La Union Travel Blog 2018 (3 days 2 nights)

La Union has been on my travel bucket list since forever because of Ma-Cho temple, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Thunderbird Poro Point. If not for my friend who was residing there for work, I wouldn’t have visited it last 2018.

Writing my itinerary though, I erased Thunderbird on my list to visit because of the price. Should have called it Golden bird! LOL

HOW DID I GO THERE?

Because I went there on a holiday, I expected the long line in the bus station. It took me an hour before getting in. I opted for the cheaper ride, Viron Transit (P400) in Cubao to San Fernando La Union. There are other bus transits in Cubao and Pasay. You can also go straight to San Juan (Urbiztondo beach) if you want to. Travel time was around 3-4 hours.

WHERE DID I STAY?

We stayed first at Flotsam and Jetsam, of course. Then in Circle Hostel - I kinda regretted this one because we were too introverted for these kinds of hostels.

WHERE DID I GO?

Ma-Cho Temple

We took a tricycle ride from the bus stop to Ma-cho Temple. This place has a Chinese/Taiwanese vibe in it. It was smaller than I expected but it’s fine since the entrance was free.

Grape Farm

From Ma Cho Temple, we took a bus ride to Bauang La Union. After registering, we took a tricycle ride to Gapuz Ancheta Salino Grape Farm (P10/each). Note that there are other farms in Bauang, it just so happened that we dropped by here.

November is not the grape’s season so most of the fruits are unripe yet. We just bought grape wine for pasalubong.

After our grape farm photoshoot, we went straight to Flotsam and Jetsam hostel to rest and explore the San Juan beach.

Exploring Northern La Union

We hired a tricycle ride to tour us around Northern La Union for P1000. We added P500 for the ride to Tangadan falls jump off point.

Man-made Forest

Stone Mansion

Shrine of Our Lady of Namacpacan

Baluarte Watch Tower

Stone Hand Art Gallery

Pebble Beach

Tangadan Falls

From the jump-off point, you can either hire a habal-habal ride or hire a trekking guide to trek to the falls for P500. We chose the former since we got there late, around 3PM. The habal-habal ride was scary just like a rollercoaster ride. After getting down, we needed to trek for 10 minutes to the falls. It was tiring but the view made it worth it.

WHERE DID I EAT?

Surf Shack

Honestly, I think this is overrated. The service sucks (took years to get our order and some orders were not prepared), the food was bland, the ambiance is meh.