Sagada Municipal Tourist Information Center — Attraction in Luzon

My expectations were not really that high since all I really knew about Sagada was its hanging coffins. Despite low expectations, I was still pretty underwhelmed. Everything, including the most basic tourist attractions REQUIRED a tour guide. The worst part is that the tour guides were rated for groups of 5-10 pax. If there are only 2 of you, be prepared to pay through the nose for sights that are not even unique to Sagada. In other Philippine provinces we've visited, tour guides were often optional, with exceptions only for dangerous or complicated routes. Here, we were charged Php300 ("discounted" apparently) for a literal 5-minute walk from the main road on a mostly cemented footpath to get to an underwhelming waterfall. The tour guide recommended this one because the bigger one we wanted to visit was too much of a long and hot walk. Oh, and did I mention he was also affiliated with the store that was set up next to the falls we ended up going to?

On a related note, this same guide took us to the equally dissapointing Blue Soil "attraction" and regularly walked 10-20 meters ahead of us in almost total silence. Other guides we've had were always full of fun facts about their province and the spot we were heading to. This one seemed to be more interested in politics. SMH

Safety also seems to be a very low priority for these guides. One instructed us to go past a clear and straight section of the road (next to the cave's road entrance), to park at a blind corner for whatever reason he had in his head.

I can understand that people worked to set up trails and make them safe, but again, most other provinces in the country simply just set up minimal entrance fees to these attractions. I'm all for supporting local economies, but value for money here is very low.

Sagada is still a very small town with some great potential. The natural beauty of the land is very apparent. It just feels like the tourism office has focused on squeezing as much cash from the tourists who do go there. I hope they realize that building good will and getting those same tourists to recommend the place to their friends (perhaps even coming back), is much better for long-term success. As it is, I highly doubt that we would ever come back, and I definitely won't be telling my friends that this a must-visit place. You can do...

This is by far the most chaotic Tourist Information Center I have ever been in.

The system now is that you need to have a code from your accommodation and register to their tourist registration website before coming here.

You pay 100 pesos for Tourism and 50 pesos for 1-2 days insurance and 100 for 3-4 days

Then you need to register for a tour, there are different tour packages to choose from

We registered to a Cave Connection tour (1500 for the tour guude and 400 for the shuttle since we cannot use our car) which is a 3-5 hour cave adventure for 1PM. We were asked the hotel we stay at and my contact details saying they will contact us. We went back to the hotel and waited. 1:30 PM came and noone contacted us. The good guy from our homestay advised us to check back with the Tourist Center so we walked back there and not surprisingly, they forgot about us. They had our slip covered by other slips. So it tells you that they have an outdated system.

I talked to them after falling in line again, which I also did in the morning. I asked them what happened and they jist shrugged me off and asked me to wait. No time whatsoever. You just wait.

So 2PM came and no information yet. When 2:30Pm came I became impatient. I stood in line with lips pursed to signify that I am annoyed. Good thing the woman in tge counter noticed me and asked me how she can help. So I reiterated my problem. That's when they caught up that I am already annoyed so she escalated my concern and looked for a guide right away.

But of course there is no available shuttle so we had to wait. We were able to get to our cave connection site by 3PM.

The next day we have another scheduled Marlboro Country tour. We were asked if we will be open to join others as the guide is for 10 pax. We said yes and they said someone will contact us so we can join other groups. You know what happened? They assigned a tour guide for us alone so we had to pay the tour guide with just us 3 people instead of dividing it with another group. We spent 2900 pesos for a trekking tour just to see the sea of clouds. But we could have had it lower if the stupid Tourism Officers didn't mess with their booking.

This place and organization needs to straighten their system. It was really chaotic. As you can see in the pictures, it was...

First of all it is compusery to go to the most points of interest with a tour guide. Reasonis places are holy. In the past the reason was so tourists would not get lost. For some trips, it is very understandable but for most not. I asked about the walking tour. How difficult was it. Answer, very easy. Takes 2 to 3 hours. I can assure you it was not!!! Just tell what the trip involves and then i can choose if i want to do it or not. For this trip we had a guide from the agency Saggada . I would fire him on the spot. Reasons. Nr 1 - noncumminicative and uninterested. Nearly no expinations. Said tour would take one hour. ??? Nr 2 - he gave us a choice to go up to the street or cross a river. Mam you wil get wet and the sharp stones will hurt your feet. Well there were stepping-stones to cross the river. Why lie? He wanted to finish in an hour. Nr 3 to get to the lat part the waterfalls we would have to walk knee deep water through a cave system. Big lie. We went there ourselves, and it is a flight of steep steps with a railing to hold on to. We wanted to go to Kiltipan viewpoint. So he showed us the direction. It has been closed for years, and of course, he new this to. The only good thing about him is that he helped me with the parts I found difficult. I really hate the concept of the tourist as a milk cow. And then giving the worst...