San Jose del Monte

San Jose del Monte City is a city of 650,000 people (2020) in Bulacan.

Understand

In the 1980s, thousands of informal settlers from Metro Manila were relocated to San Jose del Monte. The city is home to some of the biggest resettlement areas in the Philippines like the Sapang Palay resettlement area spread over 36 barangays, Pabahay 2000 in Barangay Muzon and Towerville in Barangay Minuyan Proper. Most of the city's population come from former informal settlers along the creeks, esteros, riverbanks and railway tracks of Metro Manila.

Get in

San Jose del Monte is 65 kilometres (40 mi) from Malolos and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Manila.

By bus

• Grotto Terminal, Santa Maria-Tungkong Mangga Road (In front of the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto). The central transport terminal for San Jose del Monte. Transfers to jeepneys and tricycles available (updated Jul 2019)

There are many city buses heading to San Jose del Monte from Metro Manila, mostly via Quirino Highway. The most common route to San Jose del Monte is the NAIA-Grotto route, which ply EDSA, Commonwealth Avenue, and Quirino Avenue.

By train

San Jose del Monte is the terminus of the under-construction MRT Line 7 from Quezon City. The terminus will be far east of downtown, with a public transport terminal proposed there.

See

• Mount Balagbag

Kaytitinga Falls

• 1 Kaytitinga Falls, Barangay San Isidro (a 1-hour trek). The way to Kaytitinga Falls is not well-developed that leads to non-accessibility of the trail. There are also no public toilets or showers in the area.  
• 2 Angat Watershed Forest Reserve. A portion of the reserve extends into SJDM. The watershed is a popular birdwatching site and is a biodiversity hotspot containing most of the remaining closed-canopy forests in Central Luzon.  
• VS Orchids Farm (Santo Cristo) is the biggest orchids nursery and ornamental plants farm in Bulacan. Hundreds of orchids species are nurtured in this 1.8 hectares flora haven.

Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Shrine

• 3 Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto Shrine (Graceville), San Jose del Monte. A privately operated pilgrimage site often visited by Roman Catholic devotees during Holy Week. It is is not officially recognized as a Catholic pilgrimage site by the Diocese of Malolos.  
• Saint Joseph the Worker Parish Church (Poblacion 1) is the main historical pilgrimage site in the heart of the city.
• People's Park of San Jose del Monte (Sapang Palay Proper)
• River Park Esplanade (Dulong Bayan)
• The Rising Heart and Padre Pio Mountain of Healing (Paradise III)
• Grotto Vista Resort (Graceville)
• Los Arcos de Hermano Resort and Events (Tungkong Mangga)