Visiting Luzon
Luzon is the largest island in the Philippines and the one that holds everything: the capital, the power, the money, and the country's only mountain range above two thousand seven hundred metres.
Manila divides travellers as few cities do: some advise fleeing it, others never leave. Tagaytay offers the shortest way out, at six hundred metres, and Banaue the longest.
You will love it if
- You want an Asia where English gets you everywhere
- Farmed landscapes interest you as much as beaches
- You come between January and March, the one reliable window
Look elsewhere if
- You cannot stand traffic: Manila's is among the worst in the world
- You come between July and October: it is typhoon season
- You want postcard islands: they are elsewhere in the archipelago
The must-sees
The highlights
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1 Taal Volcano +6 recs
Sixty kilometres south of Manila, a crater filled by a lake, out of which rises an islet that itself holds a lake. It is one of the country's most active volcanoes, and access to the central island depends on the alert level, reassessed constantly.
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2 Picnic Grove +7 recs
Thirteen hectares of park on the Tagaytay ridge, and the best viewpoint over Taal lake and its volcano. Come at first light, before the heat haze rises off the plain.
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3 Rizal Park +6 recs
Fifty-eight hectares along Manila Bay, with Chinese, Japanese and Italian gardens. This is where José Rizal was shot in 1896, and that precise spot set off the Philippine revolution: the park is a political place before it is a garden.
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4 The rice terraces of Banaue +10 recs
At twelve hundred metres on the slopes of Mount Amuyao, terraces dug by hand by the Ifugao and tended ever since. Five clusters in the cordillera are World Heritage listed, and the irrigation still works without a single pump.
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5 Makati +6 recs
One of the seventeen cities of Metro Manila, and the country's financial district: glass towers, unbroken pavements and air-conditioned malls. It is the capital's other face, fifteen minutes from the first.
Our itineraries in Luzon
| Length | Itinerary | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days | Manila and Makati | Intramuros, Rizal Park, both faces |
| 5 days | Manila › Tagaytay | The capital and Taal Volcano |
| 10 days | Manila › Tagaytay › Banaue | The city, the volcano, the cordillera |
Tagaytay is sixty kilometres from Manila, but allow two to three hours depending on traffic: distance means nothing here, departure time means everything.
Leaving Manila before six or after eight in the evening halves the journey. That is not a comfort tip, it is the only way to hold an itinerary together.
When to visit Luzon
| Rating | Season | Weather | Crowds and prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| January to March | 24 to 31 °C, dry | High season, the one reliable window | |
| April and May | 32 to 36 °C, very humid | Local holidays, hard heat | |
| July to October | Typhoons, monsoon rain | Light, flights and roads cancelled | |
| November and December | 25 to 30 °C, last of the rain | Moderate, fair rates |
Our advice
Around twenty typhoons hit the Philippines each year, and Luzon takes most of them. They are only forecast five days out: cancellation insurance and two spare days in the plan are the only real protection between July and October.
Getting to Luzon
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1 By plane The way in
no non-stop from Britain: one change in the Gulf or in East Asia, and sixteen to nineteen hours of travel. Manila airport is the island's only international entry point.
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2 By bus On the ground
the network covers the whole island, cordillera included: air-conditioned night buses to Banaue leave in the evening and arrive at dawn. They are safe and punctual, provided you book.
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3 By jeepney In the city
the local bus, a body dropped onto a post-war military chassis. It has no fixed stops: you knock on the roof to get off, and pay by passing your coins hand to hand.
Manila airport has four terminals that are not connected to one another, and moving between them takes an hour by car in traffic. Check your connecting terminal beforehand, and allow three hours.
Getting around Luzon
Makati is walkable, which is rare in Metro Manila: covered walkways link the towers and malls over several kilometres, air conditioning included. Elsewhere, ride-hailing apps are the most reliable answer.
Worth knowing
Access to the central island of Taal Volcano shuts as soon as the volcanology institute raises the alert level, which happens several times a year. The viewpoint at Picnic Grove always stays open: it is the fallback, and it is a good one.
What to eat in Luzon
- Adobo: pork or chicken simmered in vinegar, soy, garlic and bay. Every family has its version, and it is the one dish the whole archipelago accepts as national.
- Sinigang: a sour tamarind broth with fish or pork and greens. Sourness is the base note of Filipino cooking, more than chilli.
- Lechon: suckling pig spit-roasted for hours, served whole at celebrations. The skin is the piece people fight over, not the meat.
- Halo-halo: shaved ice, evaporated milk, sweet beans, flan, jellies and ube, the purple sweet potato. You mix it all before eating; the name means mix.
- Pan de sal: the morning roll, faintly sweet despite the name, bought warm from the neighbourhood bakery before seven.
- Kapeng barako: the liberica coffee grown on the slopes around Tagaytay and Batangas, very strong, from one of the few regions in the world that still produces it.
- Bulalo: beef shank and marrow broth, a speciality of the Taal lake area, served scalding hot despite the climate.
Three centuries of Spanish rule left adobo and lechon, fifty years of American administration left ham for breakfast and the shopping mall. The cooking of Luzon reads like a political history.
At Banaue the terrace rice is a local variety grown once a year, and it does not leave the valley: tasting it there is the only way.
Where to stay in Luzon
| Area | What it is for | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Makati | Safety, restaurants, walkways | The default choice, dear but walkable |
| Manila, Intramuros | Rizal Park, the Spanish city, the bay | The historic quarter, quiet in the evening |
| Manila, Ermita | Museums, budget, Manila Bay | Central and cheap, choose carefully |
| Tagaytay | Picnic Grove, Taal Volcano, cool air | 20 °C at night, full at weekends |
| Banaue | Terraces, walking, the cordillera | Simple guesthouses, hot water is rare |
At Tagaytay, Manileños drive up at weekends to sleep under a blanket: at six hundred metres the night drops to twenty degrees, which is a luxury in this country. Rates reflect it from Friday to Sunday.
At Banaue the accommodation is simple and family-run. Terrace guides are hired on the spot at the village office, and that system supports the families who maintain the walls.
How much does a trip in Luzon cost?
| Style | Length | Budget per person |
|---|---|---|
| Budget (hostel, buses, canteens) | 10 days | 300 to 450 € |
| Comfortable (hotel, ride-hailing, restaurants) | 10 days | 700 to 1,100 € |
| High end (upscale hotel, driver, guides) | 10 days | 2,000 to 3,000 € |
- Night buses: ten euros for Manila to Banaue in an air-conditioned reclining seat, and a hotel night saved.
- Turo-turo canteens: you point at what you want behind the glass, two euros for a full meal. That is the country's real restaurant network.
- Rizal Park: free, with its three gardens, and the biggest breathing space in Manila.
- Weekdays in Tagaytay: the same rooms with a volcano view cost half as much Monday to Thursday.
- Avoid Holy Week: the whole country is on the move, buses are full and prices double for ten days.
Traditions and way of life in Luzon
The Philippines were Spanish for three centuries and thirty-three years, then American for forty-eight. Hence the Catholicism of eighty per cent of the population, the Castilian surnames, and the English spoken everywhere, still the language of government and of the universities.
Rizal Park carries the name of the doctor and novelist shot there in 1896 for his books: his execution turned a reform movement into a revolution. No other country in Asia made a novelist its national hero.
Two useful habits. Strangers are addressed as ate and kuya, older sister and older brother, waiters and drivers included: first names come later, if at all.
And at Banaue the terraces are private property, maintained by families for generations. You do not walk the walls without a guide, not out of caution but out of respect: a broken wall costs someone a harvest.
