- Where
- Luzon Strait
northernmost province of the Philippines - Coordinates
- 20.4200° N
121.9400° E (approximate) - Islands
- Ten; three inhabited
Batan, Itbayat and Sabtang - People
- 18,937 (2024 census)
the Ivatan, an Austronesian people - UNESCO
- Tentative List since 1993
not inscribed - Getting there
- Flights to Basco
from Manila and Clark - Best visited
- January to April (the driest months)
The wind came off a warm sea and did not drop all day. Green hills ran down to the cliffs, cropped short by cattle, and in the village every house was pale stone, its grass roof combed thick as a pelt. A woman came up the lane under a hooded cape of dried palm leaves and wished me good morning from somewhere inside it.
The short answer
Batanes is the northernmost province of the Philippines and its smallest, in both people and land, by Wikipedia’s account: ten islands in the Luzon Strait, about 162 kilometres north of the Luzon mainland and 190 kilometres south of Taiwan, of which only the three largest, Batan, Itbayat and Sabtang, are inhabited. The capital, Basco, is on Batan. The 2024 census counted 18,937 people; at the 2000 census, 15,834 of the 16,421 residents were Ivatan, an Austronesian people whose language and culture are closely related to those of the Tao of Orchid Island in Taiwan, with whom they traded and intermarried. The Philippines submitted the whole province to UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List on 15 August 1993, as the Batanes Protected Landscapes and Seascapes; it has not been inscribed.
Why it's worth knowing
Houses built for the weather. UNESCO’s tentative-list description calls Batanes the only area in the Philippines where traditional architecture is of stone, “in response to the wind and monsoon stresses”, rather than the wood, bamboo and thatch of most village building. Wikipedia’s account is that before the Spanish arrived the Ivatan built small, low houses of cogon grass, and that the Spanish introduced lime-making on a large scale; the stone houses that followed have limestone walls about a metre thick, with the cogon kept for the roof and laid thickly against strong winds. The common house type, the sinadumparan, is one of seven Ivatan traditions in the UNESCO-backed inventory of intangible heritage that the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and ICHCAP published in 2012.
Tested in 2019. On 27 July 2019 a series of earthquakes struck Itbayat; Wikipedia gives the largest as magnitude 6.0, the Philippine Daily Inquirer as 5.9. Wikipedia records that nine people died and sixty were injured; the Inquirer reported 266 houses damaged or destroyed in five villages, and that many of the coral and limestone structures crumbled. Writing on the rebuilding, the same paper described a local practice of building with limestone aggregates instead of reinforced concrete, and structures built that way still standing after the earthquakes.
The field notes
Before the stone
Before the Spanish period, Wikipedia explains, the Ivatan lived in clans that, in times of war, withdrew to ijang: terraced hillforts on ridges and rocky heights, the tops of which are still scattered with the stones their defenders threw. The English buccaneer William Dampier, who spent August and September of 1687 in the islands, described these defended settlements, and his crew named the islands the Bashee Islands after a sugar-cane drink the people sold them; the Bashi Channel, between Batanes and Taiwan, keeps the name. Spain claimed the islands in 1783, and in the late eighteenth century its governors ordered the Ivatan down from the ijang into lowland towns, against armed resistance led by Aman Dangat of Sabtang. Excavations have found that Batanes was part of a prehistoric trade in jade ornaments reaching Taiwan, Vietnam, Palawan, Luzon and northern Borneo.
The hood and the cape
The vakul is the headdress of Ivatan women: a hood and a cape down the back, woven from strips of vuyavuy palm and abacá, made to keep off sun, wind and rain, Wikipedia records. It takes weeks to make, is expected to last a lifetime and is handed down within families; only women weave it, and the craft is passed on by word of mouth rather than in schools. Sabtang holds a yearly festival for it, and some women there earn a living by weaving vakul. Wikipedia quotes The Philippine Star describing it as “an image synonymous with Batanes”.
Reading the sky
Wikipedia describes the islands as subject to frequent typhoons, and notes a qualification: Batanes is named in so many typhoon reports partly because Basco holds the northernmost weather station in the Philippines, the reference point for every storm entering the country’s area. The rainiest month is August and the driest April. The Ivatan, it records, read the weather from the land: when the cattle leave the communal pasture for shelter and birds take refuge in houses, or the sky turns pink with an orange hue, a storm is coming, and families bring in their animals.
Cattle grazing the Vayang Rolling Hills, below Mount Iraya.
Photograph: Kirkamon · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Sabtang lighthouse and a thatched stone hut on the clifftop.
Photograph: Ranieljosecastaneda · CC BY-SA 4.0
An old stone house with a deep thatched roof, Batan Island.
Photograph: anne_jimenez · Oldest House in Ivatan · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
The old stone bridge at Ivana, built in the Spanish period.
Photograph: anne jimenez · Spanish Bridge Batanes · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
- Do the islands’ paperwork at home, then pack something waterproof in every season, and ignore any forecast that says otherwise.
- Try to list the stone houses of a single village. I started at one end of the lane, gave every roof its own line because each one had earned it, and never reached the other end.
- These are homes first and sights second. Admire them from the lane, and step through a door only when somebody inside invites you.
- Walk the hills slowly, in the wind, and give the cattle the path. They had it first.
- Cross to the smaller island by boat when the sea lies flat, and if the boatman shakes his head, believe him and have breakfast instead.
A stone house in Chavayan. A sinadumparan, the common Ivatan house: thick walls of stone and lime under a deep, thickly laid roof of cogon grass, in Chavayan, a village on Sabtang Island that Wikipedia names, with Savidug, for its old stone houses. UNESCO’s tentative-list description calls Batanes the only area of the Philippines whose traditional architecture is of stone, built against wind and monsoon. People live in these houses; they are seen from the lane.
Tally, in the marginI spent the morning admiring how much stone it takes to stand up to that wind, and only as I was leaving thought to look up. The part the wind reaches first is grass, combed down tight and evidently quite sure of itself.
Getting there
How to get there. By air to Basco, on Batan. Wikipedia records flights by PAL Express from Manila and from Clark, and by the smaller Sky Pasada from Tuguegarao in Cagayan; Basco Airport is classed as a domestic airport. From Batan, Sabtang is about thirty minutes by falowa, the islands’ ferry boat, from Radiwan Port in Ivana, and Itbayat about four hours by falowa from Basco, or a short flight by light aircraft, by Wikipedia’s account.
When to go. January to April, the driest months by the Meteoblue figures Wikipedia gives for Ivana; the rains build from May, and August is the wettest month.
What to arrange ahead. Registration: since 15 June 2026, the province’s Heritage and Tourism Office requires every incoming visitor to pre-register through its SMART Tourism Registration System before arrival, as Philippine travel press reported. Flights, which are few, and a bed in Basco. A guide or tour: in March 2025 the Department of Tourism’s regional director, Troy Alexander Miano, told the Daily Tribune that “Batanes is not for DIY travelers” and advised arranging trips with local tour operators and guides, allowing about five days to see the islands. The province’s Ordinance No. 471 of 2025 sets a sustainable eco-tourism management fee; ask your operator for the current amount.
Safety. The State Department rates the Philippines Level 2, exercise increased caution, for crime, terrorism, civil unrest and kidnapping, and describes violent crimes such as robbery, kidnapping and physical assault as common in the country (advisory read on 4 October 2026; the State Department’s feed dates it 8 May 2025 and its indexed advisory page 1 September 2026). Its do-not-travel areas are the Sulu Archipelago and Sulu Sea and Marawi City, and it asks travellers to reconsider travel to the rest of Mindanao outside Davao City, Davao del Norte, Siargao and the Dinagat Islands; Batanes, in the Luzon Strait, is more than 1,200 kilometres north of all of them. The hazards here are the place’s own: wind, weather that can stop boats and flights, and open-boat crossings.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Batanes?
Batanes is the northernmost province of the Philippines: ten islands in the Luzon Strait, about 162 kilometres north of the Luzon mainland and 190 kilometres south of Taiwan, by Wikipedia’s figures. Three are inhabited, Batan, Itbayat and Sabtang, and the capital is Basco, on Batan.
Why are the houses in Batanes made of stone?
To stand up to the weather. UNESCO’s tentative-list description says the Ivatan of Batanes built in stone in response to wind and monsoon, unlike the wood, bamboo and thatch of most Philippine villages. Wikipedia records that the Spanish introduced large-scale lime-making, and that the houses have limestone walls about a metre thick under thick cogon-grass roofs.
Is Batanes a UNESCO World Heritage Site?
Not yet. The Philippines submitted Batanes to UNESCO’s World Heritage Tentative List on 15 August 1993, as the Batanes Protected Landscapes and Seascapes, a listing that covers the whole province. A place on the Tentative List has been proposed for nomination but not inscribed.
How do you get to Batanes?
By air to Basco Airport on Batan Island. Wikipedia records PAL Express flights to Basco from Manila and from Clark, and Sky Pasada flights from Tuguegarao. Sabtang, the island of the stone village of Chavayan, is about thirty minutes from Batan by falowa, the islands’ ferry boat, from Radiwan Port in Ivana.
Do you need to register to visit Batanes?
Yes. Since 15 June 2026, the Batanes Provincial Heritage and Tourism Office has required every incoming visitor, for tourism, official business or any other purpose, to pre-register through its SMART Tourism Registration System before arriving, Philippine travel press reported.
What is a vakul?
A vakul is the traditional headdress of Ivatan women in Batanes: a hood with a cape down the back, woven from vuyavuy palm and abacá fibre to keep off sun, wind and rain. Wikipedia records that only women weave it, that one takes weeks to make, and that it is handed down within families.
When is the best time to visit Batanes?
January to April, when Batanes is driest, by the Meteoblue rainfall figures Wikipedia gives for Ivana. Rain builds from May, and Wikipedia names August as the wettest month; it also describes the islands as subject to frequent typhoons, which can stop flights and boats.
Who are the Ivatan?
The Ivatan are the Austronesian people of Batanes and the Babuyan Islands, in the far north of the Philippines. Wikipedia records that they speak Ivatan, are known for their stone houses and woven vakul headdresses, and share close linguistic and cultural ties with the Tao of Orchid Island in Taiwan, with whom they traded and intermarried.