This place is truly incredible! I'm so glad I visited. If I can suggest, if you're visiting Banaue, don't stay in the main city. Look it up. Hire guides. Venture out to the other rice fields in the area! Make a day trip to Sagada. Specifically, I spent a day in Banaue, visited a few other rice fields, and then proceeded to Batad(I'll review it in another review). In my opinion, if you're visiting Banaue, Batad is a must but it requires a 45-minute ride away, you're dropped off, and then have to hike 45-60 minutes into the village. There are no roads in/out of Batad and it's one of the Unesco-protected sites.
Back to Banaue; After the long overnight bus ride from Manila... there are a ton of guides waiting at the main area when you arrive. You don't have to hire a guide but I did... and this is one time where I'm so happy that I did. I was able to see so much more of the area because of the tour company I hired for the 4 days of being there. To my surprise, when checking in, one of the tour companies already knew my name. They were aware that I had a reservation in Batad.
Banaue is a neat place but I did love seeing the other rice terraces. Banaue has more businesses and a much larger town that has sprouted up amongst the terraces. Banaue is also the main place you're going to see the Ifugao people... some of them still wear their traditional clothing. I'd also suggest making your way uphill to the Banaue Museum. When we mentioned it to some of our tour guides, they gave us a weird look like 'Why do you want to go there?' It was full of useful information and historical artifacts from the area. It's definitely worth your time if you like learning about the places you visit.
After finding a place to snag breakfast... our trike shuttled us to a few viewpoints before taking us to Hapao Rice Terraces. The lady that guided us around Hapao was so kind. I probably learned more from her than anyone I chatted with in the area. She had all the information. Hapao was worth the visit because it's immediately obvious that they're blessed with all the water. The terraces are green and they have so much water in the area that they have other food growing as well. There was also some homemade cheese bread being sold near one of the local's homes. IT WAS TASTY!
The government has a small area near the church in Hapao that's for experimentation. It's a new thing but they're trying to see if they can produce different results in growing rice.
Hapao also has a hot spring along with a cold swimming area. The cold swimming area was WAY TOO COLD so I spent most of my time in the hot spring with the locals! It was so much fun and I'll never forget the people I met there.
After leaving Hapao, we had lunch back in Banaue and then started to make our way to Batad. One last stop before Batad was to an overlook to see Bangaan Rice Terraces. It was a good view but our guide mentioned that we couldn't go any closer. It's full of many old people and they don't like anyone that's not local coming to their village.
It seemed like the main guide that we had also knew everyone around the area. Our route to Batad even included a stop by his parent's home(he was just dropping off a package), but I still loved the vibe of feeling included in the community while I was there. That feeling was even more enhanced while in Batad but I'll save that for the Batad review.
Banaue is amazing in itself and it's totally worth the long trip to get there but as I said before, definitely use it as a springboard to other rice terraces and areas in North Luzon. read more