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Baguio is the Summer Capital of the Philippines, a mountain city in the Cordillera of northern Luzon at about 1,500 meters above sea level. Its cool climate and pine forests give it the nickname City of Pines, and with about 368,000 people in 2024 it is the center of business and education for northern Luzon.
The Americans founded Baguio in 1900 as a hill station on the site of the Ibaloi village of Kafagway, the only American hill station in Asia. The planner Daniel Burnham drew up the city in 1905, and governors, teachers and soldiers soon came up the new Kennon Road to escape the lowland heat. The city was badly bombed in 1945 and rebuilt after the war.
Visitors stroll around the lake of Burnham Park and along Session Road to the twin-spired cathedral, ride ponies at Wright Park and look out over the mountains from Mines View Park. Old American camps such as Camp John Hay and Teachers Camp keep their pine woods, and every February the Panagbenga flower festival fills the streets with floats.
Burnham Park in downtown Baguio is a historic urban park designed by the American architect and city planner Daniel Burnham as part of his plan for the city in 1905. Built on a grassy valley of the Ibaloi settlement of Kafagway, it has a lake at its center, rows of walks and an old grandstand.
Wright Park in Baguio is a wooded park near The Mansion, named after the American governor Luke E. Wright and set up as a recreation area. It is best known for horseback riding for tourists, with the horses handled by pony boys who are often members of the local Ibaloi community.
Mines View Park is an overlook park on a promontory about 4 kilometers from downtown Baguio, reached by a winding stone stairway down to an observation deck. It looks out over the mining town of Itogon and the abandoned gold and copper mines of Benguet Corporation toward the Amburayan Valley.
The Baguio Botanical Garden on Leonard Wood Road between Wright Park and Teachers Camp was once a zoo, renamed Imelda Park in 1970. It is dotted with Igorot huts, carvings and sculptures, art galleries of the Baguio Arts Guild and a friendship garden with temples and statues from six countries.
Baguio Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady of the Atonement, stands on a hill by Session Road and draws visitors with its distinctive twin spires and stained glass windows. Built from 1920 to 1936, it was the only building in Baguio that survived the bombing of 1945, sheltering many refugees inside.
The Mansion in Baguio is the official summer palace of the President of the Philippines, built in 1908 for the American governors-general and designed by William Parsons on plans by Daniel Burnham. Badly damaged in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1947, it stands near Wright Park.
Session Road is the main street of Baguio, 1.7 kilometers long and lined with banks, shops, bakeries, cafes and hotels in the heart of the business district. It is named for the old hall where the Philippine Commission held its sessions in 1904, which began the use of Baguio as the summer capital.
The Diplomat Hotel is an abandoned building on Dominican Hill in Baguio, built from 1913 to 1915 by the Dominicans as a vacation house and later used as a hotel. Seized by Japanese forces during the war, it is now part of a heritage park with a sweeping view of the city from its stone crucifix.
Camp John Hay in Baguio was set aside in 1903 as a mountain rest camp for American soldiers, and in 1945 General Yamashita surrendered there at the end of the war. Handed over to the Philippines, it is now a mixed-use tourist area with a golf course that also protects a forest watershed.
Teachers Camp in Baguio was founded in 1907 as a vacation and training site for American and Filipino teachers, holding its first assembly in tents in 1908. A recognized heritage site, it now houses the national academy of educators of the Department of Education.
The Philippine Military Academy in Baguio is the country's officer school, founded in 1936 and modeled on West Point in the United States, with roots in a constabulary school that moved to Baguio in 1908. Around 400 young men and women enter the academy as cadets every June.
The Panagbenga Festival is the month-long flower festival of Baguio held every February, first held in 1996 to help the city recover from the 1990 quake. Its name is a Kankanaey word for a season of blooming, and it is known for floats covered in flowers and street dancing in Cordillera costume.
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