That Traveling Couple

After seeing the pictures and videos online of the Rice Terraces, one of many claimed “8th Wonders Of The World”, we knew coming to the Philippines that we had to get to Banaue to check them out for ourselves.

I’ve written about Banaue elsewhere, but I wanted to take this post to make a special post and review of the place we stayed at in Banaue, the Sanafe Lodge.

There were a decent number of choices for accomodation at Banaue so you might find it difficult to make a decision.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Banaue is a much bigger town than it’s little brother next door, Batad. There’s a lot of houses scattered along mountain trails, plenty of little stores selling souvenirs and clothing, and, as we discovered after it sprung up from nowhere right outside Sanafe Lodge on the Sunday morning, a thriving little weekend market!

The positioning of our accommodation at Banaue was important, because the town is spread out along a pretty decent sized stretch of mountain road, and one end is closer to where you come in on the bus, and the other end is closer to where you need to go to get on to Batad and also to the places where you see more of the Rice Terraces.

The Sanafe Lodge is perfect because it’s right about in the middle of those two points. It’s also a great spot because it’s right in the middle of a little area with a bunch of those little souvenir shops and also some interesting old buildings.

We had a really short trike ride down from the bus stop to the lodge, and checked into Sanafe.

The place is run by a lovely little couple, who were frequently seen sitting inside at the communal table, making these little decorations to hang around the place for what seemed to be some upcoming festivity.

Our room at the lodge was cute. We got two beds with good mattresses, the room was nice and clean, and also had a shower that you could get to output hot water (as opposed to Batad which as I’ve written, had no such luxury ) with a little playing around. When you’re hiking around mountain trails all day, the warm shower is something you’re thankful for.

You could also use the internet at the lodge computer for a really small fee, and unlike other places we found in the Philippines, the internet wasn’t too bad.

The food at the lodge was reasonable too, although we did have a funny experience when ordering the “special sandwich”… it had one thin slice of what we think was chicken but placed vertically on only the left third of the slice of bread, before being topped with what we think was mayonnaise. I’m sure it was a little mistake from the chef but I ate it up and laughed about it later.

What we loved about the lodge was a great balcony it had that you could sit out and enjoy a “San Mig” at (the local beer). It had a nice view down into the valley. You can’t see TOO many rice terraces here (not as many as at Batad) but the view is great, mountainscapes, a little bridge stretching across a ravine, and a long view down the valley between two mountain ridges.

The price at Sanafe Lodge was about $20 a night. I believe there was some slightly cheaper options at Banaue but for the central location, the hospitality of our hosts and the killer view, we certainly weren’t upset at paying $40 for our two night stay.

We can recommend Sanafe Lodge if you’re looking for a short stay at Banaue. If you have any questions, feel free to let us know!

Author: Andrew Hansen