IS it possible to enjoy the summer capital on P500 a day?
The Department of Tourism estimates that a typical tourist spends an average of P2,500 daily in Baguio City. This includes accommodation, meals, and local transportation fares around the city and souvenir items.

For a tourist on a tight budget, however, P500 is more than enough to savor the sights, scents and tastes of Baguio City for a day. Setting aside transportation and accommodation costs, it?s still quite possible to get that exhilarating experience of pine trees and cool clean air.

First off, one doesn?t need cash to enjoy a walk in Baguio?s wooded parks (Burnham Park, Wright Park and Botanical Garden) amid the nippy weather.

Still, for adventurous tourists with only P500 in their pocket, here?s how to enjoy Baguio:

1. Aerobics class

Go straight to Burnham Park at 6 a.m. on any day and join workers, students, the elderly and health buffs for an hour-long aerobics and taebo class. For donations of at least P20 from each participant, fitness instructors will lead the workout near the Burnham Lake.

2. Breakfast meals

After your morning exercise, walk toward Lower Mabini Road and get a P52 breakfast at Dane?s Bakeshop. The meal is a choice of tocino, longganiza, corned beef or tapa, fried egg and brewed coffee.

Chicken arroz caldo and goto are also available for P42 per serving.

Dane?s is popular for its pandesal (P1.50 each), pan de coco (P2.50), cinnamon twist (P2.50) and steamed/toasted siopao (P11).

Or you may want to try the breakfast meal offered by Pizza Volante on Session Road for P78.

3. Sto. Tomas trek

If it?s not raining and you want to camp out, the best place is Mt. Sto. Tomas at the outskirts of the city. The area offers a panoramic view of Baguio City and the Lingayen Gulf.

To get there, take a jeepney bound for Barangay Dontogan (terminal is near the old Bayanihan Hotel, now an ukay-ukay center) and tell the driver to drop you off at the ?Turning Point.? Fare is P13.

Start the trek to Mt. Sto. Tomas, a dormant volcano, and enjoy the wild flowers and vegetable plantations along the route. In 30 minutes (depending on your pace), you can reach the summit, where the satellite dishes of the weather bureau are located.

Wear thick clothes and bring a blanket as temperatures drop at the summit every afternoon. Frost is common from October to February. During cold months, thin sheets of ice cover vegetables grown there by local farmers.

4. Camp John Hay eco trail

If a trek up Sto. Tomas is too daunting for you, try the Camp John Hay eco trail. Take some friends along ? it?s free but you have to spend P10 for jeepney fare. Take the Scout Barrio jeepney at the Igorot Park near Burnham Park.

While inside Camp John Hay, spend P30 to visit the Historical Core. The area boasts of the postcard-pretty Bell amphitheater, the house of the American governor-general, the Cemetery of Negativism and the Secret Garden, where a ?history trail? of Camp John Hay is offered to visitors.

5. Eat out for a hundred bucks or less

Many restaurants offer complete meals for P85 to P100. Try Star Café, Mandarin Restaurant, Tea House and Jack?s on Session Road; Cathy?s and Jen?s on Diego Silang Street and Good Taste behind the Baguio Center Mall on Magsaysay Road.

Slaughterhouse on Magsaysay Road is the place for the more adventurous tummies. A bowl of bulalo with unlimited soup is P130 and a big cup of rice is P15. The meal is large enough for two. A goat meat dish (kaldereta, pinapaitan, sinampalukan) goes for P60. Avoid dining there at night, though, as the place transforms into a beer joint.

For P50 budget meals, try the stalls at the Porta Vaga Mall, the Azotea Building on Session Road, or the Abanao Square on Abanao Street. Vegetarian dishes are available at Azotea and Abanao Square.

Sweet Stop Homemade Cakes and Pastries is a small stall in front of Azotea that sells cassava cake at P12 per slice. Fresh native rice cakes are available for P15 per slice at Mark and Jeff?s and Garcia?s Coffee in Porta Vaga.

6. Museums, art exhibits

For P20, tourists and students can learn about and appreciate the culture of the Cordillera in the Baguio-Mountain Province?s Museum on Gov. Pack Road.

Local artists exhibit their works at VOCAS (Victor Oteyza Community Art Space) on the fourth floor of the Azotea Building on Session Road. Feel free to interact with the artists, and you may even chance upon filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik, who owns the place. Oh My Gulay! a vegetarian restaurant in VOCAS, offers vegetarian dishes for as low as P100.

Members of the Baguio Arts Guild put up their works in a section of the Baguio Botanical Garden. Entrance is free.

7. Souvenirs and ?pasalubong?

For P20, you can buy the ubiquitous Baguio bonnet at the city market or at the Maharlika Livelihood Center.

Three pieces of walis tambo (broom) sell for P100. Key chains with strawberry design are offered at P10 to P15 each. Peanut brittle, ube jam and chocolate flakes can be bought for under P100 at stalls in the city market.

If you want to save on fare money, you can always walk. Baguio, after all, is a walking city.

From Burnham Park, you can walk to the Botanical Garden on Leonard Wood Road. Warm up with a P10 cup of strawberry-flavored taho, available from any of the vendors you encounter along the way.

The Wright Park is a short walk from the Botanical Garden.

Let?s see... How far did your P500 go?

A P20 contribution for the aerobics session, breakfast (P52), cinnamon twist and pan de coco (P5) and a cup of brewed coffee (P20) for snacks, trek to Mt. Sto. Tomas (P26), bulalo and rice at Slaughterhouse (P145) for lunch, a slice of cassava cake (P12) for dessert, museum visit (P20), jeepney fare to Camp John Hay (P20), Jack?s rice (P65) for dinner, a walis tambo (P35) and a key chain (P15). That?s P435.

You may wish to spend the remaining P65 to shop for ukay-ukay (used clothes) at the Hilltop area, where some clothes can go as low as P10.

Or better yet, save the change and spend the afternoon strolling around John Hay or reading a book amid the pine trees and the fog. It?s priceless.