A Visitor's Guide to Besao (What You Need to Know Before You Go)

𝐀 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐞𝐬𝐚𝐨

(𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐆𝐨)

By: 𝕲𝖎𝖓𝖆𝖜𝖆𝖓𝖌

There is a certain kind of place in this world that is as interesting like the others. It does not put up flashy tarpaulins along the provincial highway or hire influencers to post aesthetic reels of its sunsets. It simply exists, quietly magnificent, wrapped in pine-scented fog and the ancient memory of mountains that have stood long before any map was drawn. Besao, Mountain Province is exactly that kind of place. And if you have found your way to this guide, consider yourself fortunate, because what waits for you at the end of that winding mountain road is something that most Filipino tourists, and even most Cordillerans, have not yet had the privilege to witness.

This is not just a destination. Besao is a living, breathing community with a cultural depth that cannot be measured in scenic viewpoints or Instagram likes. It has soul. It has the kind of indigenous life that does not perform for outsiders but generously shares itself with those who arrive with humility, respect, and a genuine hunger for something real. So pack a good jacket, charge your camera, and prepare to be changed by a place that has been quietly extraordinary for centuries.

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗜𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝗮𝗼?

Let us start with geography, because understanding where Besao sits in the map of the Cordillera will completely reshape how you feel about it. Besao is a municipality nestled in the westernmost part of Mountain Province, perched high in the Cordillera Central range of Northern Luzon. It is bordered by Tubo and Abra to the north, Tadian to the south, and Quirino to the east. To its west lies the province of Ilocos Sur, and on clear days, from the right ridge in Besao, you can actually see the distant landscapes of those neighboring provinces unfolding below you like a rumpled green blanket that stretches to the horizon.

The town sits approximately 150 kilometers northeast of Baguio City and 28 kilometers from Bontoc, the capital of Mountain Province. In terms of elevation, Besao is not playing small. Its altitudes range from 400 meters above sea level at its lower fringes to over 2,300 meters at the summit of Mount Kaming-mingel. That is deep Highland Cordillera territory, which means the air is cold, crisp, and absolutely intoxicating, the kind of air that makes your lungs feel like they have been cleaned out and handed back to you new.

"𝘉𝘦𝘴𝘢𝘰 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘹𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵, 𝘸𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦-𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘢𝘱 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘯."

About 85 percent of Besao's land area is classified as forest lands, timberlands, or unclassified forest. This is not a place that has been carved up by malls and subdivisions. It is, by the law of its own land, a living forest. Pine trees dominate the slopes. Mossy forests cling to its higher peaks. Rice terraces fan out across the valleys in geometric waves that generations of Kankanaey hands have shaped from raw mountain stone. The municipality is composed of 14 barangays, each with its own personality, its own micro-history, and its own unwritten rules of engagement that a respectful visitor learns quickly and carries gracefully.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝘁

Before you arrive, it helps to know a little bit about who built this place. The name Besao is believed to have evolved from the Ilocano word "Buso," which means head-hunter. The early Besaonians were reportedly among the most formidable highland warriors in the region, and the communities surrounding these mountains recognized their ferocity. Over time, "Buso" softened into "Besao," and the people who carry that name today are not fiercer in war but fiercer in culture, in pride, and in their unshakeable determination to protect what their ancestors left them.

The people of Besao belong to the Northern Kankanaey ethnolinguistic group, sometimes called Applai or Lepanto Igorot in older literature. These are not museum people. They are not re-enactors. The rituals you may witness in Besao, if you are fortunate and respectful enough to be invited, are living practices that continue to shape the rhythms of daily life. Their communal institutions are anchored in the dap-ay, the traditional circular stone council ground where elders gather to make decisions, pass down knowledge, and read the signals of the natural world. The dap-ay is not a tourist attraction. It is a living institution, and it is the heartbeat of every Besao community.

The i-Besao, as they call themselves, are rice terrace agriculturists at heart. Their entire cosmology, their calendar, their festivals, their architecture, and their social structure revolve around rice, the mountains, and the ancestral spirits that they believe continue to watch over both. Women weave the stunning pinilian cloth, a brocade-style textile with intricate grid patterns, as both a functional craft and a marker of cultural identity. The gangsa, flat bronze gongs, ring out at rituals and celebrations, their interlocking rhythms understood by the Kankanaey as a sonic expression of community harmony. These are a people who have built their civilization in the most demanding terrain imaginable, and they have done it beautifully.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝘂𝗲𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝗮'𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝗺𝗼𝘀)

If there is one thing in Besao that should be on every traveler's must-see list and every i-Besao's source of bottomless pride, it is the Gueday Stone Calendar. Located in Sitio Gueday at the dap-ay Awaw in Barangay Gueday, this ancient astronomical monument has been officially declared a National Landmark by the National Museum of the Philippines. It is, by any measure, one of the most extraordinary indigenous scientific artifacts in all of Southeast Asia, a testament to the Kankanaey genius for reading the heavens through the earth beneath their feet.

Here is how it works. Every year, on September 30, the elders of the Agawa community and anyone with the good fortune to be present gather at the mother dap-ay before sunrise. They lie on the stone calendar and wait. What happens next is nothing short of breathtaking. As the sun crests the eastern horizon, its rays travel like a laser beam through a niche in the towering rock called Ambaon Bato on Mount Langsayan and strike the stone calendar with pinpoint precision. That alignment is not random. It is an astronomical calculation that the ancestors of the i-Agawa encoded in stone to mark the beginning of the agricultural year, specifically the signal to begin preparing seedbeds for planting rice.

The month is called Adog in the indigenous Agawa calendar, one of 12 agricultural months that organize the i-Besao's relationship with time, land, and sky. Adog begins when migratory birds called Kiling start to chirp in September, signaling that no typhoon is imminent. When the sun finally aligns with Ambaon Bato and the stone calendar confirms it, the community knows it is time to plant. This is not superstition. This is Cordilleran astronomy, millennia of careful observation encoded in stone and living ritual.

"𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘶𝘯'𝘴 𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘺."

The celebration that accompanies this solar event is called Kasilapet, and it is one of the most heartfelt community gatherings in all of Mountain Province. Households pound glutinous rice and cook the beloved Linapet, a native rice cake filled with crushed peanuts and wrapped in banana leaves. They share it with neighbors, relatives, and anyone who wanders into the celebration with an open heart. The theme is gratitude, cultural solidarity, and the binding force of shared tradition. To be in Gueday on September 30 is to be present at something that the modern world has not yet fully discovered. Now you know. Mark your calendar.

𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗮𝗺𝗲 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗞𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗻)

Besao is not only a cultural destination. It is a place of extraordinary natural power, and its waterfalls are some of the most spectacular and least photographed in the entire Cordillera region. For adventurous travelers willing to hike through dense forest, cross creeks, and follow local guides into genuine wilderness, the reward is singular and unforgettable.

Tagpeo Falls is the one that tends to leave visitors speechless. It plunges approximately 75 meters down the face of a massive rock cliff, and the journey to reach it involves hours of hiking through pristine forest, crossing brooks, and navigating terrain that has never been touched by concrete or guardrails. This is hiking at its most honest. There is no cable car, no viewing deck, and no overpriced convenience store halfway up. There is only trail, forest, water, and the growing roar of something enormous falling in the distance. When it finally appears before you, Tagpeo Falls does not disappoint.

Then there is Daoyasan Falls, which may well be the widest waterfall in all of Mountain Province. Its vertical drop is around 10 meters, but its horizontal spread exceeds 80 meters at its widest point. The tradition among those who visit is to lie down in the water and let it cascade over the body like a natural massage that no spa in the world could replicate. Bibbidowen Falls stands around 30 meters tall and features a naturally formed pool with crystal-clear, bitterly cold water. The rock cliffs surrounding the pool serve as jumping platforms for the brave. Just make sure, as the locals wisely say, that you hit the deep waters.

Visible from a distance and towering over the Bacuda Rice Terraces is Kitkitaw-eng Falls, measuring around 100 meters and offering one of the most dramatic visual compositions in the municipality. You do not even need to hike all the way to its base to be moved. Simply standing on the road with that waterfall behind you and ancient rice terraces in the foreground is a photograph that needs no filter and no caption. It speaks entirely for itself.

The Rice Terraces and the Living Landscape

Carved into the steep mountain slopes over generations of painstaking labor, the rice terraces of Besao, particularly those in barangays like Bacuda and Banguitan, cascade down the mountainsides in steps of green and gold depending on the season. When you drive along the mountain roads of Besao and a sweeping panoramic view of those terraces suddenly opens up before you, the instinct is to pull over immediately and stare for a very long time. You will not be the first person to do this, and you will absolutely not be embarrassed about it.

These are not decorative terraces maintained for postcards. They are still actively farmed by the i-Besao. Families still plant, nurture, and harvest rice here through the same cycle of prayer, labor, and community that their grandparents and great-grandparents practiced before them. The terraces are a living agricultural system, and walking near them during planting or harvest season, you will witness the full rhythm of Cordilleran agrarian life: bent backs, mud-stained feet, songs passing between workers across the ridge lines, and the mingled scent of fresh earth and mountain air that is unlike anything else on this planet.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗯𝗮𝘆𝗮 𝗙𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹 (𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝗮𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲)

Every year in late February or early March, Besao holds the Ubaya Festival, its municipal founding anniversary celebration. This is when the whole town comes together in its most festive and outward expression. Traditional dances fill the streets. The resonant clanging of gangsa flat gongs fills the mountain air with rhythms that have been played in these highlands for longer than anyone can trace. Women dressed in pinilian cloth, that gorgeous brocade textile woven with intricate geometric patterns, move through the festival grounds in colors that feel simultaneously ancient and vivid. The Ubaya Festival is the ideal time for a visitor to witness the beauty of i-Besao culture in its most celebratory form, though even then, the operative word is witness, not consume.

The cañao, the traditional sacrificial feast that invokes ancestral blessings for communal well-being, marks the more solemn ceremonial dimension of Besao community life. Pigs and carabaos are offered in thanksgiving to the spirits, and communal meals bind the community together in ways that no government program or corporate team-building retreat could ever replicate. These are not performances. They are the living sinew of a society that has held itself together through centuries of challenge and change, and they deserve the reverence of every visitor who is permitted to witness them.

Practical Things You Actually Need to Know

Here is where this guide gets honest with you, because Besao is a community that has made a deliberate choice to prioritize the preservation of its culture over the machinery of mass tourism, and every visitor owes the i-Besao the respect of understanding that before stepping foot in the municipality.

Getting to Besao from Baguio City involves taking a bus or van bound for Bontoc through the Halsema Highway, one of the highest national roads in the Philippines and a journey that is itself a breathtaking experience. From Bontoc, jeepneys travel the 28 kilometers to Besao. For solo travelers, it is strongly advised to connect with other travelers or arrange with local contacts before heading into the more remote barangays, both for safety and because the experience is genuinely richer when you have a local alongside you who can read the land and its people.

There are no DOT-accredited hotels or inns in Besao at present, and that is intentional. The Besao Multipurpose Cooperative within the town center can accommodate visitors, and the genuine, unhurried hospitality of the i-Besao means that in more remote barangays, local families will often warmly open their homes to respectful guests. This is not a hotel experience. This is full community immersion, and it is worth more than any air-conditioned room anywhere.

Your first stop should always be the local tourism office. The municipal tourism officers are the best people to help you build an itinerary, arrange local guides for the waterfalls and mountain trails, and introduce you to the community in a way that is mutually respectful and genuinely safe. Always secure a guide when heading to remote spots. The wilderness of Besao is real wilderness, and it is not marked with convenient signage every 50 meters. A good guide is not an optional extra here. It is an essential partner.

On the matter of dress and conduct, Besao is conservative by intention and by culture. Revealing clothing, public displays of affection, and loud or disrespectful behavior are not welcome, and the community has every right to enforce that expectation. You are a guest in an indigenous municipality. Dress modestly, speak gently, and follow the lead of your local host at all times. Do not litter. Do not smoke in inappropriate areas. And absolutely do not spit around the community. Signs prohibiting the spitting of momma, or spent betel nut, are posted throughout the area for good reason. The i-Besao are immaculately proud of their environment and their culture, and they expect every visitor to reflect that pride through their own conduct.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘨𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘱𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺. 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺. 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘯𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶- 𝘢 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯."

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝗮𝘁 (𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀)

Food in Besao is simple, honest, and deeply satisfying in the way that only food made by people who grow their own ingredients can be. The Linapet is the definitive Besao food experience. This sticky rice cake, filled with crushed peanuts and wrapped snugly in banana leaves, is simultaneously a snack and a cultural artifact with centuries of meaning behind it. If you are fortunate enough to be in Besao around September 30, you will taste it in its most meaningful context, shared freely among community members during the Kasilapet celebration at the Gueday stone calendar. Even outside of festival season, ask for Linapet and you will almost certainly find someone in the community willing to prepare it with warmth.

Besao's highland cuisine revolves around the staples of mountain agriculture: native rice, vegetables like camote tops, squash, and sayote grown right from the terraced fields, and when occasion calls for it, pork or chicken prepared in the communal style that the Cordillera has perfected over generations. Tapey, the traditional rice wine of the region, is central to many social and ceremonial moments in Besao. Made through a fermentation process that is itself a form of indigenous knowledge passed down through families and communities, tapey is offered to guests as an act of welcome. Accepting it graciously is participating in a tradition that stretches back to your host's great-grandparents.

𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁 (𝗪𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝗮𝗼)

For hikers and nature lovers, the Anapucao Trail is one of Besao's most rewarding and least-crowded routes. This trail winds through pine groves, passes ancient stone terraces, and leads through ritual sites that sit well off any commercial tourist circuit. It is the kind of trail where you stop not because you are tired but because the view or the silence demands that you stop and pay attention to something larger than yourself. These forest paths are not built for speed. They are built for presence.

Registered hiking routes in the area offer a range of difficulty levels, from moderate walks with sweeping views of the Besao Rice Terraces to more demanding multi-hour treks into the highland wilderness. The trail to Lake Danum is a favorite for those who want to end a hiking day with a serene lake at golden hour, watching the last light fade across the water in a silence that feels ancient. Whatever trail you choose in Besao, register at the barangay hall before you set out. It is protocol, it is safety, and it is respect.

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶-𝗕𝗲𝘀𝗮𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 (𝗔 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗬𝗼𝘂)

To every i-Besao who finds this essay in their feed or their inbox, especially those who carry Besao in their hearts from far away, this is written with the deepest respect for what your community has built and what it continues to protect. The fact that your leadership has chosen to preserve culture over profit is not a failure of development. It is an act of extraordinary wisdom in a world that is destroying everything beautiful in the name of economic growth. Your dap-ay, your gangsa, your terraces, your tapey, your stone calendar at Gueday that aligns with the sun every September 30 with the precision of a people who learned to read the universe long before telescopes were invented, these are not quaint relics. They are living proof that human civilization does not require concrete highways and Wi-Fi to be profound.

To the young i-Besao who may be reading this from the city or from somewhere overseas, the longing you feel when September comes around, or when you catch the scent of