My family and I are going to banaue/sagada this coming holidays and would like to know the best route to banaue. Someone told me to take Nlex and exit at sta. rita take maharlika highway towards san jose nueva ecija. But somebody also suggested to go all the way to sta. inez then concepcion,tarlac.

I havent been thru sta, rita nor concepcion,tarlac. Can someone please advise me on this. We would be leaving manila at around 3 a.m. so safety and security would be a prime concern as I'm not familair with these roads Thanks in advance.