Where to Have a ‘Heritage Holiday’ in the Philippines
Many older travellers enjoy learning about the history and culture of the countries that they visit. The Philippines is a particularly interesting country for those interested in colonial history because its present day culture is very much influenced by its periods of Spanish and American colonisation.
Despite its towns and cities being ransacked, looted, burned and bombed by Spanish, Dutch, British, American and Japanese invaders over a period of nearly 500 years, there are still many places that survived all the battles and provide insights into what life was like for Filipinos under their colonial rulers.
Whilst there are opportunities throughout the Philippines where visitors can learn about the history of the country, there are three places in particular that can be recommended for older travellers where heritage-learning experiences can be combined with a relaxing holiday visit.
1. Vigan
This city of about 50,000 people is the capital of the northern province of Ilocos Sur. Its old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and contains a greater number of well-preserved buildings from the Spanish colonial era than any other city in the archipelago. It is the number one destination for history buffs in the Philippines.
Many of the buildings in the old town have been converted to boutique hotels and fitted out with antique or replica heritage furnishings, enabling visitors to experience a reasonably authentic snapshot of life in the colonial days – at least as far as the more wealthy Filipinos and their Spanish rulers.
The great thing about Vigan for older travellers is that you can see all of the old town and nearby historic attractions from the comfort of a kalesa (the traditional horse drawn carriage of the Philippines) for just 150 pesos per hour for two people. The prices are regulated so you won’t have to haggle.
There are dozens of kalesas for hire all over the old town and the drivers can take you anywhere you want to go, or you can leave it to them to take you on an itinerary that will include all of the major sights.
Some of the kalesa drivers are very chatty and will tell you about the history of the buildings that you pass and recount stories from the colonial days. Other kalesa drivers look bored with their job and will just take you wherever you instruct them.
A good way to find one of the more friendly drivers is to go to the northern end of Calle Crisologo near Plaza Burgos where many of the drivers drop-off passengers, and look for kalesas that are unloading passengers. You’ll readily be able to pick out the chatty ones from those who are not.
As well as taking you around the old town, the kalesa drivers will take you over the river to the Bantay Watchtower which was built in 1591. It was actually the bell tower for the Bantay Church nearby, which was built in the same year. The church was badly damaged during World War II but rebuilt in the 1950s with a neo-Gothic façade.
You can climb to the top of the Bantay Watchtower to see the bells. It’s two steep flights of stairs but most able-bodied seniors should be able to manage it. From there you’ll have an excellent view over all of Vigan to the west, and to the east across rural areas to the mountains in Abra province.
On your kalesa tour you will no doubt also visit the Vigan Cathedral. Although this church was built only in the late 1700s, it’s of particular interest because it’s one of the best preserved cathedrals in the Philippines that was built in an architectural style called ‘Earthquake Baroque’.
This was an architectural style that was developed in the Philippines in the 17th and 18th centuries following a number of devastating earthquakes that destroyed many churches. Earthquake Baroque churches have lower ceilings and large buttresses along the side walls to help the structure withstand shaking.
Generally the bell towers are built to one side of the main church, or completely separate to it, to prevent the bells from falling on the church in the event of an earthquake.
The cathedral is only a short walk from Calle Crisologo, which is the street in the old town that attracts most visitors. There are many well-preserved buildings from the Spanish colonial period two blocks either side of Calle Crisologo. The cobbled-stoned street comes alive at night as tourists browse its many antique and souvenir shops in cooler temperatures.
Another popular night-time activity is the ‘dancing fountain’ show in Plaza Salcedo near the cathedral. Whilst not on the same scale as sound and light shows in bigger cities, it’s nevertheless a relaxing experience to watch for 30 minutes.
Check to see which way the breeze is blowing before deciding on which side to sit. There are bleachers on both the northern and southern sides, but those downwind from the fountains may get a little wet once the show starts. The dancing fountain show starts at 7.30 pm sharp and there is an extra show on Saturdays and Sundays at 8.30 pm.
Most of the streets of the old town of Vigan are quite narrow and don’t have any trees, so they can get quite hot during the day. All the more reason to tour in a kalesa, because they have a roof to provide shade. However if you prefer to walk and explore the old town at your own pace, take an umbrella. Using an umbrella as a sunshade is quite acceptable in the Philippines for both men and women, so you won’t look out of place.
The streets in the old town run roughly north to south, so for much of the day you’ll be able to find a shady side to walk on, but not in the middle of the day when the sun is overhead. If you’d like to visit a museum whilst in Vigan, then the middle of the day would be a good time to do it.
The Vigan branch of the National Museum behind the Ilocos Sur Provincial Capitol occupies two buildings. The main building is the old provincial jail and the other is Padre Burgos House – the birthplace of a priest who was executed by the Spaniards in 1872 for supposedly participating in an uprising.
Entry to this well-maintained museum is free and it offers guided tours for those who would like to learn more about the region’s colonial history. The museum houses a well-known art exhibit that depicts the Basi Revolt of 1807 when Filipinos were protesting the Spaniards’ monopoly on the production of sugar cane wine (basi).
The museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and most of it is air-conditioned, so it’s an ideal opportunity to stay out of the midday sun and spend some time learning not only about the history of the Ilocos region during the Spanish colonial days, but also about one of the Philippines’ former presidents, Elpidio Quirino, who was born in Vigan City in 1890.
(Note: The Padre Burgos section of the National Museum was closed for renovations at the time of writing. Please check the website of the National Museum to determine whether it is open prior to visiting)
For those interested in more recent history, there is another small private museum called the Crisologo Museum on Liberation Boulevard, which was established by the Crisologo family to mark the death of their patriach, Congressman Floro Crisologo, who was assassinated in the Vigan Cathedral in 1970.
The Crisologo Museum is housed in the family’s old mansion, which is fairly dilapidated these days, and its exhibits consist mainly of memorabilia from the post-war days, but it’s nevertheless worth a visit. Entry to this museum is also free, but it is only open for three hours in the morning (8.30 am – 11.30 am) and three hours in the afternoon (1.30 pm – 4.30 pm).
The middle of the day is also a good time to check out the many coffee shops and restaurants in the old town. If you like good coffee, then head to the Coffee Break on Salcedo Street, just around the corner from Calle Crisologo. It’s a small café and can get quite noisy when full, but it’s definitely the best coffee in town.
There are plenty of eating places to choose from for lunch, but if you are looking for a more upmarket option for dinner, there’s a newly opened restaurant in a heritage building on the corner of De Los Reyes Street and Bonifacio Street called Café Vicente. The food is very good (international quality) and they have an excellent wine list, but the serving sizes are small and it’s expensive by Filipino standards.
If you are looking to sample good quality local food at a cheaper price, the Calle Brewery on Calle Encarnacion gets consistently good reviews for both their food and locally brewed beer. Café Uno on Bonifacio Street is another popular eating spot, but when we last visited many items on the menu were not available.
Vigan is a very popular destination for Filipinos during weekends and holiday periods, so visiting mid-week is the best option if you can organise your itinerary to do that.
To reach Vigan from Manila you’ll need to fly to Laoag City, about 80 km north of Vigan, and take a bus down to Vigan or hire a car with a driver. There are several flights a day, and the flight takes one hour.
Unfortunately only Philippine Airlines is operating flights on this route at the present time, which means that fares are 2-3 times higher than routes of comparable duration where there is competition from other airlines. That’s a common situation in the Philippines.
A one hour A320 flight on a route where there is competition will generally cost around 3,000 pesos (US$60) one way, but if there is no competition fares will rise to around 7,000 pesos (US$140). However, Philippine Airlines is the best of the three main airlines operating domestic jet flights, so that partly compensates for the higher fare.
You’ll need stay at least one night in Vigan, and the best option is to book a hotel in the old town so that you can enjoy walking the streets at night. It’s very safe to do so in that part of Vigan. There is a wide range of options available through hotel booking sites from budget hotels up to reasonably priced 4-star hotels.
We’ve stayed at the Hotel Luna on De Los Reyes Street, just one block from Calle Crisologo, and were very satisfied with the experience. The hotel promotes itself as a ‘museum-hotel’ and features a lot of original artworks in the public areas of the hotel.
Alternatively you can drive up from Manila, but it is a long drive – usually 8-9 hours depending on traffic and what part of Manila you are coming from. Don’t believe Google Maps when it says you can do it in seven hours. You’d have to drive like a maniac to get there in seven hours from the middle of Manila.
There are tour operators offering day trips by bus to Vigan from Manila but we don’t recommend them to older travellers because they are exhausting. The buses leave Manila around 9-10pm the previous night and arrive in Vigan at 6am. Then they depart at around 5pm (meaning you don’t get to enjoy the cool evening hours in Vigan) and arrive back in Manila after midnight.
We also don’t recommend those tours because inter-province buses are not a particularly safe means of travel in the Philippines. They travel dangerously fast at night for the type of roads that they are on, and some of the drivers will perform risky overtaking manoeuvres if they are running behind schedule. It is much safer to fly or hire a car with an experienced driver.
2. Intramuros
If you don’t have the time to travel north to Vigan, you can learn something about the history of the Philippines in Manila’s old walled city, Intramuros. Located near the mouth of the Pasig River, Intramuros was built over a period of more than 300 years, starting in 1590, and was the original City of Manila during the years of Spanish colonisation.
During the period that it was the capital of the Philippines, the walled city contained all of the important government buildings, educational institutions and churches, and housed about 700 Spanish officials and their families, as well as a garrison of Spanish soldiers based at Fort Santiago on the northern side of Intramuros.
Much of the walled city was destroyed by an earthquake in 1893, and then rebuilt, and then destroyed again during World War II, as it was where the Japanese made their last stand against the Americans.
Over 100,000 civilians died during the Battle of Manila in 1945, and most of Intramuros was reduced to rubble by American shelling. Over 16,000 Japanese soldiers died inside the walled city. Only parts of Fort Santiago and San Augustin Church survived the blitz.
Officers of the Japanese Imperial Army slaughtered 1,400 Filipino civilians inside Manila Cathedral before the battle was over, so Intramuros has a very bloody history.
Intramuros was neglected for several decades after the war, but since 1980 the Philippines government has been making efforts to rebuild the walled city as a tourism destination to showcase Spanish colonial architecture.
Unfortunately the lack of controls on development between 1945 and 1980 resulted in much of Intramuros becoming a mish-mash of architectural styles, and there are many parts of the walled city that are still home to squatters and have no historical value whatsoever.
In addition, the Intramuros Administration that was set up to oversee the rebuilding has been the subject of much criticism over delays in the rebuilding projects, and for approving some buildings that architects claimed were not authentic colonial architecture.
Nevertheless, there are still sufficient opportunities for visitors to get a feel of what the walled city would have been like during the pre-war and pre-earthquake days, and the questionable authenticity of some of the building styles is unlikely to be a concern to most tourists – only to those who may be studying colonial architecture, or academics and practitioners in the field.
The most interesting parts of Intramuros can be seen in half a day, but it would be easy to spend a whole day exploring its narrow streets, checking out the handicraft and souvenir shops, and taking a respite from the tropical heat in one of the many air-conditioned coffee shops and restaurants when required.
The walled city is only a little over 500 metres east to west, and less than a kilometre north to south, so can easily be explored on foot. There are also guided bicycle and Segway tours available, or you can hire a kalesa to take you around Intramuros.
The bicycle tours are on bamboo-framed bikes and operate from a shop in the Plaza San Luis complex by a company called Bambike ecotours. Their guided tours range from 800 pesos (US$16) per person for an ‘express’ 1 hr 30 mins tour up to 2,450 pesos per person for a 4 hr 30 mins extended tour with food and admission to a cultural show.
A tour on a kalesa is ideal for those who want to see the walled city at a more leisurely pace, but prices are much more expensive than Vigan, and they are not regulated. The price you’ll pay will largely depend on the type of kalesa (some are much bigger than those in Vigan), how busy they are, your bargaining skills and how wealthy you look. They will usually quote you per 30 minutes (for two or four people).
We’ve heard of many foreign tourists being asked for 1,000 pesos (US$20) for half an hour in busy periods, and we’ve heard of local tourists bargaining them down to 200 pesos in quiet periods. 500 pesos seems to be about the median price, but you may be asked for a little more if you want a guide to accompany you. Some kalesa drivers operate on their own, whilst others operate with a guide.
The best place to start a walking tour of Intramuros is the visitor centre just inside Fort Santiago. There is a 75 pesos entrance fee to Fort Santiago and its opening hours are 8 am to 9 pm. There are clean restrooms just behind the ticket office, and a café and some shops selling quality souvenirs in the same block. The Visitor Centre is right after the souvenir shops and you can pick up a free map of Intramuros there.
You’ll need at least an hour to explore Fort Santiago, and you’ll be able to walk on top of some of the ramparts that protected the fort from attack from the sea and from the river. There is a shrine to José P. Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines, and a small museum inside Fort Santiago.
If you are intending to take a kalesa tour, the gates of Fort Santiago are a good place to start. Otherwise head straight down General Luna St from the exit gate and cross over the road to the Manila Cathedral. The cathedral has been rebuilt eight times since the 16th century, but it’s considered to be the ‘mother church’ of the Philippines, and worth a quick look inside.
From the Manila Cathedral, continue another 300 metres or so down General Luna St and you’ll come to an intersection where you will see the San Augustin Church and museum on the right, and the Plaza San Luis complex on the left.
The San Augustin Church is the oldest church in the Philippines and is designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s definitely worth a look inside, but it’s not open to tourists during church services or weddings. So it’s best to check the opening times of the church first before deciding in what order to do things around this part of Intramuros.
As well as going inside the church, you’ll want to visit the museum next to the church (the largest and most comprehensive museum inside the walled city) as well as Casa Manila across the road. The opening hours of the San Augustin museum are 8 am to 5 pm (not 6 pm as indicated on the visitor centre map) and they close for an hour for lunch at 12 noon. There is a 200 pesos admission fee.
Across the road, Casa Manila in the Plaza San Luis complex is a smaller museum that is set up to depict the lifestyle of wealthy Filipinos in the Spanish colonial era. It houses artifacts from the Intramuros Administration’s museum collection. Casa Manila’s opening hours are 9 am to 6 pm, but it is closed on Mondays. There is an admission fee of 75 pesos and they limit the number of people in the museum to 30 at a time.
The rest of the Plaza San Luis complex comprises eight period houses that were constructed in the 1980s in a variety of architectural styles from the Spanish colonial period. There’s a restaurant and a coffee shop in the complex. There’s also a Starbucks a bit further down General Luna St past the San Augustin Church, but it’s mysteriously closed on Sundays.
If you are not tired of museums by this stage, and you are interested in the role of the Chinese in the history of the Philippines, you can walk one block down Real St from the Plaza San Luis complex and turn left at Cabildo Street, and on the next corner on the right you’ll see Bahay Tsinoy, which was built in an American colonial style in the 1990s.
Bahay Tsinoy houses the Kaisa Angelo King Heritage Center which is a museum featuring dioramas depicting the way of life of Chinese-Filipinos (known as Tsinoys) from the Spanish colonial period through to the Japanese occupation. This museum is only open in the afternoons from 1 pm to 5 pm. and it’s closed on Mondays. There is an admission fee of 100 pesos.
If you are doing a walking tour in the afternoon, then head over a few more blocks to the Bayleaf Hotel where you can watch the sunset over Manila Bay from their rooftop restaurant and bar. It’s open to visitors who are not staying at the hotel, and it has a reasonably good menu of both local and international food.
The last time we were there, all of the tables were taken by the time the sun went down, so it’s a good idea to get there at least 30 minutes before sunset. If you want to have just a drink whilst watching the sunset, that’s fine, but it’s also one of the best places for dinner within Intramuros.
You can reach Intramuros easily by taxi or Grab from anywhere within Metro Manila, but if the primary reason for your stay in the metropolis is to visit Intramuros, then it’s best to stay nearby to avoid Manila’s notorious traffic jams.
Within the Intramuros walls, the Bayleaf is the only 4-star hotel. There is also a budget option called the White Knight Hotel in the Casa Manila complex. If you are looking for a 5-star hotel, the iconic Manila Hotel just outside the Intramuros walls would be your best option.
The Manila Hotel opened in 1912 and was the country’s most elegant hotel until it was set on fire by Japanese troops during the Battle of Manila in 1945. It was gutted but subsequently rebuilt and then expanded and refurbished in 1975, and again in 2008.
3. Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar
This third destination is not a town but a ‘heritage resort’ at Bagac on the west coast of the Bataan peninsular about 3-4 hours drive from Manila. It is fairly ‘touristy’, but it offers an opportunity to relax and learn a little about the history of the Philippines if you want to get out of the city but don’t have time to go all the way north to Vigan.
The resort comprises historic buildings that were purchased from other parts of the Philippines (usually in a state of neglect) and then dismantled and transported to Bagac, where they were reconstructed and refurbished to be as close as possible to their original condition.
The resort was constructed based on the plan of a typical town in the Spanish colonial period around a large lake, canals, town squares and cobbled roads. Various museum pieces are displayed around the resort, which can accommodate around 300 guests in both genuine heritage houses and buildings that are replicas of heritage homes.
Our recommendation that Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar be considered as a third option to visit to learn something of the history of the Philippines is not without some reservations because this resort gets very mixed reviews. On various accommodation booking sites, it is rated from ‘excellent’ to ‘terrible’.
Let’s take a look at the reasons for these inconsistent reviews. Firstly the ‘pros’ that contribute to its good reviews:
Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar is located in a very picturesque area on the west coast of the Bataan peninsula. The roads getting there are very good (except for the last 800 metres which is a dirt road). It is surrounded by rice fields with the northern flanks of Mt Mariveles forming a green backdrop to the southeast and Mt Natib to the north.
The Umagol River runs through the middle of the resort and it is set back from a wide beach from which some beautiful sunsets can be enjoyed on many days. The sand is grey but it’s kept clean and there is an area for ocean swimming. All of the accommodation units are within easy walking distance of the beach.
The whole resort is very ‘instagrammable’ – especially at night when the lights from the buildings reflect off the lake around which the resort is constructed. During both day and night, you do really feel like you have stepped back into the colonial era. It achieves that objective very well.
It has several restaurants that serve excellent food (albeit at prices that are on the expensive side by Filipino standards), although not all of them are open in the middle of the week. The restaurants have good wine lists.
The resort offers free ‘heritage tours’ during both the day and evening hours. The guides are knowledgeable and the tours informative. During the day a number of reenactments of various historic events are staged in different parts of the resort. Whilst somewhat ‘touristy’, these reenactments are quite well done and serve their purpose.
The rooms are large and nicely furnished in heritage styles. There is a feeling of spaciousness throughout the resort. The staff are very friendly and helpful, and are usually quick to attend to requests from guests.
Now let’s look at the ‘cons’ that contribute to the negative reviews: The leading complaints about Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar relate to maintenance issues. Millions of pesos have been spent building this resort, and construction is ongoing, but there are maintenance problems throughout.
The phones in most rooms are out of order, so you’ll be given mobile numbers upon check-in should you need to contact the front office staff. Many guests experience problems with the plumbing. Often there is no hot water (or any water at all) or there are smells from the drains. Some guests experience problems with the air conditioning. When we stayed there we didn’t have any such problems, but the electrical switchbox in the room was buzzing loudly. When a maintenance technician came to check it, we were advised that the noise was ‘normal’.
The air conditioners are either split systems or massive in-room units that stand six feet high in the corner of the room. The in-room units are very noisy (in fact it drowned out the noise of the buzzing switchbox) so if you have difficulty sleeping with a lot of noise you’ll want to make sure that you are allocated a room with a working split-system. You definitely won’t be falling asleep listening to the sound of the surf on the beach!
The check-in process is long and complicated. Upon arrival you are permitted to drive to the reception building to unload baggage and passengers. After that the driver of the vehicle has to return to an open car park near the main gate and wait for a shuttle to take him or her back to the reception building. The car park is not shaded so it can be very hot during the day. During the rainy season it can get very muddy.
After registration, baggage is loaded onto a golf cart or jeepney and you will be taken to your accommodation. There are no elevators in any of the heritage houses or accommodation blocks, so seniors who might have difficulty climbing stairs will need to request ground floor rooms.
The breakfast buffet included in the room rate gets mixed reviews. Most Filipino guests rate it as ‘excellent’ (as it is predominantly Filipino food) whilst international guests describe it as ‘basic’. When we were there, breakfast was served at the side of a large meeting hall in which a noisy mini-convention of about 200 government asset seizure agents was being held. It was the least enjoyable experience of our stay.
The coffee shop has been closed for some time. You’ll need to bring your own coffee if you are not an instant coffee drinker. The nearest coffee shops are in Balanga, about 30km away.
Whether the resort offers value for money is largely dependent on whether you’ve been able to secure a promotional rate through one of the accommodation booking sites. Weekend rack rates (around 12,000 pesos or US$240 a night) are definitely pricey for what you’ll be getting, but mid-week promo rates (sometimes as low as 5,500 pesos or US$110 a night) are very reasonable.
Despite its ‘cons’ we are still inclined to recommend this resort to international travellers as it does achieve the purpose of educating guests about some aspects of the history and heritage of the Philippines. Just don’t go with too high expectations.
You’ll need to hire a car (or a car and driver) to reach Las Casas Filipinas De Acuzar because getting there by public transport would be difficult for older travellers. Take the NLEX and SCTEX freeways as far as Dinalupihan for the most hassle-free drive. After turning off the Bataan Provincial Highway just south of Balanga you will see white death march mileage markers along the side of the road all the way to Bagac.
These are monuments to the Filipino and American prisoners-of-war who were marched from Bagac to San Fernando in Pampanga by the Japanese Imperial Army in 1942. More than 10,000 soldiers died on the march, which was later judged to be a Japanese war crime.
If you have more time you can go via Subic Bay, either on your way there or on the way back, and enjoy the picturesque coastal drive between Subic and Bagac. It’s a good road, but only two lanes, so take it easy.
Ignore travel guides that suggest you can fly into Bataan via the Subic Bay International Airport. Those guides are 10 years out of date. No international flights have landed at Subic since 2009.
When to go
Vigan, Intramuros and Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar can be visited at any time of the year, but the best months are around mid-November to mid-February when the weather is a little cooler. For those who may have difficulty coping with the Philippines’ tropical humidity, December and January are the best months to travel, but December is a very busy month for domestic tourism, so hotel bookings may be hard to secure until after the first week of January when schools reopen.
March to May are the hottest months throughout the Philippines, so you’ll need to pack a hat and sunscreen for sightseeing during those months. June to September are the wettest months, but many visitors enjoy sightseeing during that period because temperatures are a little cooler. But you’ll need to bring an umbrella during those months.
Header image: © Tikhonova Vera
