The 8th Wonder of the World: Batad Rice Terraces

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”   ― Franz Kafka

Finally, your travel blogger was able to achieve one of the many wonders of the world on my check list, and that is the Unesco World Heritage Site - Banaue Rice Terraces in Batad - Ifugao Province. It is one of my dreams to be able to witness first hand the  terraces that I have seen on my history books and in the movie theaters when our National Anthem is being played. Imagination seems to linger on how impossible these terraces are made by the locals of Batad. So, I decided to include this trip as the highlight of our 7 day escapade.

How to get there: 

If you are from Sagada, you can just ride a jeep to Bontoc and a bus to Banaue and another jeep from Banaue to Batad. From Batad terminal, you have to trek for 45 mins to an hour going down to the available home stays that you can choose from.

As for our trip, We were so fortunate to have F n F Travel and Tours joined us as we had a convenient and soothing ride from Ilocos to Baguio then Sagada to Batad. It was a 4 hour ride on a private van of this beautiful and very friendly travel agency. We chose Ramon homestay for the night (as i thought this would be the best place as recommended, but I could not just agree as we did not get a  good service from the tour guide down to the people serving us.) There are a lot of choices though when you get there. I would suggest to read more blogs on which is a better homestay in Batad. 

The road to batad is still in progress

We rented the ifugao hut for Php 300.00/ head with no electricity inside the hut but we loved it as we had a real time experience of the traditional hut of the locals. It was a cold evening though and we had given ourselves a good massage as to prepare for a walk in the terraces early in the morning. 

We were so excited to see and experience to walk in the sides of these giant terraces. And to show you how my heart is captured of the majestic and grandeur of this beautiful scenery. Here are the following pictures to show how proud I am to be a Filipino.

pasalubongs are also available in Batad.

**Note: Expect higher prices of food and drinks in batad as they would have to carry or even hire a porter to transport these from Banaue to Batad. As per our tour guide, the road to batad will soon be in progress after two years so it would be more accessible to those who want to see this 8th Wonder of the World.