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Bacolod City Island Philippines
"Recommended Tours Within and Outside Bacolod City "

As the entry point to the Province of Negros Occidental, Bacolod City offers wide of tours within and outside the city. Below are sample itineraries for a do-it-yourself city tour. But we recommend the services of a tour agency to help you with your tours particularly the various eco-tourism and special interests tours that Bacolod and its environs and nearby towns and cities could offer.

CITY TOUR
Preferably for half a day. Start with a walking tour around the city plaza, the San Sebastian Cathedral, the center of Catholic religious life in the city. The central market near the plaza andSan Sebastian Cathedral downtown area offers a wide array of native souvenirs and best buys from Bacolod like "uga" or dried fish and boneless "dangit", dried squid, fish tocino and a host of other dried items and food stuff.
Proceed to BREDCO port for a sweeping view of the various sea transports between Bacolod and Iloilo and between Bacolod and Manila.

Inter-island as well as International vessels also dock in this port.
From BREDCO Port, pass by the Bacolod City Hall, the seat of government of the city; then to the Golden Fields Commercial Complex, which is actually best visited at night, being the center of the city's night life. Proceed to a piaya making factory to see how this unique Negrense mouth-watering sweet delicacy is made. The St. Jude Thaddeus Parish and Shrine is along the way to the 25-hectare PANA-AD Park and Sports Complex comes end.

De Luzuriaga CemeteryFrom the sports complex, travel along the outer circumferential road with the breath-taking view of the 8,000 feet Kanlaon volcano in the background.
Proceed to Burgos-Lopez Jaena extension for that unique site- a private family cemetery that has been included in the Guiness Book of World Records as the only cemetery in the world at the intersection of two highways.

Your next destination should be the Capitol Lagoon in front of the Provincial Capitol; then the Negros Museum with its unique exhibit called "Sugar and Other Negros Tales" that tells the history of Negrense life before, during and after the arrival of the Spaniards.
For the nature conservationists, a visit to the Negros Forest Ecological foundation Breeding and Bio-diversity center is a must. The NEFFBC is just a stone's throw from the Negros Museum.

Depending on how much time you have, a visit to the shell mural and art deco of the Barangay sang Virgin or Sta. Clara Chapel is recommended.

Cap your Bacolod City tour with a "must" visit to the Association of Negros Producers (ANP) Showroom where you see the finest of the arts and crafts produced by Ilonggo ingenuity and artistic skill.

Prevailing tour agency rate for a minimum of 2 persons for 3 hours is P880.00 ( negotiable, depending on the number of tour participants).
Depending on visitor's preferences or for students on educational tours, visits to churches, sports facilities, factories, hotels, handicraft shops, ceramics factory. Food processing and manufacturing can also be arranged.

NEGROS SUGAR TOUR
Iron Dinosaur A full day to the sugar producing city of La Carlota, just 45 minutes south of Bacolod City. The tour includes a visit to an ancestral house, circa 1929; visit to an hacienda and its old muscovado mill, one of the country's oldest. Orientation on how sugar was made in the pre-industrialized past. Optional inclusion is a ride on an "iron dinosaur" through the picturesque sugarcane fields. Optional activities -- trekking, hiking, garden visits.

VMC TOURS
Victorias Church Victorias Milling Company, Inc. is the biggest integrated sugar mill and refinery in the world. The more than 7, 000 hectares compound is self-contained agro-industrial complex with a world-famous church, schools, cut-flowers farms, golf and country club, experimental farms and much more. Tours run everyday except weekends and Mondays.

WAR MEMORIAL TOURS
Monument of the Unknown Soldier Can be a moving experience for Japanese, Filipino and American World War II veterans. The tour visitors to the provincial capitol, the monument of Theodore Vinther - the young American soldier who foiled the attempt of the Japanese soldiers to destroy Bago Bridge; the monument to the Unknown Soldier at the Bacolod City Plaza, the Patag War Memorial in the uplands of Silay City where the remaining Japanese soldiers in the island retreated, and Green Beach in Pulupandan where the liberating American forces landed and in Barangay Sta. Rosa, Murcia, where the Japanese soldiers surrendered to the Americans.

STEAM ENGINE TOURS
During the milling season from October to April, visits can be arranged to view old steam engines still chugging to and from the mills. The most interesting locomotives or iron dinosaurs as railway enthusiasts would call them, are operated by Hawaiian Philippines Company in Silay City. Central Azucarera de la Carlota in La Carlota City, Victorias Milling Company or VICMICO in Victorias City. Contact sugar mill company through your hotel.

Source : BacolodCity.Gov.Ph

Travel Quotes:

Rome - the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar. George Eliot

To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. John Muir

Desserts Food, Philippine Cuisine

As a tropical oriental country it should come as no surprise there are many treats made from rice and coconuts. One often seen dessert is bibingka, a hot rice cake optionally topped with a pat of butter, slices of kesong puti (white cheese), itlog na maalat (salted duck eggs), and sometimes grated coconut. There are also glutinous rice sweets called biko made with sugar, butter, and coconut milk.

More details at Desserts Food, Philippine Cuisine

Why it’s best to travel with a group?

Solitude out, socializing in… It cannot be denied that traveling is fun, fun, fun… but it is much fun if you go out on a group trip. A whole lot of excitement, bonding and adventure awaits you. A group may mean your family, circle of friends, old-high school classmates, co-workers or relatives. Whatever it is, no matter what size- it is sure to be a memorable experience to spend time somewhere new with these people. Why its best to travel with a group?