Vigan's historic centre is compact enough to cover on foot in a day, but the city rewards slower exploration. The UNESCO-listed heritage zone is a grid of cobblestone lanes flanked by bahay na bato — two-storey houses of brick and stone with capiz shell windows, built in the 18th and 19th centuries by Spanish colonists and wealthy Filipino merchants. There is nowhere else in Asia quite like it.
The standard approach is to walk Calle Crisologo in the morning before the heat sets in, when the light is soft and the street is at its quietest. Horse-drawn kalesas clatter past throughout the day; taking one is both a practical way to get around the wider heritage zone and a genuine pleasure. Afternoons are better spent at the outlying sites — the bell tower at Bantay, the pottery village of Pagburnayan, the Syquia Mansion — or simply sitting in the Plaza Salcedo to watch the fountain-and-light show that runs in the evenings.