Baguio Botanical Garden

Baguio Botanical Garden

The Baguio Botanical Garden is located east of Baguio's downtown area. You will find it between Teacher's Camp and the Pacdal Circle. Its main entrance is along Leonard Wood Road and just across the street from Gilberto's Hotel and Baguio Vacation Hotel. It is quite a large park and about the same size as Burnham Park.

Also known as the Igorot Village, the Botanical Garden features native huts typical of the type of Igorot dwellings found in the Cordilleras. The village is said to capture the ethnic spirit and cultural legacy of the Igorots and being tranquil and quiet, it is a nice place to just sit down and relax, take a leisurely stroll along its narrow and winding pathways and also enjoy the landscape where you will find numerous plants and trees.

Some years back Igorot dances and rituals were held in an improvised outdoor stage within the village. Local students go to the Botanical Garden for a day of retreat or just enjoy the outdoor environment. When visiting the Botanical Garden, you will usually find a group of Igorots at the main entrance who are dressed in their authentic native attire and regalia. They will be more than happy to pose with visitors for a souvenir picture ... of course, for a fee.

You will be welcomed by a bas relief sculpture made of cement and stone depicting the different rituals of the Cordillera tribes, with real live Igorots who will be more than willing to pose for photos for a small fee.

Recently renamed Centennial Park a valuable addition to Botanical Garden is a beautiful bronze sculpture by famous Filipino artist Ben-Hur Villanueva depicting the original builders of the city, composed of Cordillera natives, Americans, Chinese and Japanese working together. This work of art is located right past the gate so it will be hard to to miss!

Filled with towering pine trees, the Botanical Garden serves the dual purpose of providing visitors and residents valuable beathing space and re-greening a fast developing city with greenhouses and nurseries designed to propagate the flora and fauna species that will eventually find their way to parks and gardens around the Summer Capital.

Stone steps and paths will guests around the different areas of the Garden, that include an Art Gallery (as the Botanical Garden is the home of the Baguio Arts Guild), pocket gardens developed and maintained by Baguio's sister cities, areas where folks from elsewhere have planted pine tree seedlings, a small row of souvenir stalls selling native handicrafts.

Then there are the different relics from Botanical Garden's Igorot Village days with large statues depicting different Cordillera tribesmen and symbols, Cordillera huts that have seen better days that visitors used to be able to climb into to get a glimpse of the different cooking implements and home fixtures.