to Manila from here in Laoag to experience the Super deluxe so please stay tuned on my YouTube channel and I would like you to see the Super Deluxe bus of FARIÑAS TRANS: Please subscribe to my channel to see more of my videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTIRaM1QDZiLp_6_Jhb47qg

The First Place 

So what is new in Ilocos (Laoag City-Vigan City) Let's start in Ilocos Sur, Vigan City is where you can find the original Spanish colonial architectures, foods, and traditional activities, I have been there a weeks ago May 16, 2019, and it's my first time and with a long decision has been finally pin, you know I don't have much time to go elsewhere anymore because I work at JAVA HOTEL - LAOAG CITY full-time and I actually don't recognize Vigan to visit before but because I was wondering how Vigan City looks like then I decided to go there on my own and everything. If you like to see the video of my vlog in Vigan City please check it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7soSIpcYD-4 

 

JAVA HOTEL LAOAG CITY

Next would be Laoag City - I can tell you right now and you have to believe me that you will never disappoint during your stay, Laoag is really amazing and beautiful like you've never seen before and before anything else again I'm begging you please come to JAVA HOTEL to stay for a long night and try our Ilocano foods, Japanese cuisine and see our tourist attractions like the SINKING BELL TOWER, LA PAZ SAND DUNES, AND AURORA PARK at the Ilocos Norte Capitol, In the northern part of Ilocos Norte is the windmill farm in Burgos, Bangui, and Pagudpud, The Oldest lighthouse in the world (Cape Bojedor) and the Kapurpurawan rock formation this are the main tourist attractions in Ilocos today, from 300k visitors last year, we have reached almost a million visitors just for the summer of 2019. If you want to see my video then check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loCUTso1Nnc and also this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Bpqiw2EWc and another one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbLIT-6L3BE

1/10

I would rate Ilocos 9/10 because we speak Tagalog and English better than "very good", Hospitality, Service speed and Friendly. The only 1 point that we don't have would be the better transportation that can access you to an island or far away locations like mountains and rivers so what you have to do is rent a boat or motorcycle and another one is the better technology which Manila has today.

Empanada 

Empanada is completely one of a kind food that has been made ever! Empanada was brought here in the Philippines way back Spanish colonials and you can only find the original here in Ilocos Norte and the first city who introduce is in Batac City which is a part of Ilocos Norte province (newly declared city 2012), Anyway! there's a lot of flavours to choose from like the special one then the malongay empanada, the savoury longanisa, and the sweet meaty flavour, other unrecognized vendors of empanada has different flavours like dragon fruit empanada (Dried filling of the fruit), puso nang saging (the heart of banana) and many more, you can find empanada vendors on the streets around the city or even barangay's and popular locations like Laoag city plaza and Batac city capitol, don't worry it's only 20-25 pesos for regular order and 45-50 pesos for the special one, the main ingredient of empanada is mongo, papaya or cabbage, then of course egg, then the crispy dough of empanada is made of glutinous rice and jasmine rice (ground) mix together to meet the best quality of empanada, and don't forget to add the olive oil.

Cost of leaving

It's much cheaper in the province but what I want to explain is that let me try to tell some example of the cost of leaving in abroad to the Philippines and Manila to the provinces

First is that from abroad they send money to the Philippines because we know it has higher value just like Manila to provinces it has the same value but the cost of living in the provinces is cheaper, now what I want you to clear is that there are foreigners and balikbayans who set vacations for a month or sometimes it takes a year so I hope you get what I'm pointing to. Bakasyunista has much money and when they came here in the Philippines from the USA(52.17) then I think they will  have more money because exchange rate from dollar to peso is much higher than the other countries except EURO (58.10) and Kuwait (171.39), Philippines provinces have always cheap prices except for electronics and industrial products because some materials used to produce the product was imported from other countries also, you will just think then that what if we produced our own and never import materials or chemicals from abroad, that's the big mistake we never thought before and we still suffer from the democracy that Aquino's did to us. So let us go back to the prices from the provinces, now what I want you to know is that provinces have much more resources when it comes to the production of foods like fruits, vegetables, and rice, so whenever they say that we are living in the provinces who are poor that's a mistake, actually we are much richer than the people who are living in an urban city because we have cheaper prices on foods and economically we have the same government workers salary rage. Did you get what I mean? of course yes! a teacher who gets $1,000 in Manila is the same what a teacher gets in the province but has cheaper prices of foods and rent of house also.

Quality of life

Quality of life in the province is far a little in an urban however I know you have billions, billionaire Villar is living in Manila but manny is from Gensan so that's a province, anyway! were talking about the quality of life in the north. So this is the answer:

1. Low cost of living in the provinces makes us happier

2. Highways and bridges are the same as before and still counting of constructions now that Duterte has the best admin ever!

3. Education in the north especially here in Ilocos Norte has one of the highest rates of education index and professionalism

4. The income of every household is increasing too

5. Everybody has N-max lol! even a kid(13-18 years of age) they have it in Ilocos.

Whenever you go, don't forget to pray and make sure everything is ready, like power banks, pocket money or emergency cards, water? anything that it can help you with your travel.