Whenever weekend’s here, we working people are once again celebrating for a two days off. Our usual escape is either heading to malls, or staying at home. But this place I’m about to tell you has been consistently on top of every Filipinos or even foreigners choice whenever we want to simply chill out quickly over the weekend.. “Kaja, let’s go” to Tagaytay!
So far and out of all our escapes, this has been the fastest trip planning we’ve ever made, hooray! Last Thursday, he mentioned plans of an overnight trip for the 3rd week of July, on top of our list is going back to Cristina Villas in Antipolo. My travel maniac mode turned on and since that Thursday night until the whole Friday, I was just doing some research on where should we head on aside from Antipolo. Tagaytay bumped into my mind, we’ve been here many times but it’s always with our family, so it came to me that we try on this place only with our selves! Like the Filipino saying goes, “Buti pa ang biglaang lakad, natutuloy!” Our schedule and fares below computed for 2 pax…
July 13 Saturday
Just a note, we started our trip from Bacoor, Cavite since we attended to a personal matter in this place.
- 11:00am San Agustin bus from Talaba, Bacoor to Tagaytay – P 140.00 // 12:45pm ETA Olivarez, Tagaytay
- Quick lunch, then a tricycle ride to Aroma – P 20.00 // 1:30pm ETA Check in at Aroma -P 1,800.00 single ground floor room
- After a nap, 3:30pm went out to People’s Park In The Sky, tricycle ride – P 80.00 //3:45pm ETA People’s Park P 60.00 entrance fee
- 5:45pm Tricycle ride to Olivarez – P 100.00//Had dinner, tricycle ride back to Aroma – P 25.00 then rest mode
July 14 Sunday
- 6:30am Breakfast..rest mode // 10:30am Check Out at Aroma, tricycle to Pink Sisters Convent – P 60.00 // 10:45am ETA Pink Sisters, free time, pasalubong shopping
- 11:15am Tricycle back to Olivarez – P 20.00 // 11:20am San Agustin bus to Taft Quirino – P 172.00// 12:45 pm ETA Taft Quirino
Location
Tagaytay is a city in the province of Cavite, many tourists thought it’s part of Batangas but it’s not 🙂 As mentioned, this place is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations because of outstanding scenery and cooler climate provided by its high altitude. Tagaytay is relatively close to the capital city of Manila, only 55 km (34 mi) away via Aguinaldo Highway, providing an easy escape for the locals from the heat of the big city.
Getting there (commuting):
Going to Tagaytay is easy breezy! If you’re coming from Manila like us (Taft Quirino to be exact), take San Agustin, Erjohn & Almark some of the known buses with signage Tagaytay, Mendez and tell the conductor you’ll get off at Tagaytay Rotonda or Olivarez. From there, you’ll find many jeepneys and tricycles that will take you to your next destination. Some of the drivers even offer tour and accommodation but note it’s much expensive if you’ll get their deal. Bus fare is around P 80-90.00, travel time is 1 hour but with Aguinaldo Highway where traffic is famous haha, it can stretch up to 3 hours.
Accomodation:
With just a short time of research, many Tagaytay hotels, resorts, rooms are known to be a bit pricey, one of the factors here is because it’s a “touristic place” boohoo. I shortened my list to 2 options: Aroma Tagaytay or Keni Po, these places are well known for nice accommodation enough for an overnight and budget friendly too. I messaged all their contact numbers but there were no replies haha. I also emailed Aroma, but their replies are a bit delayed so it wasn’t so helpful but at least the owner welcomed us even just in email haha. I guess they can improve their service on that aspect, just saying 🙂
Anyway, we chose Aroma due to location convenience (near Olivarez, Pink Sisters Convent, Picnic Groove, Good Shepherd) and reasonable room rate, we got the Single Room in Ground Floor with free breakfast at P 1,800.00 (accommodates up to 2 pax, queen size bed, dining set, closet, air-conditioner, cable tv, toilet & hot/cold shower, 2 bath towels and soaps)
a sneak peek of our room
To our surprise, Aroma is just beside the also famous Lee Boutique (which we also eyed on since they have an Ensogo deal but it’s too pricey for an overnight stay) Well don’t compare Aroma too much with modern hotels, like what they say “You get what you pay for.”, that’s how I would describe this place in a motto.
morning paper
Well it’s not so modern compared to other bed and breakfast or hotels, it’s usual simple but decent and it has a privacy you’re looking for and a budget wise place to stay. They have clean and maintained rooms, surroundings, they also have a pool on which we didn’t swam on since we forgot to bring our swim wear haha.
pool at foggy morning, would you dare swim? :p (shot by cam phone only)
In terms of the staffs service, I would say it’s on the average also, sure they are friendly and attentive. But as a guest, somewhat we are still looking for that personal touch, again, you get what you pay for okay.
After checking in, we had nap first to recharge ourselves in preparation for the afternoon gala, on which we got lazy at first because “bed” weather is magnetizing us not to leave our room haha. But then, we’re here already so why not roam around, we rode a tricycle in front of Aroma, asked first how much to Picnic Groove (it’s P 40.00), how about People’s Park? (it’s P 80.00)..and so People’s Park it is!
weathered
I’ve been to this place many times since I was a kid, I always like it up here because it’s located on the highest part of the town and I can be covered by the mist and fogs, take a 360 degree view of Batangas, Cavite, that’s all. Whenever we visit this, I always feel a sense of pity because this place has even a bigger potential to attract much more tourists if only it can be restored and maintained well.
I don’t know where does the entrance fee of P 30.00 go to, there’s nothing much left to do up here. They have food and souvenir stalls, henna tattoo and photo booth at the deck.
For years, we usually ride the jeepney from the gate on our way up and back to the parking lot. But this time, we chose to walk it all up and we’re shocked because it’s not that far and tiring all the way to the mansion! The locals have been joking us tourists for years, I’ll take that as my 1st nega note.
That afternoon was foggy and we didn’t get a clear shot of Taal Lake and so we just did many photo ops haha.
It’s getting dark and we’re thinking about visiting the new attraction “Sky Ranch” where you can find the country’s tallest Ferris Wheel, they say it’s nice to go there at night. The first tricycle driver who drove us to People’s Park told us that we can just walk down to the parking lot/jeepney terminal back to town. Yeah we walked down, following the road but we can’t find a parking lot, we don’t know how far do we still need to go then we passed by a group of another tricycle drivers. This is my 2nd nega note on this trip, at first he offered us P 120.00 but we insisted it’s just P 80.00 on our way up here how come it’s much expensive in going down back to Olivarez, then he let us ride so I guess P 80.00 is settled. Upon arrival at Olivarez, this is the 3rd nega note, we handed him P 100.00 and we’re waiting for our change, then this driver insisted we still lack P 20.00, that the normal charge is P 120.00. Come on, it’s easier to drive down than going up yet you charge us higher than our first tricycle ride?! In the end, he scratched his head, and gave us a facial expression it’s like saying “ok fine P 100.00 it is. ” hahaha you can’t beat us.
We’re looking for a place to eat Bulalo but I think it’s far from Olivarez and we’re hesitant to ride another tricycle again after that incident of overcharging, we had dinner at the town, bought some snacks, then head back to Aroma for some rest.
Sunday morning, we promised to visit Pink Sisters Convent again, before going home we head on to the convent to pay some respect. We didn’t took much time there we just wanted to drop by and leave a prayer. Walking back to the Aguinaldo Highway, we bought Baby Tawilis perfect for breakfasts and found this new pasalubong hype, no it’s not buco pie, it’s buco tart.. Amira’s Buko Tart House found at D’ Banquet, it’s just along Aguinaldo Highway.
these tarts are simply awesome! taken by camera phone only
We waited for buses along the highway but most of them are already full, so we rode a tricycle back to Olivarez at P 20.00 and luckily we have the back seats of that loaded bus, our travel time back to Manila’s shorter, there were no traffics at all.
Is Tagaytay a commuter friendly place? Well, it’s so-so, let me put it this way…it’s much easier to roam around if you have a private car, if you’re commuting around Tagaytay, expect to be overcharged by the local tricycle drivers. They don’t have a fixed fare charging compared to other places, sometimes they’ll tell you that place is too far to walk but in reality it’s not, it’s just about making profits from tourists I guess so. Tagaytay will still be part of the mainstream choices for weekend escape of city dwellers and we’re not closing ourselves to it. At least, now, we tried backpacking this place, a different experience from our usual private car drive.
Budget/Expenses
- Transportation – P 717.00
- Lodging – P 1,800.00
- People’s Park Entrance Fee – P 60.00
- Food & Pasalubong – P 800.00
Total Expenses: P 3,400 estimated (we’re a bit higher than usual P 3k budget, I guess it’s because this is an unplanned trip, we didn’t shopped for our food & snacks before hand. And another thing is the tricycle fares.
Contact Info: Visit Aroma Tagaytay’s website – http://aromatagaytay.com/index.html
That’s about it for our first Tagaytay solo backpackers weekend getaway! Please rate this post and many thanks!
Kaja let's go! 