🇵🇭 LUZON ISLAND • Manila North Road/MacArthur Highway: Local Guide + Review

This is a travel blog feature, local travel guide, review, and curation dedicated to the Manila North Road as a subject matter.

• This article is an ongoing personal journal project. This page will be updated intermittently. My goal for this curation is to create stories, reviews, and documentation about the Manila North Road.

• To view more photo details and contexts (like location, date taken, and camera used), you may put your mouse cursor over the image if you are using a PC. If you are on a mobile browser, touch and hold the image until a window pops out.

• All photos included in this article are actual photos of the highway taken by yours truly (unless disclaimed). Photo thumbnails could be enlarged by tapping or clicking it.

🇵🇭 LUZON ISLAND

This article is divided into subsections, organized in separate tabs for context-based navigation. All of the subsections are works-in-progress. Once I get to gather more data and materials for specific topics, I will add additional tabs. I have actually collected various materials for this highway. They are stored in my hard drive since 2010. Hence, aside from writing updates about this highway, I will also write about my old travels covering the MacArthur Highway in their historical contexts.

▼ BLOGS ▼ FAQs ▼ HISTORY x CURRENT EVENTS ▼ MARKETS ▼ TOURIST ATTRACTIONS ▼ VIEWPOINTS

This subsection is where I will write the summary of my actual visits in covering the Manila North Road, arranged in chronological order (from latest to oldest).

 ►  2021-December-19

Context of visit: This visit happened when our province of ▼ ILOCOS SUR

LATEST STORIES COVERING ILOCOS SUR

eased its CoVid restrictions. Me and my brother got so excited to break free from the community quarantine, so we decided to have a ride outside our hometown ▼ VIGAN

LATEST STORIES COVERING VIGAN

. It seemed quick and short, but it felt like the first time again due to the long community quarantine.

This road appeared almost empty at that time. All constructions stopped, and the view of nature as seen from this road looked so refreshing. The nature sent a message that it recovered a lot when human activity minimized its impact during the pandemic. Full story Here: ▼🇵🇭 SANTA • Pandemic Memories in the Manila North Road

🇵🇭 SANTA • Pandemic Memories in the Manila North Road

From the excruciating process of obtaining my travel documents in Makati to a private van ride back home in Ilocos, many of my significant pandemic stories are all in my hard drive.

🇵🇭 SANTA • Magsaysay District beach can be seen directly from this segment of the Manila North Road.

FAQs Below are FAQs (frequently asked questions) about the MacArthur Highway.

What is the other name of MacArthur Highway?
• MacArthur Highway is also called the Manila North Road, MNR, or MaNor.

Where does the MacArthur Highway start and end?
• MacArthur Highway starts from Caloocan City in Metro Manila and ends in Aparri, Cagayan.

Where is the MacArthur Highway located??
• MacArthur Highway is located on Luzon island. It runs through the provinces of Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, and Cagayan—making this road the second longest in the Philippines after the Maharlika Highway (Pan-Philippine Highway).

HISTORY OF THE MANILA NORTH ROAD
(A TIMELINE OF EVENTS)


1928 • The construction of the MacArthur Highway started during the American occupation—which allowed enterprising Americans to buy swathes of land, including the over 3,000-hectare Malinta Estate (which was acquired in 1904). This road was built in sections [1].

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• [1] Layug, B. (2013, July 10). A window into Valenzuela City’s past. Business Mirror. https://archive.md/20140814084822/http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/index.php/en/lifestyle/life/16219-a-window-into-valenzuela-city-s-past Retrieved, November 11, 2024

This section covers public markets and other public shopping spaces that are located along the Manila North Road.

 ►  Santa Cruz (Ilocos Sur) Public Market

Santa Cruz Public Market is a public property located in the municipality of Santa Cruz, Ilocos Sur along the Manila North Road. See location on Google Local Guides: https://maps.app.goo.gl/C9HEcuHvUF4M7a1r9 . If you are driving along the MNR and was caught by a heavy rain, this public market is a safe haven to keep dry. It has wide parking space and spacious dry market atrium.

For more information, updates, history, reviews, and local guides about the Santa Cruz Public Market, check my other blog article here: ▼ 🇵🇭 STA CRUZ • (Ilocos Sur) Public Market: Local Guide and Review

🇵🇭 STA CRUZ • (Ilocos Sur) Public Market: Local Guide and Review

🇵🇭 SANTA CRUZ • The rain sprinkled the Santa Cruz public market wet one afternoon, as seen from the Manila North Road.

This section covers tourist attractions that could be accessed or seen directly from the highway. The list arrangement is based on their location (the topmost entry is also the northermost).

 ►  Magsaysay District Beach

▼ MAGSAYSAY DISTRICT BEACH

🇵🇭 SANTA • Magsaysay District Beach (Local Guide and Review)

can be directly seen and accessed from the Manila North Road's segment in Magsaysay District Santa. There is also a part of the highway that runs directly alongside of this beach area separated by a seawall.

Check the Google Maps location here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/cdUw6WproUZatSYz7

🇵🇭 SANTA • A portion of the Magsaysay District beach can be seen and sccessed directly from this Manila North Road's section in Santa.

This section covers parts of this highway that are good stopovers for scenery viewing.

 ►  Santa Seawall

The Santa Seawall is a well-known feature of the MacArthur Highway in Ilocos Sur. This segment of the road dissects the mountain and the sea. The road seats on top of the Santa Seawall that also serves to protect the road from storm surges and erosion. This site is a good viewpoint to watch the West Philippine Sea and the Sitio San Jose portion of the Magsaysay District beach. During "ipon" season, this viewpoing is also the best area to see the hundreds of fishing boats catching a priced local seasonal fish called "ipon."

Google Maps location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/cdUw6WproUZatSYz7

▲ ▲ ▲
Scroll up to see more contents under each tab.

IMAGE GALLERY

This image gallery is arranged based on context. To see the town or city where the photo was taken, check the watermark. If you want to know additional details of a certain photo like the date it was taken, vantage point, and the camera used, put your mouse cursor over the photo (for PC) or tap and hold the photo (for smartphones).

Photos were arranged from northermost (top) to the southermost (below).

As seen from the Coast of Magsaysay District

As seen in Magsaysay District (street-level)

▬ END OF ARTICLE ▬


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MORE BLOGS YOU MIGHT LIKE. SEE TABS BELOW.

▼ LUZON ▼ INFRASTRUCTURE ▼ ROADS AND HIGHWAYS

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UPDATE HISTORY FOR THIS BLOG POST

2024-December-06
• New photo cover (#5) updated

2024-December-02
• New tab added (MARKETS).
• New entry (Santa Cruz Public Market) added under the MARKETS tab.

2024-December-01
• New tab section added (Tourist Attractions)
• Magsaysay District Beach added under the tourist sttraction tab

2024-November-29
• Image Gallery repositioned below the tab sections.
• New tab section added (features) • New entry added under FEATURES tab (Santa Seawall).

2024-November-28
• Image Gallery 1 and 2 merged tab removed).

2024-November-07
• New tabs created: image gallery 1 and 2
• Added photos in image gallery 1 for photos dated 2021-12-19.
• Added photos street-level photos in image gallery 2 [as seen in Quezon District (street-level)]

2024-November-06:
This post was published.