Day Trips

Over the years we've done a number of day trips around Luzon.

Taal

Taal, officially the Municipality of Taal, (Tagalog: Bayan ng Taal), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 56,327 people.

Taal is famous for its old ancestral houses, one particular ancestral house (now a museum) where Marcela Coronel Mariño de Agoncillo grew up in Taal, Batangas built in the 1770s by her grandparents, Don Andres Sauza Mariño and Doña Eugenia Diokno Mariño, (added by Slavstan Mariño). Its poblacion (central business district) is designated as a National Historical Landmark. The municipality is known as the Balisong and Barong Tagalog Capital of the Philippines. The town is home to hundreds of heritage structures dating from the Spanish colonial period. Scholars have been pushing for its inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Calatagan

Calatagan, officially the Municipality of Calatagan, (Tagalog: Bayan ng Calatagan), is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 56,449 people.

Calatagan comprises the Calatagan Peninsula between the South China Sea and Balayan Bay. The peninsula's near white sand beaches are well-known vacation and leisure sites. There are several beach resorts including the Banak House Calatagan on Calatagan beach, the Ronco Beach Resort in barangay Bagong Silang, Playa Calatagan in barangay Santa Ana, the Golden Sunset Resort in barangay Uno, Lago de Oro Resort in barangay Balibago, Villa Agustina in barangay Bagong Silang, and Nacua Sea Park in barangay Quilitisan. Calatagan was formerly titled as the Forbes Park of the South, because of the rich families who own estates here.

An extremely rare example of pre-Spanish Philippine script was found in Calatagan. The script is called Baybayin in Tagalog, and was derived from Javanese writing, which in turn is derived from Brahmi. This writing survived on an earthenware burial jar dated to the 13th or 14th century. A Spanish lighthouse can also be found at Cape Santiago at the peninsula's southern tip dating back to the 1890s and is also one of the municipality's main tourist attractions.

100 Island

The Hundred Islands National Park is the first national park and a protected area located in Alaminos, Pangasinan in the northern Philippines. The islands, totaling 124 at low tide and 123 at high tide, are scattered in Lingayen Gulf covering an area of 16.76 square kilometres (6.47 sq mi). Only three of them have been developed for tourism: Governor Island, Quezon Island, and Children's Island.

La Luz Beach at Laiya

Laiya Beach is a beach destination in San Juan, Batangas, Philippines. It is one of the most visited beaches in the country. The beach's sand is composed of weathering-formed crushed shells.

Banana boat and jet ski services are offered to people staying in resorts. Fishing boats are also frequently seen near the shores; most of the catch of the fishermen are sold directly to resorts.

Car trip from Manila to Laiya can take 2 to 4 hours depending if you leave early morning or later in the day. The SLEX takes you fast to Lipa Lipa city, but the road from Lipa Lipa to Laiya is hogged with tricycles, motorcycles, Jeepneys and other slow moving vehicles.

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Enchanted Kingdom

Enchanted Kingdom opened to the public on October 19, 1995. It was and still is the first and only world-class theme park in the Philippines. The theme park boasts of rides and attractions unique to the country in size and magnitude. These rides and attractions are located within seven meticulously themed zones interspersed with food and merchandise outlets and kiosks as well as various game stands that add to the “enchanting experience”, away from the day-to-day realities of life.

Enchanted Kingdom boasts of “themed entertainment” in each zone. It also has a variety of musical shows throughout the season using in-house and TV network partner talents. Entertainment and special events are usually held at any of the aforementioned venues.

Currently, Enchanted Kingdom is exploring ways to expand into other ventures like Edutainment. Through the spirit of participation in education-related undertakings, the theme park can greatly help in the future of the country’s educational backbone.

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Sagada Revisited

Sagada, officially the Municipality of Sagada is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 11,510 people.

Sagada is 20 kilometres (12 mi) from Bontoc, the provincial capital, and 396 kilometres (246 mi) from Manila via Halsema Highway.

Sagada is famous for its hanging coffins. This is a traditional way of burying people that is still utilized. The elderly carve their own coffins out of hollowed logs. If they are too weak or ill, their families prepare their coffins instead. The dead are placed inside their coffins (sometimes breaking their bones in the process of fitting them in), and the coffins are brought to a cave for burial. The Sagada people have been practicing such burials for over 2,000 years, however, not everyone is qualified to be buried this way; among other things, one had to have been married and had grandchildren.

Popular activities include trekking, exploring both caves and waterfalls, spelunking, bonfires, picnics, rappelling, visiting historical sites, nature hikes, and participating in tribal celebrations. Guides can be found upon registration at the tourist-office in Sagada Proper (the main town) for a small fee. Most of the guides are natives, also known as Kankanaey.

Sagada is nestled in a valley at the upper end of the Malitep tributary of the Chico River some one and a half kilometers above sea level in the Central Cordillera Mountains, enveloped between the main Cordillera Ranges and the Ilocos Range. Mount Data in the south and Mount Kalawitan in the southeast pierce the horizon. Mount Polis, Bessang and Mount Tirad in the east, and Mount Sisipitan in the north mark the Mountain Province–Abra boundary. There are limestone mountains throughout Sagada. This part of Luzon used to be submerged in the ocean tens of millions of years ago, and fossilized seashells can be found in the walls of Sumaguing Cave.

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Cebu February 2023

Cebu City, city, Cebu Island, south-central Philippines. Located on Cebu Island’s eastern coast, it is protected by offshore Mactan Island and by the inland Cordillera Central. It is one of the country’s largest cities and is a bustling port. Its harbour is provided by the sheltered strait between Mactan Island and the coast.

The country’s oldest settlement, it is also one of its most historic and retains much of the flavour of its long Spanish heritage. A thriving port occupied the site when Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese navigator and explorer, landed there on April 7, 1521. He sealed a blood compact with Humabon, the chief of Cebu, but was killed later by Chief Lapulapu of nearby Mactan Island. On April 27, 1565, Miguel López de Legazpi and the friar Andrés de Urdaneta arrived on Cebu and founded the first Spanish settlement and Roman Catholic mission in the Philippine archipelago. For six years, until Legazpi’s removal to Manila, Cebu was the Spanish colonial capital. It remained the primary Spanish bastion in the southern part of the Philippines.

The cultural and commercial core of the central Visayan region, Cebu was opened to foreign trade in 1860. It was chartered as a city in 1936. Although it imports few foreign goods, it is the main collection centre for such interisland commodities as copra, abaca, sugar, timber, and fish. Cebu is a major point of passenger traffic by air and sea and is served by an international airport across the harbour on Mactan Island.