Session Road climbs steeply from the Burnham Park area at the bottom up to the cathedral and the Maharlika market, a 1.7-km strip of restaurants, cafes, bookshops, banks, and the kind of small department stores that have somehow not been displaced by SM. The road got its name from the sessions of the Philippine Commission held in Baguio's summer-capital days.
On Saturday and Sunday evenings the lower half of the road closes to traffic — the Session Road in Bloom event — and fills with street performers, food stalls, fruit-shake vendors, and slow-moving crowds of Filipino families. The cafes at the top, near the cathedral steps, are the best place to sit and watch the road work.
The street remains lined with American-era stone buildings, though most are now overlaid with neon signs, fast food chains, and student-oriented coffee shops. The strawberry-shake vendors on the lower stretch are a Baguio tradition.