Honestly, I still find time to actually visit hotels and personally inquire about their rates whenever I receive a question like that. I usually don't mind exerting an effort and spending my own money and resources without any return or personal benefit in visiting these hotels because I need to live with the expectation. I want to maintain an image that I am a reliable blogger of everything about Vigan and I must see to it that everything I write and say is true and credible. That's why I only give first hand information.

The thing is, it is really hard to find a cheap hotel in Vigan. I've been to several destinations in the Philippines that are tourists-laden but cheap hotels sprout everywhere. In Vigan, classiness and elegance is the name of the game—not the price. Of course, hotels here need to live with the history of the city that it used to be an important trading hub where big mansions and rich mestizos & elitists of the Spanish-era used to thrive. Tourists also need to feel that—that's the basic traditional mentality at least for mainstream industry players—hence, you need to pay higher for the experience and service you receive. No wonder why most hotels in Vigan have this "old mansion" feel or concept.

The foregoing is the pressure I feel whenever someone asks for help in looking for a cheap yet decent hotel. You see how I struggle. Yes, I do.

Well, I only recommend one hotel whenever someone asks. Unfortunately, the hotel I am always recommending isn't located in Vigan—it's in #BANTAY

#BANTAY

town, just adjacent to Vigan. The reason is, this hotel is cheap but comfortable enough to have rest since I've personally examined the rooms.

THE DRAMA STARTED WHEN I LEARNED THAT the physician whom I work with in the hospital has a newly opened hotel with cheaper price and located in an unusual location for a hotel in Vigan.

I volunteered to visit his newly opened hotel to see if it is worth recommending. Good news! This is a great relief for me who is known to be a blogger who writes guides about Vigan. The pressure of pleasing my readers with a cheap hotel accommodation is finally over.

I am saying the things above because I want to make it clear that this is not a paid post. Honestly, I introduced to the owner the idea of blogging about this hotel to inform the public. The owner thought he has to pay me. I said, "No." Paid posts can pressure me not to be myself.

I UNDERSTAND THAT TOURISTS VISIT THIS HERITAGE city to feel its Hispanic ambiance. That's a must-try. But for travelers/tourists who tend to find something different from the Vigan mainstream, this hotel I am featuring now is the answer.

This is the first hotel in Vigan, as far as I am concerned, that has broken all the traditional rules. While tourists love experiencing the old mansions by checking-in to ancestral houses converted into hotels, this one is a bit adventurous to offer something new.

Up Next: Where to find this hotel? How much is the rate? Using my motorbike, I drove to the Vigan countryside where beautiful countryside view is so alive. This hotel is indeed new to my taste. This is a different Vigan image. No calesa. No old houses.

[1] This post is filed under the category "Overview." This category is a collection of stories about how I see things based on my experiences. I actually write an overview post to introduce a new blog series or to summarize a travel experience in general while waiting for them to be written down into specific stories that will appear in a future blog series. To see more posts from this category, scroll down and look for the "More Posts from this Category..." blog section.

[2] I would like to thank Dr Dennis Ragasa for allowing me to write about this hotel.

[3] All maps I used on this post are the works of Eugene Alvin Villar and Mike Gonzalez published on Wikipedia. Source: 1 | 2 | 3