Monday, March 16, 2015

How much did I spend in 2014 Baguio road trip?

Last Christmas holiday the family decided to enjoy the chilly weather of Baguio City; it was our second family trip to Baguio hence we opted to visit some places beyond the radar of mainstream tourists causing my car's mileage to go sky high.

For our complete Baguio Trip Journal read: Road trip to Baguio

For our recent trip, we were glad that TPLEX has been opened partially reducing our travel time by as much as two hours. It took us just a mere four hours, including stop-over, to reach our hotel along Kennon road.

From Manila, our toll fees totaled 570 pesos. The breakdown is as follows:

NLEX:                  218 pesos
SCTEX:               173 pesos
TPLEX:                164 pesos
Kennon road:        15 pesos

We paid the same amount on our way back to Manila. Take note that last December a portion of TPLEX from Carmen to Urdaneta was opened to light vehicles for free. In a few months the whole TPLEX will be operational making it a lot easier and faster to visit the North, not to mention that NLEX and SCTEX will be eventually connected seamlessly.

My 1.8 liter family car clocked 700 kms round-trip. Normally, for a hassle-free trip, my car consumes 1 liter of gas for every 12 kilometers of road. Thus, I can roughly approximate that I have burned around 58 liters of premium gas for the whole trip. At that time, a liter of XCS would cost 40 pesos in Manila while in Baguio it was 5 pesos more. Taking the average at 42.5 pesos per liter my fuel expenses reached around 2,465 pesos. I was thankful that gas price was down 40% than its previous price a few months back; it was huge saving for us.

Our budget for chow varies but I can safely assume that the wife has allocated 300 pesos per meal per person. However, there were unavoidable travel costs hence it would be prudent to have an emergency or extra fund to fully enjoy your vacation.

Horse ride for 2 persons at Baguio Country Club: 200 pesos / 30 minutes = 400 pesos
Entrance fee to BenCab Museum: 100 (2 adults) + 80 (3 students) = 440 pesos
Entrance fee to Bell House and Cemetery of Negativism:  60 (4 adults) + 30 (student) = 270 pesos
Entrance fee to Christmas Village: 80 (4 adults) + 40 (student) = 360 pesos
Parking fees: 100 pesos
Souvenirs and food items from city market and Good Shepherd : 2000 pesos

We shelled an additional 3,570 pesos visiting and enjoying those places.

For our accommodation, we paid 14,880 pesos for a family room for four nights. Fortunately, our hotel offers complimentary breakfast thus extra saving on our part. Since it was peak season and all hotels at the city proper were all fully booked we ended up staying in a hotel along Kennon road.

To sum it all, excluding food expenses, our family of five have spent almost 22,000 pesos for 5D/4N stay in Baguio City. My family enjoys food tripping as well so I can assume that our total expenses would easily reach 35,000 pesos.

Aside from hotel fare, entrance and toll fees the rest of our expenses were fluid. You can easily save fuel cost if you have a diesel powered car; there are also plenty of opportunities to cut food costs but bear in mind that you won't visit Baguio to enjoy fast food meals. Furthermore, you can forego other touristy activities such as horseback riding and food tripping; there are plenty of "local" restaurants that offer good and affordable food along Session road and around Burnham Park.

By the way, my sister and her family opted to save time and effort instead of money by hiring a local AUV for 1,200 pesos to visit four places in Baguio City including Sitio La Presa. They were seven in their group so the fare was reasonable considering the location of Sitio La Presa. It would be very difficult for a newbie driver to drive the steep and narrow road going to the "radar station" on top of Mount Kabuyao just to visit "La Presa." I stopped several times due to zero visibility caused by low flying clouds. By the way, you won't find "Sitio La Presa" in any maps. It only exists in Forevermore TV series.

Read our latest Baguio Road Trip expenses: How much did I spend in (2015) Baguio Road Trip?

Though Baguio is getting crowded nowadays partially due to opening of TPLEX and Forevermore TV series its magic remains alluring to city dwellers. In a few years, we will definitely pay another visit to the city of pines.




        

3 comments:

  1. Thank you very much po sa blog ninyong ito. Nagamit ko po sya sa budgeting ng aming company trip. God bless you po.... (more than what you wish for.)

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  2. Where pong hotel kayo nagstay? And hm per night?

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    Replies
    1. You may check our hotel at BEDS Tab for more details

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