November 21, 2013

3:59 PM 0

An Unplanned Trip to Tagaytay

I have always been fond of traveling. My heartbeat races when I hear a trip to somewhere I have never been to, or do an activity that I haven't tried yet. However, when I was much younger than my age today, blogs, instagram, Facebook and all other forms of social media were not the mainstream. If you forget to bring a digital camera (which you don't necessarily bring everyday unless you're a photographer), you don't have a readily accessible smartphone that you can snap to capture the moment.

It is never too late to start. Thus, I created this blog to record all my trips- the planned and unplanned "LAKAD" to remind me of the events of my life and hopefully, to give readers ideas on how they can spend a trip on a budget.

One of my entries is me and my husband's unplanned trip to Tagaytay. Tagaytay is the most accessible place to visit if you want to get out of Manila's busy roads. It is a 1-2 hour drive from Metro Manila. And because I am not and I don't know if I'll ever be a person who can read or memorize directions, we used Waze, a smartphone application, to get directions to Tagaytay.
Since we got there late, around 7:30pm, we first drove around looking for a hotel to stay at.

 TheWindy Ridge Hotel

We ended up in Windy Ridge Hotel because it was very close to Tagaytay's main roundabout. The hotel's rates are average. It ranges from Php 5,000 to as low as Php 2,800 for those in budget.
The Windy Ridge Hotel Rates (*includes free breakfast)
  • Ambassador Suites- 5,200     (Full view of Taal Lake with whirlpool jacuzzi, King-sized bed)
  • Green Suite - 4,200                (Full view of Taal Lake, Queen sized-bed and single bed)
  • Premiere- 4,000                      (Full view of Taal Lake, King-sized bed)
  • Classic - 3,800                        (Full view of Taal Lake)
  • De Luxe - 3,500                      (Two single bed- twin sharing/ with private garden)
  • Standard Rooms - 2,800         (Double sized bed)
Since we are only going to sleep in it, we took a standard room.
STANDARD ROOM RATING: 2.5 Stars
  • clean
  • has shower (with hot water)
  • colored TV with cable
  • table, chair and cabinet
  • toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, soaps, tissue)
  • towels
  • telephone
The hotel also has reception and accepts credit card.
Here are some customer service suggestions I have.

I hope they were proactive in giving information on the WIFI details. The standard room is two floors down. The signal of my phone was Edge so even if you have a data plan, it wouldn't work. I searched for WIFI but didn't find any. In the morning, when we had our breakfast, I saw a posted message on one of their doors saying The Windy Ridge Hotel is a WIFI hotel. So they do have wifi! It would have been better if they inform their customers the moment they check in that they have free wifi mostly accessible in the dining area.
The Windy Ridge Pool

While we were taking pictures, I accidentally discovered their pool. If I hadn't seen it, we would never know that they have a pool at the back of the hotel. We had to ask the reception how to get to the pool.

The hotel needs repainting at the back. It didn't look like the picture I saw from their website. And of course, I can't imagine who would swim in the pool with a very cool weather.

But I would give credit to the hotel attendants for being nice. One showed us the way to the pool and the other one went downstairs when we couldn't figure out why the shower heating system was not heating up.


SPA EXPERIENCE
When we arrived at Windy Ridge Hotel, we unloaded our stuff then went outside to walk to the nearest spa. Body Cures Spa. Their massage services ranges from 300- 1000 Php. Too bad I forgot to take a picture of the establishment. I couldn't find any online site of them either. Body Cures Spa is located at Emilio Aguinaldo Highway, Silang Junction North Tagaytay.

Foot Spa before going to the full body massage

And just a few steps from Body Cures Spa is Papa Prito. We ate a non-greasy pork chop with unlimited garlic rice! If I remember it right, the price was only 90 or 95 pesos!
In the morning, we had our breakfast courtesy of the hotel and we took pictures of the Tall view from the terrace.

American breakfast with coffee from The Coffee Experience
American breakfast with coffee from The Coffee Experience

There were other places I wanted to visit but I was in a hurry to go home because of work. We left Tagaytay and drove to Nuvali from Lunch.

                                                          The Windy Ridge Hotel                                                                                                    
Tagaytay Rotonda, Brgy. San Jose
Tagaytay City 4120, Cavite 63
+63 (2) 703 7056
www.thewindyridgehotel.com
3:43 PM 0

Coron trip!



We travelled to Coron in 2012. We booked at Coron Sunrise Inn and it was the one of the most breath taking experiences in our life.

Here's a Vlog of our Coron trip, enjoy!