Anyone living in Baguio City?

[MariChris]

First off. I'm so excited to be apart of this community as we are planning our retirement and moving to Baguio City in about 2 years. 

I have been utilizing my time to research all sorts of things that will make my family of 5 (3 young boys and a hubby oh and plus 2 dogs) transition to the PI smoother.

I was wondering if anyone would like to share their experience and any advice to moving and living in Baguio City . 

[Kuya John]

Hi Marichris,

As a new member welcome to the forum.

My only experience of Baguio was on my first trip to Philippines way back in 2001

From what I can remember, it was a lot cooler than Manila and that's why my lady friend now wife, took me there.

( along with her chaperone   )

Great place to visit, lot's to see, but I'm sure other members will have more information to share with you.

Go Baguio! Your Complete Guide to Baguio City, Philippines

baguio tourist spots - Google Search

Edited September 27, 2017 by Kuya John

[Jack Peterson]

3 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

my lady friend now wife, took me there.

( along with her chaperone   )

 Get away with the Fairies 

[Kuya John]

Just now, Jack Peterson said:

 Get away with the Fairies 

No joking Jack, honestly her cousin was in the military and he made sure she was chaperoned.

I'm talking about a time when I bought my first mobile phone and didn't have a computer

[MariChris]

56 minutes ago, Kuya John said:

Hi Marichris,

As a new member welcome to the forum.

My only experience of Baguio was on my first trip to Philippines way back in 2001

From what I can remember, it was a lot cooler than Manila and that's why my lady friend now wife, took me there.

( along with her chaperone   )

Great place to visit, lot's to see, but I'm sure other members will have more information to share with you.

Go Baguio! Your Complete Guide to Baguio City, Philippines

baguio tourist spots - Google Search

Thank you! I lived in Baguio as a little girl many moons ago. And I actually lived in Rosario for about 2 years as a young adult where I met my now hubby. (We went on dates chaperoned as well, dad is retired us army lol) but during my time in Rosario I think only visited it once or twice. And I do recall how cold it it. Which is the main reason why we wanted to move here because my kids will like the temp. 

I have been watching YouTube and looking at different forums to get a feel on how life would be like there. My husband assures me that it will be good especially with our income. It still makes me nervous but I feel we are both still young (I just turned 35 and hubby just turned 39)  and raising a family. We have the opportunity to retire (although it wouldn't be enough if we were in the states) and live well in the Philippines. Why not. We are both natives of the Philippines even though I'm a us citizen. I was born in clark afb so I get the privilege of being both Phil and US citizen which is a plus. 

 

We considered living in Rosario or Pangasinan where our families are from but we decided it's best to be close but far enough. It will be exciting to celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary where we first met (2001 we got married) 

 

Edited September 27, 2017 by MariChris

[Kuya John]

4 hours ago, MariChris said:

We considered living in Rosario or Pangasinan where our families are from but we decided it's best to be close but far enough. It will be exciting to celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary where we first met (2001 we got married) 

 

Hi MariChris,

Re-search and more research usually gives a firm footing, so well done for that.

You and your husband are still very young and indeed the time to enjoy life, is while still young enough to do so.

You are 16 years married, that is quite a feat these days, well done.

Good Luck for the future to you and the family...JB

 

[earthdome]

Hello MariChris,

Welcome to the forum. I lived in Baguio for 2 years, 2013 and 2014. I really liked Baguio, especially the climate. Some do not. The one big down side to Baguio are all the tourists. You can search the forum for posts about Baguio. I have made many posts regarding my stay there. Feel free to ask questions. I would be happy to answer.

[OnMyWay]

6 hours ago, MariChris said:

Thank you! I lived in Baguio as a little girl many moons ago. And I actually lived in Rosario for about 2 years as a young adult where I met my now hubby. (We went on dates chaperoned as well, dad is retired us army lol) but during my time in Rosario I think only visited it once or twice. And I do recall how cold it it. Which is the main reason why we wanted to move here because my kids will like the temp. 

I have been watching YouTube and looking at different forums to get a feel on how life would be like there. My husband assures me that it will be good especially with our income. It still makes me nervous but I feel we are both still young (I just turned 35 and hubby just turned 39)  and raising a family. We have the opportunity to retire (although it wouldn't be enough if we were in the states) and live well in the Philippines. Why not. We are both natives of the Philippines even though I'm a us citizen. I was born in clark afb so I get the privilege of being both Phil and US citizen which is a plus. 

 

We considered living in Rosario or Pangasinan where our families are from but we decided it's best to be close but far enough. It will be exciting to celebrate our 20 year wedding anniversary where we first met (2001 we got married) 

 

We have relatives in Baguio and usually get up there 2 or 3 times a year.  It was one of the places I considered for retirement.

I would not consider it now.  Our last few trips up there have not been so nice due to one big factor:  Traffic and related poor air quality sometimes.

I have been going there for 5 years, and the traffic has gotten very noticeably worse.  Our relatives who have been there for 20+ years complain and would like to leave, but their roots are deep.  My wife went to St. Louis university there and liked it back then, but now she is not liking it at all.

The new TPLEX expressway is feeding cars into Baguio faster than they can cope up, and the expressway is not done yet.  Next year it will be ending in Rosario.  The trip from north Manila to Rosario will be not much over 2 hours then, as opposed to many hours before TPLEX opened.  Now there are so many weekend tourist that every weekend is like a holiday weekend there, traffic wise.  The weekdays are bad too.  We used to circumvent the downtown area using the ring roads, but now those are backing up too.

Part of the problem is also the constant road construction that does not seem to have much coordination.  You go from area to area to area, and there is constant road work.  There is a lot news and discussion about how to cope, but the fact is that Baguio is a small area with a lot of geographic issues that make road expansion extremely difficult.

Sorry for the negativity, but I would advise you to go there and try it for a while before making a final decision.  Another thing to consider is earthquakes.  Since the last big one in the 90's, they have rebuilt and in IMHO, overbuilt, very big structures on steep hillsides.  They look like it would not take much of a quake to send them tumbling, but I might be wrong.

I was in your birthplace today, Clark.  Clark is booming and it might be a place to take a look at.  I have been going there once a week to a doctor, and I see more and more I like, if you want a more western lifestyle and good schools for the kids.  I try to post something about Clark soon.

[MariChris]

10 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

We have relatives in Baguio and usually get up there 2 or 3 times a year.  It was one of the places I considered for retirement.

I would not consider it now.  Our last few trips up there have not been so nice due to one big factor:  Traffic and related poor air quality sometimes.

I have been going there for 5 years, and the traffic has gotten very noticeably worse.  Our relatives who have been there for 20+ years complain and would like to leave, but their roots are deep.  My wife went to St. Louis university there and liked it back then, but now she is not liking it at all.

The new TPLEX expressway is feeding cars into Baguio faster than they can cope up, and the expressway is not done yet.  Next year it will be ending in Rosario.  The trip from north Manila to Rosario will be not much over 2 hours then, as opposed to many hours before TPLEX opened.  Now there are so many weekend tourist that every weekend is like a holiday weekend there, traffic wise.  The weekdays are bad too.  We used to circumvent the downtown area using the ring roads, but now those are backing up too.

Part of the problem is also the constant road construction that does not seem to have much coordination.  You go from area to area to area, and there is constant road work.  There is a lot news and discussion about how to cope, but the fact is that Baguio is a small area with a lot of geographic issues that make road expansion extremely difficult.

Sorry for the negativity, but I would advise you to go there and try it for a while before making a final decision.  Another thing to consider is earthquakes.  Since the last big one in the 90's, they have rebuilt and in IMHO, overbuilt, very big structures on steep hillsides.  They look like it would not take much of a quake to send them tumbling, but I might be wrong.

I was in your birthplace today, Clark.  Clark is booming and it might be a place to take a look at.  I have been going there once a week to a doctor, and I see more and more I like, if you want a more western lifestyle and good schools for the kids.  I try to post something about Clark soon.

Thank you so much for this! That is actually one of my concerns! I know Baguio City was only made for 30,000 people and now there are about 300,000 people and that really concerned me. I knew the last big earth quake was in the 90's and it is bound to happen. Just the the thought of the traffic and the many many buildings that are there scares me! 

I just read this outload to the hubby and we will be discussing our options. And I am looking forward to your post about Clark! 

[MariChris]

2 hours ago, Kuya John said:

Hi MariChris,

Re-search and more research usually gives a firm footing, so well done for that.

You and your husband are still very young and indeed the time to enjoy life, is while still young enough to do so.

You are 16 years married, that is quite a feat these days, well done.

Good Luck for the future to you and the family...JB

 

Thank you! 

We have three boys making the move with us. I need to make sure everything is good before we leave our life in the US and sell the house they love. Got to make sure it's worth it you know. 

 

Yes. We just celebrated our 16 years of marriage this month actually . we have been together for 19 years. You should see the looks we get when we say we have a teenager (my oldest is 13) 

but we def have a mindsight of enjoying life with our kids while we can before it's gone in a blink of an eye