How Sago Went To Sagada

Banaue Rice Terraces
Banaue Rice Terraces

Today is Sago‘s first day in Sagada. We left Manila last night after an hour long of packing stuff. I wasn’t able to find time to buy a pair of gloves and a bonnet. They said its a little colder there than in Baguio.

So, good luck to me who has a low tolerance for cold climate. I shiver in Baguio even during the summer season. I hope I can still go back to Manila on April 7. 🙂

Anyway, let’s proceed to the purpose of this article which is to share how to go to Sagada. There are generally three options one could choose from. You could take the Manila-Baguio-Sagada route. This is the western route which passes through, of course, Baguio.

The other is via Banaue (Manila-Banaue-Sagada). From Manila, you take a bus through Banaue then ride another bus to Bontoc and finally to Sagada. You could see here the world renowned rice terraces in Banaue and Batad along the way.

The third route of Manila-Bontoc-Sagada is the route we took in this trip and which we’ll focus on.

Cable Tours Bus to Sagada
Cable Tours Bus to Sagada

Surprisingly, the Cable tours route actually passes on a part of Banaue as well. This gave us the opportunity to see the Banaue Rice Terraces at a good angle. Inset image is taken from the NFA Viewpoint. This route also takes only one bus from Manila to Sagada (through Bontoc); in contrast to the multiple buses of the Manila-Banaue-Bontoc-Sagada route.

The group, together with Sago, gathered at the Cable Tours Bus Terminal along E.Rodriguez in Quezon City. It is conveniently located across Trinity College, Shakey’s and Starbucks where the group stayed until boarding. We left the terminal a few minutes before 9pm although the bus’ official ETD is 8:30pm.

I would just really have to say that the bus type was a surprise for me who takes the Paras-type buses in our Laoag-Vigan-Ilocos tours. It was more of a shuttle than a bus having only the capacity of 29 seats. My bus seatmate said that the Cable  Tours Buses are small due to the small roads leading to Sagada. The reason was sound and upon experiencing it, I understood that the roads leading to Sagada can only allow smalll buses 🙂

Sago recommends that you reserve seat/s at the terminal a few days before since they regularly only have 1 trip per day. But since it’s peak season now, they have two. The other one is 2:30am. I’m just not sure until when are they having this second trip. The adventurers taking the 2:30am trip has the objective of sight-seeing the roadside going to Bontoc and Sagada (which is already visible in the morning when they are plying the road). Good point. Now we should have taken that schedule! instead! 🙂 (We had a good opportunity at the Banaue Rice Terraces anyway).

Since it’s a 12 hour bus trip from Manila to Bontoc/Sagada, we expected to be having our breakfast at George Guesthouse by 8:30am earlier. Instead, we arrived 10am. This is due to road improvements being done in Ifugao. We also had to adjust our itinerary accordingly.

And that concludes Sago’s transportation-centric travel to Sagada. More stories on the Sagada adventures in the next few days 🙂

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