It was 7 days, 1798 kilometers, 9 Conventions and Visitors Bureau (CVBs), 8 provinces in 4 regions, 26 people on one bus on a trip around Northern Luzon. This is the Lakbay Norte Familiarization tour held January 24-31, 2010. I’ve always wanted to do a horseshoe loop of north Luzon and I was glad I was able to do it with the help of North Philippines Visitors Bureau. It was packed, tiring but also fun and exciting. For those who would like to try the similar route, this would be a great reference on what to expect.
Our route is counter-clockwise coming from Manila. Here’s the Itinerary and related blog post:
Intro:
Day 1 Cagayan Valley
Day 2 Cagayan Valley to Ilocos Norte
Day 3 Ilocos Norte to La Union to Baguio
Day 4 Baguio to Pangasinan
Day 5 Pangasinan to Greater Subic
Day 6 Subic Bay to Clark
Day 7 Pampanga to Manila
Check out the images at my Flickr Site:
Also during the Lakbay Norte Tour, I acquired a few Microtel 50% Off Vouchers. I know I won’t be able to use all of them so I decided to just raffle them off over at the Facebook Backpack Photography Fan Page. Here are the four winners of the vouchers:
Congratulations to:
- Jonel Uy
- Lino Almuenda
- Marjori Quebec
- Divi Malolos
I will be contacting each of you seperately to get your details. Thank you very much for joining the contest.

Ferdz Decena is an award-winning travel photographer, writer and blogger. His works has found print in publications such as Singapore Airlines’s Silver Kris, Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay, Cebu Pacific’s Smile and Seair InFlight. He has also lent his expertise to various organizations like the Oceana Philippines, Lopez Group Foundation, Save the Children and World Vision, contributing quality images for their marketing materials.