Baguio City to bring back Hop On, Hop Off buses for tourists with private cars
If you're planning on sightseeing in the City of Pines in your private car, you might want to reconsider it.
The government of Baguio City announced that it is eyeing to revive the Hop-On, Hop-Off (HoHo) bus for tourists with private cars in order to reduce traffic in the highly-urbanized city.
In case you don't know what a HoHo bus is, this type of bus follows a specific route with stops that are near popular city attractions. You can board the bus at the designated stops and simply hop off at the attraction you want to see. If you want to continue, just hop back on in another bus.
The HoHo buses will be made available to tourists with private cars every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday beginning July 15.
According to the guidelines released by the city's public information office, tourists must have approved VISITA QR-coded tourist passes and have their vehicles parked at the designated areas in the Baguio Convention & Cultural Center.
There are also city-sanctioned parking fees to be paid:
- For light vehicles, its P35 for the first two hours and P10 per additional hour
- For mini buses (excursion), it's P40 for the first two hours and P15 per additional hour
- For regular tourist buses, it's P400 for the first two hours and P15 per additional hour
- For motorcycles, it's P10 for the first two hours and P5 per additional hour
A bus pass will be given to all passengers of the parked vehicle, which serves as their ticket to ride on the HoHo tourist bus at any scheduled departure time in designated stops around the circuit.
Make sure to guard your bus pass with your life, though, as it needs to be surrendered when claiming back the parked vehicle. Otherwise, you will be charged P25.
According to a previous post by the Baguio City government, there will only be two HoHo buses operating, with a 30-minute interval time per trip.
For its course, the local government stated that the buses "will follow a self-directed tour circuit taking off from the Baguio Convention Center to the Botanical Garden as the first stop; the Mansion House as the second stop; the Mines View Park will be the third stop and then back to Wright Park as fourth stop via Gibraltar Road to decongest traffic and finally exits via South Drive to the drop off point at Governor Pack Road where tourists may walk around the central business district as well as visit Burnham Park."
The buses are slated to do seven trips in a day, which could serve 290 tourists and reduce traffic by about 50 cars.