Of all the places in the Philippines I visited in 2023, Baler was one of the places I knew very little about. I am glad I went there. Here’s the story of our adventures…
Baler is not that far from Metro Manila (about 280 kilometers away). However, getting there felt like going to a much further place. Driving takes around 6 hours, majority of which into small local roads, with a significant part over the mountains. But the views were really stunning—from the seemingly endless sea of rice plants on the flatlands of Central Luzon to the forests touching the clouds atop the mountain, to the surprising view of a lake before descending to the Pacific side of Luzon and eventually, the quiet town of Baler.
We took a bus from Cubao to Baler (at the time, ₱870 one way). Upon arrival, we took a tricycle to take us to our hotel. Our hotel was just behind the beachfront hotel row so it was very easy to get to the beach while costing much less. And so after settling in our room for a bit, we quickly made our way to the beach.
We arrived around lunchtime so food was first on our agenda. There were numerous places to eat in the area with different price points, but interestingly, the budget ones were mostly on the street along the beach—street food with a view! We spent our first day just frolicking in the beach.
The following day, we headed out of town to explore more of Baler. We rented a scooter to help us get around and cover more area. We were supposed to find a waterfall but we ended up on the shores of Duongan River. It was a very hot day and the temptation to take a dip in the clear waters was real—but we had a few more sites to visit so we settled on just taking pictures and enjoying the serenity of the area.
Our next stop was Ermita Hill. This is a great place to see Baler from a much higher perspective. It seemed like a popular tourist destination but I was surprised that there’s hardly any food on sale in the area, just your typical “pasalubong” like candies and local delicacies. It was around lunchtime when we were in the area and we just settled on what food we can eat to power us through the rest of the day.
Afterwards, we headed towards the lighthouse of Baler. Similar to our trip earlier, the views were amazing! There’s a parking lot near the lighthouse where we left our scooter so we can explore the area. Explore we did as we did an impromptu hike of the hill where the lighthouse was—the feat reminded me of my trail runs in the distant past. There was no official trail to follow though so you’re pretty much on your own to find your way up. There weren’t any shade either so I sweat was dripping as we ascended. But upon arriving near the lighthouse, the view was just spectacular!
Going down was a terrible experience for me as for some reason, I had an anxiety attack that made me hardly able to move. My mind kept reminding me of the dangers of the trail—that any slip ups would lead me falling down to the rocky beach. My body was shaking, my knees went weak, and so my upper body had to compensate so I practically crawled my way down! Imagine finishing a few 100K trail runs in the mountains but panicking over a relatively “easy” trail! Nonetheless, I did manage to get down safely and return to normal afterwards.
On our way back, we had to stop by one of the waterfalls we saw on our way to the lighthouse. This time around, I did not have any problems going up and down. We were fortunate that there weren’t that many people when we did. I definitely did not expect a waterfall when we started our day!
The Zabali hanging bridge was our next itinerary. Sure, it’s “just” a bridge, but it’s a nice opportunity to see the Duongan river again on its way out to the see and see some locals as they go about their day. There are souvenir shops in the area as well.
We were back at the beach just before sunset and we explored the area around us for some gems we may have not discovered yet. True enough, we found a spot where the Duongan River comes very close to the beach and saw some people kayaking. It reminded me of that time we did the same in Bohol, and I think this river has a great potential for this water sport. I just don’t know if there’s a place nearby that rents kayaks or if it was brought by the people we saw.
The sunset did not mark the end of our day as we still had time to visit the Sabang beach lighthouse, go to the town proper to have some coffee from a local café, and have some photos around the municipal plaza.
We woke up early the following day to catch the sunrise on the beach. We weren’t that lucky as there were a lot of clouds on the horizon, but we did see a glimpse of the sun before it got very high. It was a very relaxing experience as there weren’t that many people on the beach at the time—just the sound of the waves crashing into the beach breaking the silence of the morning.
Since it was also our last day, we went out to visit the nearby souvenir shops around Quezon Park, explored the area, and even went back to the Sabang beach lighthouse one last time.
While we did not do any surfing, I was very happy with how our trip concluded. We were able to see so much more of Baler, and renting a scooter was worth every penny to help us achieve that. I thought I was just visiting a surf town, but it turned out much more than that. I love how laid-back Baler is as commercialism has yet taken a strong foothold here. Everything is still so cheap, people are very friendly, and there’s just so much of nature to see. With that said, we also encountered a very long blackout which our host mentioned was a regular thing in the area leading a lot of the hotels and stores in the area to have their own generators. Considering that they are part of the mainland Luzon and a tourist spot, I was surprised how bad their electrical infrastructure was. I can only imagine how difficult it is to setup a business there as the government fails to provide you adequate electricity and you have to get your own generators. Hopefully, things improve as I really see a great tourism potential for Baler.
runningpinoy 