Banaue to Sagada Loop

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Banaue

   Banaue sits at about twelve hundred metres in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon, in a valley that has been carved, over many generations, into one of the most extraordinary landscapes on earth. The Ifugao people shaped the steep slopes into rice terraces, stone-walled steps that climb to the ridgelines in curves like the contours of a map, and the system is recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage landscape. Local tradition holds that the terraces were built two thousand years ago, though scholars argue about the date. What is certain is that they are still farmed by hand, through the cycle of planting and harvest that is celebrated with chants and rituals.

   Read the complete Banaue write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Banaue sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Bontoc.

2. 2. Bontoc

   Bontoc looks like exactly what it is, the administrative heart of a mountain province, with a busy market, jeepneys parked nose to tail and a river, the Chico, curling through the middle of everything. About ten thousand people live here, hemmed in by the steep green flanks of the Cordillera, and the town has long been the main trading point for the Igorot villages scattered through these hills. For a long time, Bontoc was associated with headhunting in the foreign imagination, an image the locals have grown tired of, and a visit to the small museum on the hill gives a more honest picture of the culture, with its stone houses, tattoos, weaving and rice rituals.

   Read the complete Bontoc write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Bontoc comes up 18 km in. Next is Sagada.

3. 3. Sagada

   Sagada is a village in the mountains where the dead are literally placed above the living. In the limestone cliffs around the valley, the Igorot Kankanaey people have for centuries laid their dead in wooden coffins, which they hang from the rock face or wedge into crevices, in the belief that it brings them closer to the ancestors. Some of the coffins are very old, and the tradition is still practised by a few families. The best-known are at Echo Valley, reached by a short walk through the cemetery.

   Read the complete Sagada write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   37 km in you reach Sagada. Next is Banaue.

4. 4. Banaue

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Banaue write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Banaue, late in the day.

Recorded source links

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