Bulacan Voyage Tips and guide

Bulacan is a province in the Philippines. It is located just north of Metro Manila and shares boundaries with Pampanga and Nueva Ecija in the north, and Manila Bay on the south west.

Map of Bulacan

The province is divided into three cities and 21 municipalities (or towns).

There is no generally agreed pattern on dividing Bulacan into geographical regions, but a rough division can be:

• Northern Bulacan (Angat, Baliwag, Bustos, Doña Remedios Trinidad, San Ildefonso, San Miguel, San Rafael)
• Coastal Bulacan (Balagtas, Bocaue, Bulakan, Calumpit, Guiguinto, Hagonoy, Malolos, Marilao, Meycauayan, Obando, Pandi, Paombong, Plaridel, Pulilan, Santa Maria)
• Eastern Bulacan (San Jose del Monte, Norzagaray)

• 14.9279121.02931 Angat - A frontier town known for its long river of the same name, which is famous for visiting and swimming. Angat Dam is the biggest dam in Bulacan.
• 14.81732120.908042 Balagtas — formerly known as Bigaa, it was renamed after its most famous resident, poet Francisco Baltazar (who assumed the name Francisco Balagtas), who wrote the classic epic Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura) while in prison.
• 14.954120.9013 Baliwag — A city known for its pork dishes such as pork rinds (chicharon) and pork belly (liempo).
• 14.8120.9333334 Bocaue — well-known throughout the country as the "Fireworks Capital of the Philippines", due to its numerous small businesses manufacturing and selling fireworks.
• 14.79278120.878895 Bulakan — the former provincial capital and the future site of the New Manila International Airport located in Barangay Taliptip
• 14.9549120.9196 Bustos — has its own trademark product, the finger food 'minasa'. Minasa refers to "cassava cookies", made from cassava flour, egg yolk, yeast, butter, and coco milk. It is often compared to the uraro, another local delicacy.
• 14.916667120.7666677 Calumpit — low-lying riverside municipality famous for its longganisa.
• 14.9708121.06468 Doña Remedios Trinidad — named after the mother of former first lady Imelda Marcos, DRT is the largest town in Bulacan, comprising a land area that is roughly one-third of the entire province, and contains a significant portion of Bulacan's remaining forests, mountains, and pristine waterways.
• 14.833333120.8833339MISSING WIKILINK Guiguinto
• 14.833333120.73333310MISSING WIKILINK Hagonoy — a low-lying coastal community and fishport along the extensive Pampanga River delta.
• 14.758056120.94805611 Marilao — An industrial/residential suburb of Manila.
• 14.843611120.81138912 Malolos — the seat of the provincial government. It was also the former national capital during the Philippine Revolution and the site of many battles of the revolution.
• 14.733333120.96666713 Meycauayan — one of the oldest towns established not just in the province but also in the entire country. Its name translates to "[a place] with lots of bamboo", which can still be seen in the partly-rural northeastern barangays.
• 14.9066121.039514 Norzagaray — home of Ipo Dam.
• 14.7104120.937215 Obando — famed for the Santa Clara festival, which features as well-known fertility folk dance parade.
• 14.866667120.9516MISSING WIKILINK Pandi
• 14.831111120.78916717MISSING WIKILINK Paombong — famed for its vinegar.
• 14.902120.84918 Pulilan — famed for its carabao festival
• 14.886944120.85694419MISSING WIKILINK Plaridel
• 15.078889120.94194420 San Ildefonso
• 14.8101121.047521 San Jose del Monte — a city made up of mostly-agrarian lands. San Jose del Monte was actually the province's first chartered city.
• 15.1406120.976822 San Miguel — the town is well-known for its sweets, local delicacies, baked goods, balut, salted eggs, and Bulacan cuisines, but its chicharons and pastillas are their most renowned export.
• 15.0102120.934223 San Rafael — known for Bulacan’s Prime - Home of Bulacan’s Garlic Longaniza.
• 14.8193120.962924 Santa Maria — known for fireworks and pork rinds. Someone should consider moving to Sta. Maria if they love what the countryside offers: the peace, nature, and festivities.

• 15.1201121.0841 Biak-na-Bato National Park - Extensive natural area with springs, rivers, mountains and caves that was also the site of one of the precursor states of the Philippine Republic during the revolution against Spain in 1897.

Bulacan has contributed greatly to Philippine history, from being one of the battlefields of the Philippine Revolution, the Philippine-American War and its capital Malolos also becoming the first national capital of the Philippine Republic for a few months in 1899.

Bulacan, while still agricultural in background, has become part of Manila's ever-expanding sprawl that has converted most farmland and paddies into subdivision, malls, and industrial parks. In 2015, it has a population of over 3 million, and is one of the most densely populated provinces in the Philippines.

Residents of the province call themselves Bulakenyo (derived and sometimes spelled as Spanish Bulaqueño). Most of the locals are culturally and linguistically Tagalog, but towns at the boundary with Pampanga also have significant numbers of Kapampangan speakers, and the sparsely populated areas of the province are the traditional land of the Dumagat, a Negrito tribe inhabiting the foothills of the Sierra Madre.

Native Bulakenyos speak and write Tagalog. As a matter of fact, a good number of famous Filipino writers hail from Bulacan. Francisco Balagtas (after whom Balagtas town is named) was born here and wrote "Florante at Laura", which is deemed a classic in Philippine Literature and is a required reading in high schools. Jose Corazon de Jesus ("Huseng Batute") and the National Artist Virgilio Almario also hail from Bulacan. It is safe to regard the province as one of the seats of the Tagalog Language. Bulakenyo dialect retains many features of ancient Tagalog in terms of grammar and vocabulary.

Nevertheless, a good number of Bulakenyos can understand and speak English, thanks to mandatory English education in the country. In particular, the younger generation of Bulakenyos have more exposure with the mass media and the Internet and, thus, with English.

The North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) is a major motorway that can get you into Bulacan from Metro Manila (particularly Quezon City and Valenzuela) and the neighbouring province of Pampanga. Exits in Bulacan include Marilao, Bocaue, Tabang, Sta. Rita and Pulilan. Comparatively and almost parallel to the NLEX, travellers can take the at-grade McArthur Highway, stretching from the Bonifacio Monument in Caloocan City up to Pangasinan.

Asian Highway 26 enters Bulacan from Nueva Ecija, running south towards Manila. It follows NLEX near Malolos.

There are provincial buses to and from Manila to most key cities and towns in the province. Some operators are:

• Baliwag Transit. Serves the municipalities along the Cagayan Valley Road, especially Baliwag, the bus company's namesake and headquarters. (updated Aug 2019)

San Jose del Monte is served by city buses from Metro Manila, mostly via Fairview in Quezon City.

Point-to-Point (P2P) buses heading to Bulacan have terminals in SM North EDSA and Trinoma in Quezon City. These mostly cater to Metro Manila workers commuting to and from Bulacan, particularly the coastal regions. The main destinations for these buses are Bocaue, Sta. Maria, Balagtas, Plaridel, Pulilan, Baliwag and Malolos.

From Metro Manila, jeepneys serving the coastal towns of Bulacan have their terminals at Monumento Circle in Caloocan. There are also passenger vans and minibuses serving the coastal regions from Trinoma and SM North EDSA in Quezon City. Be prepared to wait for an hour or more for the vehicle to fill up before departure.

Bulacan is halfway between Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL ^IATA) and Clark International Airport (CRK ^IATA), both served by international and domestic flights, but transportation from either airport to anywhere in Bulacan is rather bewildering.

The municipality of Bulakan, southeast of Malolos, is the location of the future New Manila International Airport, which is eyed to replace the airport in Manila. Construction began in 2021. If completed, the airport will have four runways, which can be expanded to six (as compared to the present Manila airport, which has two), and ground transportation to Manila is through an expressway and a railway.

Bulacan has never been served by train since the 1990s, but there is ongoing construction of the North-South Commuter Railway that will travel between Manila and Clark Airport. As of 2024, parts of that line is nearly complete.

San Jose del Monte will be served by the nearly-complete MRT Line 7 (MRT-7), but the trains will never serve the city proper itself, stopping short of the Bulacan border at Caloocan. There are plans however to extend the line to serve San Jose del Monte city proper and connect it to the future New Manila International Airport.

In the major highways, the main mode of transportation is by bus or jeepney.

There are also van shuttles (UV Express) that service longer routes within the province (for example, from Meycauayan to Malolos via NLEX).

Within most cities and towns, you can get by tricycles.

Main highways include the tolled NLEX, the MacArthur Highway (Rte 1 and 2) and Cagayan Valley Road (Rte 1, also Maharlika Highway). All roads are of decent quality, but with the exception of NLEX, traffic speeds are quite slow and there is constant road construction. Most highways also serve as main streets of the cities and towns they serve.

Meycauayan is also a hub for other jeepneys heading to different towns and cities of Bulacan such as Baliwag, Santa Maria, Malolos and Calumpit.

Bulacan has a diverse array of attractions ranging from the natural to the historical and architectural. Nearly every town has a Spanish era church, the most famous of which is Barasoain in Malolos, where the Congress of the short-lived First Philippine Republic convened.

Contrary to perceptions of Bulacan as a flat province due to its location in the Central Luzon plains, the province actually has lots of hiking sports due to its position along the slopes of the Sierra Madre. The most famous of these attractions is Biaknabato National Park in San Miguel, a sprawling region of forests, caves, mountains and springs that hosted the headquarters of the Biaknabato Republic, a proto-state that was the precursor of subsequent independent Philippine governments.

Bulacan also pioneered the concept of massive swimming resort complexes complete with wave pools in the Philippines, which attracts hordes of tourists from Metro Manila unable to build their own swimming pools. Many of these resorts are concentrated in San Rafael, Pandi and Calumpit.

Every town in Bulacan has a unique festival of their own, usually revolving around religious themes or celebrating products they are famous for.

As a sign of the urban spillover from Metro Manila, Bulacan has become the site for the Philippine Arena, a massive edifice in Bocaue way bigger than any event venue in the capital, and which hosts international concerts and sports events.

• Ensaymada
• Inipit
• Pastillas, a favorite and popular "pasalubong" (or take home treat) in Bulacan. Traditionally, it is made of the best carabao's milk, but in commercial quantites, believed to be made out of locally produced and commercially available milk in supermarkets. Patiently simmerred in very low heat and painstakingly stirred into a soft and sticky batter that melts in your mouth, pastillas is rolled into finger-sized pieces, then rolled onto white sugar. Bulacan's pastillas are individually wrapped in white Japanese paper, as compared to the intricately cut pastillas wrappers as it is made in other parts of Luzon. They are then packed into colorfully patterned boxes, a practical way of handing these sweet delicacies either as gifts, or just as "pasalubong". Beware not to limit yourself to only a couple of boxes of these milky treats, as one may later on lament that he should have taken a half-dozen or a dozen even, boxes of the best pastillas of Bulacan.
• Puto, a rice cake that may be topped off with cheese slices or egg. Some of the most famed puto can be bought in Marilao and Mecauayan
• Suman
• Minasa
• Chicharon
• Bulacan Longganisa, also known as longganisang bawang. Known for garlic flavor. Bulacan longganisa also have Hamonado, as sweet cured pork sausage. In 2021 department of tourism accredited Bulacan’s Prime -Home of Bulacan’s Garlic Longaniza as a tourist shop where travelers can buy authentic Bulacan Longganisa, located at San Rafael and Baliwag.

Many parts of the province are low-lying and prone to flooding during the monsoon season. This includes the coast of Manila Bay, the banks of Angat River, and the Candaba swamp and Pampanga River delta. High tide, typhoons and dam outflows can also worsen floods.

Owing to their proximity to Manila and the accompanying suburban industrialization, southern Bulacan also suffers from air pollution.