10 Places to visit inside Camp John Hay in Baguio City

On our 2nd day in Baguio City, we checked out early at our airbnb’s place as early as 8:00 in the morning. We rode a taxi going to our next hotel and left our things in their luggage area. Then we rode a taxi again going to our next destination – CAMP JOHN HAY

I love this place because there are a lot of pine trees here and there are many instagrammable/photogenic spots. We haven’t had our breakfast yet so we decided to dine at CHOCO-LATE DE BATIROL.

We can’t stand the cold breeze outside so we decided to choose a table inside this small, old style restaurant.

When I saw the menu I was surprised to see the prices, I find it quite expensive. Per meal is around P250 and up and the famous drink (own blend of chocolate) is not yet even included. You need to add P100 if you want to try it.

For the sake of experience, we ordered the following: Pritong Bangus, Tocino and Chicken Lugaw for Nanay.

To our surprise, the pritong bangus was huge and the tocino taste good. The lugaw has huge chunks of chicken too. We were sooo full. The chocolate de baterol taste nice too (it has peanuts, take note).

After our breakfast here, we rode a taxi (glad there were a lot of them) to go to some of the tourist spots inside Camp John Hay. You can choose to walk around but if you have a senior in tow, it’s better to ride for them not to get tired easily.

We pass by the MILE HI CENTER. Here you can buy discounted signature items from Levis, Oakley etc, we did not go down to check the prices because shopping for these are not included in our plan (dami nyan sa Manila, mahirap magbitbit).

We went to the Historical Core. There’s an entrance fee of P75 per head for regular and P39 for senior citizen and PWD.

These are the areas that you could visit and take photos:

CEMETERY OF NEGATIVISM – otherwise known as the Lost Cemetery or Pet Cemetery. This is the symbolic burial of negativism, said to be the man’s greatest self-imposed infliction, his most limiting factor and his most heaviest burden.

TOTEM POLE – this was made by Ernesto Dul-Ang who was employed by the camp as a wood carver. This features the busts of leaders who helped shape the development and history of Baguio City, Camp John Hay and the Philippines in General.

BELL AMPHITHEATER – this area is ideal for those whose event preference include a garden ambiance. It has a Gazebo situated at the center of multi-terrace garden.

BELL HOUSE – named after major general James Franklin Bell who designed it along with many other structures inside the camp. It provides scenic view of Baguio’s mountain ranges and pine forests.

HISTORY TRAIL AND SECRET GARDEN – if you want to hike and tour around the area, just follow the trails. You will see some photos and history about the place here too.

After touring around the historical tour, you can go to BUTTERFLY SANCTUARY and TREE TOP ADVENTURE within the area too. But we decided not to go here anymore because we tried the Tree Top Adventure at Subic before.

From the Bell house, you’ll see the MANOR HOTEL. I was supposed to book our stay here because they have a promo at Deal Grocer, but unfortunately, it’s only good for Sunday-Thursday booking. Perhaps next time, we will go back and stay here.

We were able to try Strawberry taho and Ube taho in this area too.

After touring the place, we rode a taxi again going to our next destination: The Mansion, Wright Park, Botanical Garden, Mines View and Good Shepherd Convent plus our stay at Azalea Hotel (stay tuned for my next post).