Spur of the moment trip to Tagaytay

All last week I was hankering for a trip to Tagaytay. I wanted to see the farms there and just generally wanted to  travel and explore to make the most of my vacation time, and Tagaytay was accessible enough to make the trip on the spur of the moment. Also because the DFA is taking forever to renew my passport so I am stuck with local destinations (I am not a beach person). I renewed my passport early July but the next available personal appearance slot was for September! I actually miss standing in line and getting my passport renewal done in 2 days.

I've been to Tagaytay before, but they were mostly quick runs - like lunch at Sonya's or Antonio's with friends and officemates, then back to Manila right after. This time I wanted to explore and get to know Tagaytay. I researched online and made a quick itinerary - eat at Sonya's, visit Gourmet Farms and Ilog Maria, check out the new and improved Taal Vista Hotel, and eat at Bawai's. A friend is into gardening (herbs) and was thinking of going into farming, so I wanted to show my friend farms so that my friend will have an idea of what it was all about.

We stayed at this nice little hotel called View Park Hotel. It's small, there's construction going on at the back, and there's no cable TV, but it was cozy, did not look scary, and was clean. I think it's good for the price of P1,620 (without breakfast, P1,800 with breakfast; I checked the rates for Taal Vista and One Tagaytay Place online and balked). View Park has an aquaium in the lobby that had living corals and tropical fish like clownfish, etc. We liked watching the corals move, it was mesmerizing. The hotel is also right across Picnic Grove. If we had more time, I would have wanted to go take a look at Picnic Grove and go on the zipline, but we didn't have enough time so shelved that idea for next time.

To get to Tagaytay, from Manila, take South Super Highway, continue on taking the SLEX until you see the Sta. Rosa exit.   Take the Sta. Rosa exit, turn right, and just follow the road all the way to Tagaytay (this is the Santa Rosa -Tagaytay Road).

Navigating Tagaytay is easy. You just need to be familiar with that one stretch of road - the Tagaytay-Calamba Road all the way to the Tagaytay-Nasugbu Road. Most places of interest are on that stretch of road. Some places like Gourmet's and Ilog Maria are on the Emilio Aguinaldo Highway. Sonya's is all the way down on the road to Nasugbu, in Buck Estates. More on them on the next posts.