Banaue Rice Terraces
In the northern Cordillera mountains of Luzon, the Banaue and Batad rice terraces are around two thousand years old and were carved by the Ifugao people into mountainsides as steep as fifty degrees. Often called the “eighth wonder of the world” in tourism brochures — an exaggeration that nevertheless captures the scale — the terraces are best reached by overnight bus from Manila to Banaue, then by jeepney to the trailhead at Batad, where a one-hour walk down to the village of stepped paddies is the classic route. Stay a night, walk to the Tappiya waterfall the next morning.
