Welcome to Baguio

High in the Cordillera mountains of northern Luzon sits a city unlike anywhere else in the Philippines. Before the Americans arrived, the Ibaloi people called this cool highland plateau Kafagway. In 1900, American zoologist Dean Conant Worcester led an expedition searching for a retreat where colonial personnel could escape Manila's sweltering heat. What they found at 1,540 meters elevation was a natural air-conditioned paradise — 8°C cooler than the capital below.

By 1903 the Philippine Commission had declared Baguio the official Summer Capital, and in 1905, Daniel Burnham — the visionary architect behind the Washington D.C. Mall and Chicago's lakefront — drew up the city plan. He imagined a garden city in the clouds: broad tree-lined avenues radiating from a central park, with public spaces inspired by the City Beautiful movement he had championed back home. The city was officially chartered in 1909.

Today, Baguio is a living blend of pine-scented parks and colonial-era architecture, indigenous Cordilleran culture, a thriving arts scene (it is a UNESCO Creative City), and the best strawberries in the Philippines. Grab a jacket — even in the tropics, it gets chilly up here — and let's explore the Summer Capital.