Walking the Cordillera rice terraces: Batad, Banaue and what it actually involves

The Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are around two thousand years of hand-built agriculture carved into near-vertical hillsides at 3,300 to 5,000 feet (1,000 to 1,500 m), still farmed by the communities that built them, with irrigation systems that work by gravity and by agreement rather than by engineering. Five terrace clusters hold UNESCO World Heritage status, and the reason to walk them rather than photograph them from a road is that they are a living landscape rather than a monument.

This is what it actually involves, without the softening.

The journey is the first thing to be honest about

Banaue is roughly 220 miles (350 km) north of Manila, and it takes eight to ten hours by road. Not because the distance is large but because the Cordillera mountain roads are slow, winding and frequently under repair, and they take considerably longer than any map suggests.

There is no useful flight. There is an overnight bus, which is how most independent travellers do it, and it works. We generally use a private vehicle with a driver over two days, breaking the journey at Banaue or in the lowlands, because ten hours in one push at the start of a mountain section is a poor use of a day.

This is a three-night minimum commitment and it is really a four-night one. Anything less and you have spent two days driving to look at terraces from a viewpoint, which is the version we would rather you did not book.

Banaue, Batad and the difference between them

Banaue is the town and the transport hub. The terraces around it are extensive and impressive, and you see them from roadside viewpoints, which is why so many photographs of the Cordilleras are taken from a car park. It is a working town rather than a pretty one.

Batad is the reason to come. It sits in a natural amphitheatre where the terraces form a continuous curved bowl around a village, and there is no road into it. You walk in. It is the most complete terrace landscape in the country and it looks nothing like the roadside views.

Bangaan, Hapao and Mayoyao are the other UNESCO clusters, quieter again, and reached with more effort.

Sagada, two to three hours west of Banaue, is a different place with a different draw: limestone caves, the hanging coffins in Echo Valley, pine forest, and a cool mountain climate. It pairs naturally with the terraces and adds two nights.

What the walking is actually like

Getting into Batad. From the saddle point where the road ends it is a walk of about 30 to 45 minutes downhill to the village, on a rough path with steps. That is the easy part, and the return is the same walk uphill at the end of your stay, carrying whatever you brought.

Batad to the Tappiya waterfall, the standard day walk, is about 45 minutes to an hour each way from the village. It goes down through the terraces on the stone walls themselves, then down a steep and often slippery staircase to the falls, and then back up. Call it three to four hours with swimming and rests.

Batad to Bangaan, the longer day, is roughly four to five hours over a ridge, with real gradient.

Banaue to Hapao and the hot springs is a five to six hour day at a moderate grade.

What makes it hard is not the distance. It is that you are frequently walking on the terrace walls themselves, which are narrow stone or packed-earth ledges, sometimes eighteen inches wide, with a drop on one side into the terrace below. They are not fenced, they are what the farmers use, and after rain they are slick. Anyone with a serious fear of heights will find this harder than the mileage suggests, and we say so before we book it.

Fitness. Moderate to good. There is no altitude problem at these heights and the distances are short, but the gradients are constant and there is very little flat ground anywhere.

Weather. The mountains are 10 to 20°F (6 to 11°C) cooler than the coast, which is a relief, and they are also wetter and often in cloud. Nights in December and January can drop to the high forties Fahrenheit (around 8 to 10°C), which nobody expects to be told about the Philippines. Take a fleece and a waterproof.

Guides. We use local guides from the communities, and not only because the paths are hard to follow. The terraces are private agricultural land, walking through them is done by permission and custom, and a guide from the village is what makes that relationship work rather than a nuisance. They are also the people who know which sections are washed out this month.

Where you sleep, said plainly

There is no comfortable accommodation in Batad and there is not going to be. The village has simple guesthouses: a room, a shared or basic private bathroom, cold or intermittently warm water, thin walls, and electricity that is not always on. Expect $25 to $50 a room as planning guidance. Some of them look directly onto the amphitheatre, which is worth more than the plumbing costs you.

Banaue has a small number of larger hotels that are a step up and still modest. Sagada has better options, including a couple of genuinely pleasant small places.

We put this in writing at the quoting stage because it is the single most common reason a client changes their mind about the north, and it is much better to change your mind before we book than after you arrive. If a hot shower every night matters to you, this section of the country is not for you and we would rather say so.

When to go

The two windows worth planning around are February to April, when the terraces hold water and the light does the rest, and June to July, when they are gold. They look entirely different and people have strong opinions about which is better.

August and September are the months we would move. Landslides genuinely close the mountain roads, and being stuck on the wrong side of one for a day is not a theoretical risk. The full national calendar is in the Philippines month by month.

How it fits into a trip

The Cordilleras do not combine with a two-week island trip. The land journey is too long and the flights do not exist. This is a third-week proposition, or a trip of its own for someone who wants the mountains rather than the sea.

The version we build most often is Manila, Banaue and Batad for three or four nights, Sagada for two, then down through Vigan on the Ilocos coast, which is the best-preserved Spanish colonial town in Asia, and back to Manila or on to an island. That is eight to ten days on its own.

Culture and food, 13 days is the shorter version, and Deep Philippines in 21 days combines it with the Visayas and Palawan properly.

For how this walking compares with the rest of the region, see trekking in Asia, compared honestly. The short answer is that it is closer to Japanese village walking than to a Himalayan trek: short days, real gradient, and the interest is in the culture rather than in the summit.

What we would not do

The viewpoint version. Drive eight hours from Manila, photograph the Banaue terraces from the roadside viewpoint, sleep one night and drive back. It happens, and it is a very long way to go for a photograph you could have looked at online.

Batad as a day trip. The walk in and out plus the drive makes it a punishing day and you miss the mornings, which are the reason to stay.

Booking it in August or September without saying clearly what the roads can do.

More on this in what we would skip in the Philippines.

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Keep reading

• The Philippines: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The Philippines month by month
• Culture and food, 13 days
• Deep Philippines in 21 days
• Trekking in Asia, compared honestly
• All our Philippines trips

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