Last February 11, I went to see the last day of the 22^nd Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta which is held every year at Clark Freeport Zone.

"Hot air balloon fiesta" by Ninjakeg is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

There was a news floating around last year, that the 21st Hot Air Balloon Fiesta will be the last one that is to be held at the Clark Freeport Zone. It was said, that they will be utilizing the whole airport complex to cater the increasing air traffic. But as a surprise for this year, it was still held at CFZ.

There is no news so far if this event will be the last one to be held at Clark. So, I might as well share my journey of going there.

Below are the options:

Option 1

• Riding a bus that passes Mabalacat, Pampanga and stops at Dau Terminal
• You can go either to Cubao or Pasay Bus terminals to ride one. The fare is around Php150.
• Once you arrive at Dau bus terminal, walk outside the terminal towards MacArthur Highway. Use the entrance route of the bus as your exit point.
• Walk past Jollibee food chain and turn left towards the highway. You need to walk across the other side of the highway to ride a jeepney going to Clark Main Gate. (Alternatively, you can ride a tricycle to Clark Main Gate but the fare is much higher).
• Ride a jeep that has a route SM Clark/Clark Main Gate and alights at Bayanihan Terminal which is before SM. If you want to cool yourself first then you can just alight at SM and just walk towards Bayanihan terminal via a foot bridge.
• Once you are at the terminal, you can ride a jeepney depending on where you are going inside CFZ. But since you are attending the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta then you need to ride a jeep that passes through M. A. Roxas highway. You can just ask the driver or conductor of what jeepney to ride. The conductor will also mention the "Hot Air Balloon" keyword when hailing passengers, so that will be your best clue.
• Tell the driver that you will alight at Omni Drive. Also, during the fiesta, there will be a designated jeepney unloading station along the road. Aside from the place being the first drop off point, the fiesta has signage/tarpaulins put up so you can't really miss it.
• You can just walk towards the fiesta entrance and pay the entrance fee and enjoy the show.

Option 2

• Ride a Premium Point to Point Bus Service straight to Clark Airport.

Image from Genesis Transport Facebook Page

• The bus service is provided by Genesis Transport and the route is from NAIA to Clark Airport. However, there are pick up points along EDSA where you can board the bus.
• The p2p bus will only stop at SM Clark, so you need to alight once you get there. Then follow the steps from Option 1 on how to ride a jeepney from Bayanihan Terminal to the Fiesta venue.

So there, that is basically the route that you will use if you want to reach CFZ via public transport. Assuming that the 2019 Hot Air Balloon Fiesta will be held at the same venue. Then, I hope that this article will be helpful.

The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta – Celebrating a Weekend of Everything That Flies!

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