Extreme! (A Tagaytay Weekend Getaway)

I owe this trip to the voucher craze.  I saw a deal in Groupon - an overnight stay at One Tagaytay Place Hotel Suites for 4, with free breakfast and dinner for a little over P6,000.  What would a mortal do?  Buy and book.  But the booking came in 3 months after the buying.  A month before the voucher expired, I made a phone call to make a reservation.  Bad news of all bad news, rooms are unavailable.  We were supposed to have a suite but all suite rooms were booked. So I requested for alternative rooms.  They told me that it would be a downgrade.

Instead of a suite,  they gave me 2 deluxe adjacent rooms.  It was perfect!  Not a downgrade at all. It wasn't the next best thing.  It was the best thing.  Ramir, myself and the kids were in one room with two single beds (we put the two beds together and made the kids sleep in the middle).  The other room had Yayay and her grandchild, L.  They have a queen bed and a sofa.  Both rooms have its own comfort room, television, mini ref and balcony.

real deal - two rooms for two

quaint but nice - One Tagaytay Place's Lobby

We left Manila at around 7:30am.  We arrived in Tagaytay around 10am.  Before we checked in, we went to People's Park for some sight seeing.  The cool and fresh Tagaytay breeze was perfect for our party of city dwellers. Our activities include walking, picture taking, sightseeing and snake petting.

fill in the letters - the signage needs some makeover

These shoes are made for walking...

View below

View above

What you get for 100 bucks.

We checked in at around 12 noon. Then we headed to M&M Bulalohan for, right, bulalo... and fried fresh tawilis, chicken barbecue and calamares. It was the perfect lunch with the perfect view. I was trying to stay away from white rice.  But this time, I have to accept defeat.  The steaming white rice was the power partner of the steaming bulalo soup.

Our favorite Bulalo place

Good food and this...

BulalO-K!

CalamareS-ensational!

Tawilis-cious!

We went to Sonya's Garden right after.  We were there for their Panaderia.  Bread, muffins, cookies. The smell alone was enticing.  I'll always go back for their cheese hopia and hispanis bread (I thought it was Spanish Bread). Two thumbs up for the manong who recommended these to us. I inquired about the Panaderia's bestseller and he pointed these two to me.  Good thing I believed him.  It was the best hispanis bread I've ever tasted.  And the cheese hopia is in a league of its own.  I haven't tasted anything quite like it.

The secret is out.

Would go back for these.

The Residence Inn was our next stop.  For those who haven't been here, Residence Inn is like a mini zoo.  It houses tigers, crocodiles, exotic birds and monkeys.  Ramir and I knew that the kids would be in for a treat but we were disappointed that they have increased their rates to P250 to include its sister zoo - Paradizoo.  Since we wouldn't be going to Paradizoo, we knew that we wouldn't be able to maximize the fee so we decided to forego this and just go a more extreme adventure route - wall climbing.  Anyone can choose any side of the wall to climb.  For P100, an individual can make three attempts to reach the topmost part of the wall.  All of us who attempted to climb, got to the top. But my daughter R, got some help from Kuya.  She requested for an extra pull so she can reach the top. Talk about having things your way.

It didn't end there.  Near the wall climbing station is a horseback riding station.  Since we really planned to do this activity, we decided to do this too so we wouldn't need to transfer to another location.  We paid 50 pesos per head for 3 rounds of horseback riding. Well, it was more like horseback strolling.  A manong held the rope and he walked the horse in the same course three times.  It wasn't the most exciting activity but the kids enjoyed it, that was its saving grace.

After a long day, we went back to the hotel.  Our yaya was so happy with their room.    After freshening up, we went down at the Azalea restaurant for dinner.  It was free, what can I say.  The dinner was ok, nothing to rave about. Soup, a toss between chicken adobo or fish fillet with sauteed veggies as side dish.  The best part was the fruit salad but it was served in a shot glass so imagine how little we had.

After that we went to the lower penthouse to see the swimming pool.  It was an infinity pool and it was closed.  I believe they knew that no person in his sane mind would dip into an open air pool, located on the top of a building at 7pm in Tagaytay City.

cool pool

Next day, we were early to go to mass.  The Mother of Perpetual Help (Ina ng Laging Saklolo) Church was 7 minutes away from the hotel.  We got S's stroller then walked straight to church.

Schedules for the Faithfuls

A little after 9, we were sitting in the ballroom of the hotel having buffet breakfast.  If dinner was something that should be forgotten, the breakfast buffet was something to be written in detail here.  They have an egg station.  You can ask the egg guy to cook your egg anyway you want it.  They also have a cereal station.  My R got back twice.  Then they have the bread station.  I think it was thoughtful of them to put two oven toasters for guests to heat their breads.  You can opt to have butter or marmalade.  They also have pancakes, rice, fried bangus and sausage.  Coffee, iced tea and pineapple juice were unlimited.  They also have some fruits for dessert.  All of these are included in the package.  My yaya and L were overjoyed.  It was their first time to experience a buffet breakfast.

We checked out early because we need to be home by 1:30, I have scored some tickets for an ASAP taping and my yaya would go together with her daughter and granddaughter.  The last activity that we need to do before heading back to Manila was the zipline in Picnic Grove. We paid 50 pesos per head (kids are free) and 30 pesos for parking.  We immediately got into the line.  You can sense R's excitement by this time.  When it was our turn, one parent took one kid.  Ramir had S with him while I had R with me.  The zipline was the icing in the cake.  The cherry in the ice cream sundae.  It was the best way to cap a nice weekend.  While we do the zipline, Yaya and L rode the cable car to get to the other side.  I think we paid P1400 for the zipline and cable car rides.  The fee already included two photos and a photo mug.  It took 30 minutes for the pictures to be released.  R and S played in the small bouncers to kill time.

Fine Zipline

On our way to Manila, we passed by Rowena's to buy some buco pies.  Rowena's, like Sonya's Garden, is a ritual, force of habit.  Any Tagaytay retreat wouldn't be complete without anything from this pasalubong place.

We officially left Tagaytay at 11am.  We arrived in Malabon at 1pm.  Like any other trip we had, it was packed and full and tiring but it was definitely worth it.