Trips... by Liz: Laguna

I have heard of Villa Escudero for years now, seen pictures of it and have always wanted to go there. Alas, I have been able to. It was a treat by my sister and brother-in-law for my nephew's birthday.

We went out early on a Sunday morning, took South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) to Sto. Tomas exit. At Sto. Tomas junction, we turned left and just followed the main road up to the Quezon arch, passing the towns of Alaminos and San Pablo. We then turned left on the first street right after the arch and followed the dirt road that led us to the resort area.

Toll Fee:
C5 to Calamba		PhP 214.00
Calamba to Sto. Tomas		PhP 25.00

It was the feast of the ascension so they have this to welcome guests

Day tour hours is from 8:00AM to 5:00PM. It is recommended for guests to make their reservation in advance as the resort may be booked for a special occasion. But, in cases when they're not booked, they do accept walk-ins.

Day Tour Fee:
Adult		PhP 1,400.00
Children below 4ft		PhP 700.00
Senior Citizen		PhP 1,000.00

The fee includes welcome drink at the reception area, carabao cart ride, use of outdoor recreational areas, visit to the museum and lunch at the waterfalls. Their rooms are only available for overnight guests. For day tour guests, they could stay at the restaurant or at some tables/chairs around the pool area.

Reception Area

Tickets

After getting our tickets and having some "gulaman" at the reception, we walked to the museum. We had our bags with us. Good thing is that they have a left luggage area at the gates to the museum area. Pictures are not allowed to be taken inside the museum. Also, children below 5 years old are not allowed inside the museum. So, if you have kids with you, you could take turns in entering the museum, while the others are with the kids in the playground just beside the museum.

Way to the museum

Museum

After the museum, we went to the waiting area for the carabao cart ride. We passed by some old planes and tankers on display.

The carabao cart ride took about 10-15 minutes. There would also be some resort staff that will be on the ride and singing folk songs with the accompaniment of a guitar.

Our carabao "Sexy" having some dose of water

One carabao is named
Ligaya

On board
carabao Sexy

Resort staff singing
"Ang Pipit"

View during the carabao cart ride

When we got off the ride, we followed the path going to the left for the swimming pool. There's a restaurant around the area in case you need some snacks/drinks.

Restaurant area

The restaurant is also by the river where free activities such as bamboo rafting and fishing can be done. The path to the accommodations is also by that area.

River at Villa Escudero

Path to the accommodations

As for the swimming pools, there's 3 available (at least that's what we saw). One for the kids, the other is about 5ft (with slides) and the other is about 2ft deep where most of the elders stay (because of the somewhat warmer, as compared to the other 2, temperature of the water). Lockers can be rented for PhP50.00 (plus PhP50.00 deposit) to put your things while swimming. The toilet/shower is for public use so there may be a lot of people specially when it's near closing time.

Kiddie Pool

Pool that is
about 5ft deep
(with slides)

Other pool about 2ft deep

Lunch (included in the admission fee) by the waterfalls is served from 11AM to 2PM. We went there around 12NN so there's already a lot of people there. On the way to the falls, we passed by the Arsenio Escudero Hydroelectric Powerplant. The path would be to the left going down some steps after the powerplant.

Hydroelectric Power Plant

Lunch by the waterfalls

Since there tables near the falls are already packed, we got a table a bit far from the falls but near the food area. There were about 3 areas to get food from but only 2 are filled with the same food. Ticket stub for the food has to be presented to be able to get a plate. One stub, one plate. The selection has ensalada, pork/beef/chicken/fish/vegetable viands, soup, pancit canton, pineapple fruit and banana cue for dessert.

Cultural show starts at 2PM (up to 3:15PM) at the restaurant area. Expect a lot of people to be in that area during that time.

After the show, expect that there would already be lots of people going home and that the wait for the carabao ride might take some time. I guess in cases of peak hours, they do deploy some motor vehicles to bring people back to the reception area.

Here are some other pictures I took before leaving.

San Pablo / Quezon arch (boundary) right after we turn right at the main road from the resort

It was a nice Sunday road trip to Laguna. We did not encounter any major traffic, the only one in front of a mall in Laguna.

We left Manila past 9 in the morning. It took us about an hour and a half, including the stop we made at a 7-11 store in Calamba, to get to the resort. My brother planned to just look for some resort on the way, or go just go to the resort that we frequent when we were little.

While buying some supplies at 7-11, some guys approached my brother offering private pools. When he was told that we could get one at PhP3500, he considered it and we followed the guys to Wonder Spring Resort.

Wonder Spring Resort is located on the National Highway in Calamba, Laguna. It would be on the right side of the road (when from Manila), in between Batis ng Makiling and Monte Vista Resort.

There's limited parking but I guess most of the guest's cars could fit in the allocated spaces. They also have free Wi-Fi, and it's fast!

It turns out the resort is a "collection" of private pools, each named after a car manufacturer. We were in Mazda. I saw another one named Nissan.

We got a 2-bedroom private pool for PhP3500. It's actually a 3-bedroom house (PhP5000 if we're going to use all 3), but since we're not that many and we would just be using 2 bedrooms, they gave it to us for PhP3500 (lean season price). The master bedroom has 2 big beds and it's the only room that has television. The other room has 1 big bed and a single bed. All rooms are air-conditioned. Restrooms are outside the rooms, shared by the occupants -- 2 comfort rooms and 2 shower rooms.

The water in the pool are "natural" hot springs (that's what they claim). There are 2 slides, one for the not-so-kiddie part of the pool and the other for the adult-part of the pool. In addition to the pool, they also have billiards and videoke. The good thing is that the videoke machine is not coin-operated.

Oh, and in case you need some supplies, there's a 7-11 just outside of the resort and some convenience stores on the other side of the street.

Below are some pictures of the resort.