A HIDDEN GEM! A must go retreat for family, big groups, honeymooners, quick getaway, etc! Only less…read morethan 3 hour drive from Manila. The road going towards the resort is so narrow. You would not think this didn't go anywhere! We actually tried booking through Airbnb but they only limit it to sixteen people; or I think Airbnb's requirement. The representative told us to communicate through Facebook instead as we needed a big group reservations for 30 as their description on Airbnb stated they can accommodate up to 30 people! Easy reservations with them via phone and the best place to go so far since visiting the main island! The resort has their own farm of fruits and veggies so everything is fresh and depends on the season; they can only make certain meals during the season. Food is pretty decent. We reserved the villa for our stay called - 'Sta. Teresita Villa' where it has its own private infinity pool. The villa has its own kitchen, two and half bathrooms and two bedrooms. It has great views! It was so awesome! We all didn't want to leave!! We also rented additional rooms that had outdoor jacuzzi's. You can order set meals for 5 or 10 or ala carte. Just to let you know, if you are used to American portions, you may have to order more than average. They have fresh buko drinks, too. They plan to add a zip lines in the resort. I can't wait! Tips to remember: - Weather is still very warm here so don't over dress. OK, I mean HOT and humid! - Bring bug spray especially during rainy season. Bugs are huge here!! Bring slippers! - pools have overhead covers so even if rained on, you can still swim. Bring waterproof camera bags. - No wifi except in the lobby. Free wifi. 3G goes on and off within the resort so good luck! No use coming here if you are working! - It's easy to use Waze to get here but leaving, make sure to start the Waze while using the wifi in the lobby or it won't turn on till a few km's out! Remember how you got there. - They do accept credit cards. - Bring snacks or drinks as their snack bar is limited. - Make sure to explore the resort, their crops and their pet snakes! - They do have a few blackouts. - Wake up before sunset to check out the lake and mountain views! Bring your good cameras! Also, love the weather in the morning! For my 650th review, I am dedicating it to Noni's Resort! Staff were very accommodating and super friendly for our big group! Prices were pretty good for our staff and what was offered. I will definitely recommend anyone to check them out and stay for a quick weekend getaway! You won't regret it! [69/100]

Very beautiful tropical hotel in Lipa city. It's very tropical feel as well on the inside and out…read morebut the rooms need updating for this hotel to actually be considered a four star hotel to me (similar to Las Vegas hotels). I think they are a little stingy in their amenities. Here are my reasons why: Our families had a few Superior rooms and one Executive room. We had the superior room which was a standard deluxe room in the states. The rooms are set up nicely and roomy but the queen beds are thin and feels caved in. Moving on the bed makes the frame squeak all the time, making it noisy for my roommates. The sheets are pretty soft with a thin blanket BUT the some of the sheets were not cleaned. You can smell sweat and see dirt On some of the pillow cases. Good thing there are additional pillows. It was too late at night to have these serviced. AC works well. Wifi does not so I used my data and it worked well on the top floor. The furniture is nice and has lots of storage space everywhere. We actually came here for a wedding and there was no iron or board to use or hairdryer. We had to ask the front desk. I wonder if they think we will steal it so they limit per rooms? There is a small frig and electric water kettle to use but the snacks and drinks inside can only be consumed if it's paid for. The bathroom needs work or just needs to be cleaned thoroughly. There was lot of mildew on the shower tiles, lots of collected water calcium on the showerhead and sink. There was a little mold smell or smell of old wood in the rooms. Those are some of my pet peeves. My aunt had the executive suite which was a lot cleaner, bigger, roomier and had a small kitchen with microwave. It was located on the bottom floor. They also had direct access to the pool which is convenient. The pool use is great! Kids will love the waterfall coming out of the ground or the bubbles in the small pool. Even if it's raining while using the pool, Philippines is the best to swim at. There is a nice swing chairs hut for hanging out at by the pool. The garden was nice and loved the tropical big plants. I wish we could have these in the states! There is space for a wedding reception or business meeting by the front entrance; enough for 150 or more guests. I guess this hotel has been here for awhile but there are some things they need to take care of before calling it a full four star hotel; more three or three and a half stars instead to me. There is also free buffet breakfast for the first two guests. The room is for four so why not offer the other two. Additional breakfast is only 534php anyway. Breakfast buffet was good both days. As it stands, I will give the 3.5 stars but I hope that they would think about guests from overseas when staying in their hotel or work on what needs to be updated. Good enough I guess for me cuz of the price. I really needed that hairdryer! Hahaha [115/100]

My family and I had a lovely time here at the Villa Escudero Plantation and Museum during a recent…read morevisit. My parents used to take me here on trips to the Philippines when I was a kid. Revisiting as an adult felt familiar and although there were significant upgrades to the property since my last visit, it still gives off that warm welcome home vibe. For newbies Villa Escudero is the Disney World equivalent for immersion into the Filipino culture. We started off at the Visitor's center where we purchased our day trip tickets. I believe the tickets are about $2000.00 PHP = $35 USD. The ticket cost includes 90% of what is offered in the plantation which includes the museum, Carabao (Water Buffalo) cart rides, E-jeepneys, swimming in their pools, bamboo raft rides, buffet lunch and cultural show. Alcoholic drinks, some non-alcoholic specialty drinks and on-site accommodations are not included in the cost of the day trip tickets. These are considered separate fees. We were a party of 7 with 2 sets of elderly parents with mobility issues. Thankfully the staff at Villa Escudero were well equipped to handle transporting our parents from one part of the facility to another via E-jeepney (electric jeepney). The E-jeepney was a newly added service allowing one to travel comfortably enough to visit most of the sites without much effort. Our parents were able to visit the pink museum on the 1st floor holding mostly religious statues. The statues are realistic to the point of near creepy. The museum has no elevator access to the 2nd floor where the more interesting artifacts are. Unfortunately, the lack of an elevator limited our parents to the 1st floor. My cousin, husband and I opted to take the stairs to the 2nd floor to explore some more while leaving the parents in the waiting area on the 1st floor. The 2nd floor is an impressive collection curated by the Escudero family with period pieces from all over the globe. I won't go into too much detail for spoiler reasons but we found the 2nd floor fascinating from the first. Please keep in mind photography and video is restricted only in the museum portion. Post museum we were E-jeeped back to the visitor's center to hop on their Carabao carts taking us to their grand Main Pavilion for their lunch and cultural show. The Carabao Cart ride was one of the most enjoyable parts of our visit making it memorable for all. The short 12-minute ride transported us through the palm tree lined, lush plantation grounds. The ride included an onboard serenade with a singer and a guitarist playing folkloric tunes. The scene, with sunny picture-perfect weather to boot, was heartening and provides you with a taste of traditional Filipino culture. It definitely brought a smile to my mom and dad's face. In that fleeting moment, I felt as if they were truly happy at home. As all this is happening, seeing them light up in awe as we were passing through the grounds via Carabao cart was priceless. Once at the covered pavilion, you can pick any available table to sit in and have a set buffet lunch served to you. The buffet was ample and tasty complete with typical Filipino dishes such as Pancit, Chicken, Beef Caldereta, Fried Fish, a number of stir-fried vegetable dishes with a Banana-Q dessert finisher to round out the meal. After lunch, the cultural show starts roughly at 3pm and goes till about 5. The show was amazing and included traditional music and dance from regions all over the Philippines. At the end of the performance, my husband and I were gifted a small palm frond keepsake shaped in the likeness of a bird. It was a simple yet sweet parting gift by the performers of the show. The property also has a separate venue for private events and if you are seeking a unique wedding venue, they have a simple chapel and reception space available. Whether tourist or a local, Villa Escudero is a lovely place to visit. They offer on-site hotel accommodations if you're looking to extend your time with family and friends. The hotels are private villas overlooking the river. The average nightly stay is about 14000.00 PHP which is about $240 USD/night typically accommodating anywhere from 2-6 guests depending on room size. The accommodations are rustic and in line with the plantation theme. We enjoyed our time at Villa Escudero. We've always had fond memories visiting the plantation. If you've never been to the Philippines before, this would be the perfect place to start outside of Metro Manila. If you can reciprocate kindness and respect, the people here are super friendly and will go out of their way to make your stay at Villa Escudero a pleasant one. Foreigner friendly, most staff are English speaking and can help you navigate through the property. Enjoy your time in the Philippines and make Villa Escudero part of your visitor itinerary to immerse yourself in the warm Filipino culture. Safe travels and Mabuhay Pilipinas!

Youtube Video on my experience: https://youtu.be/ntKNPeL4ULY…read more WOW. I am truly blown away at this place. I have been wanting to come here for years and years since I had seen a photo of the waterfalls restaurant. I thought that the restaurant was a separate entity and not part of an entire plantation that was turned into a resort for Filipino culture and heritage. I am so surprised at the tiny sign to enter Villa Escudero as well, is that the original sign? I feel like it has to be. The is a long stretch of dirt road leading into Villa Escudero, but it is cool to see all the coconut trees and other fruit/vegetables growing along the road with the carabao just hanging out. After checking in, the experience just to get to the lobby for room reception (if you are staying overnight) is fun because you can ride a carabao (or electric cart if you prefer). You also get sang to on the carabao. I would have put 4 stars for our room stay because our longhouse room didn't have the mixer of cold and hot water working properly, but after my auntie's upgrade to a riverside cottage with a/c, I was amazed at how beautiful and relaxing it was. We also were surprised with a harana one night and they sang a few songs to us, it was very beautiful. Somebody please tell those guys who harana at Villa Escudero that it was such an amazing experience for me and I'm glad I was able to dance with my son while listening. It was extremely beautiful. The waterfalls restaurant at Labasin was very cool, but because I had my little one we were careful and sat on the dry side right by the waterfall. Maybe next time when he's old we can eat in the water! The food was pretty good as well, I enjoyed the okra! My favorite was the breakfast buffet that they offered and the people working there were SO helpful and kind. The museums are crazy!!! The museum holding all the religious artifacts and museum of animals is so incredibly interesting. The house museum is also very cool to walk around and look at. Each location has a docent to explain the museum if you would like a tour as well. From beginning to end, I had a wonderful time and it was a surreal experience for me. As a Filipino-American, I have felt disconnected from my heritage growing up in the U.S. so I feel like staying here was very important. Thank you Villa Escudero, I hope to come back again!

Having late lunch here with family…read more We ordered Biitter Melon with beef (Ampalaya con Carne), Pork Sisig, Milkfish Belly (Bangus Belly) Sisig, Pata Tim (Chinese Pork with Gravy), Beef Bone Marrow (Bulalo) Soup and Corn Soup. The beef loin is sliced and soft and the bitter melon is sliced and juicy. Taste great. Pork Sisig with egg is sizzling hot and taste good. The milkfish belly Sisig is delicious. The pork hock with sauce gravy (Pata Tim) and veggies is well mixed. The meat is soft and delicious Beef bone marrow soup is hot and the meat is soft and moist. Taste so good. The corn soup is delicious, too. Serving Staff are courteous. Moderately priced and average servings. Clean separate Men and Women's bathroom.

AMBIENCE We decided to segue from the main road and find a…read morenew place to try. So we pulled up Google Maps for the closest pin to the most decent place, and behold, we found Old San Juan Hotel & Restaurant. Dine-in area was a wide and beautiful Spanish-style house on the second floor. We could occasionally smell the wood and tried knocking on some of the pillars and sliding windows. Everything was legit and those varnished surfaces were pretty sturdy! No wheelchair access was apparent but the stairs weren't that steep either. A piano, guitar and white capiz lighting added interesting touches to the overall look. A flat-screen TV was available. First challenge was the mosquitoes and if we turned on the electric fans, it was too cold for us and the food. If fans were off, second challenge was getting bitten. FOOD I'll jump straight to it. EXCELLENT! Ginataang Hipon was thick, creamy, tasty and served generously. It's good for two and we didn't need to order anything else. But of course, we had to try one more. Lechon Kawali was super good too! Skin was very crunchy like freshly popped chicharon (fried pork skins) and the meat was so tender I could easily cut with one utensil. Sauce wasn't even necessary! SERVICE We were welcomed by smiles and warm greetings. One of our servers helped us park properly. This isn't a common observation but I noticed another server smelled really good! No effort needed to take notice. Wait time was reasonable and we relaxed by appreciating the place and taking photos.

This place was beautiful and loved all the activities offered but my only gripe is that it wasn't…read moreclose to the beach so it was pretty hot when we went there. We only did the day tour and didn't stay overnight. You can order prepared food there or bring your own to cook at their BBQ grills. We didn't reserve til the day before so we couldn't get a kubo but was able to have a shared covered area with tables and chairs. They had bathrooms with showers and a sink area to wash dishes. But as usual, bring your own toilet paper and soap. My family did the zip lining, repelling and rock climbing. They said they loved it. We used the pools which were an awesome site. We really liked the maze, too.

I expected a longer travel time to Shercon Resort & Ecology Park from the heart of Manila, so I was…read morepleasantly surprised when our bus rolled into its gates after a little more than two hours. But while the trip was convenient, the stay was not very much so as it does require a bit of walking from the function halls to the rooms to the pools and to the teambuilding areas. For families or small groups, bringing your own van might be best. Still, the forced exercise (we probably needed it anyway) was worth it, given the accommodations we received. It was no small feat, considering there were almost 200 of us for our office teambuilding, but we felt well cared for. Food was delicious and abundant, the staff were friendly and accommodating (they even went the extra mile to assist us when one of our members got sick), and the facilities were well-maintained. For the swimming addicts like me, you'll love that this resort has six (!) pools, so there's definitely no overcrowding at the pool. But the best part of our stay were the teambuilding activities they facilitated for us. We got to experience ziplining, wall climbing, rappelling, and games, which definitely boosted our group spirit. All these great experiences and extraordinary service, for suprisingly friendly rates. I will definitely be coming back. Winner!

Only four because of the room that my fam., had is just far down to the shore.., and you have to…read morewait for the inhouse mini shuttle bus, plus the massage therapist is not available when i asked for a full body massage that im craving after a long drive...to get there other than that not a big deal we still enjoyed the beautiful and amazing fuego! so fulfilled.

Great place to stay. Staff terrific and everything from start to finish. Have been here a few times.read more

Of all the days to pick, we went to Tagaytay on a weekend the TAAL volcano was emitting ash. Left…read moreManila on a Friday early morning and the drive was smooth. We were a party of four with friends vacationing from the US. We booked in advance at booking.com.... the hotel was delightful. Clean and spacious. The lobby and the rooms we chose were overlooking the volcano. Of course, when we got there, the steam/ash from the volcano was covering the view. Nevertheless, the hotel has much to offer. We checked in at 2pm. The guests were few as we were allowed to check-in early. Normally, it's a 4pm check-in with a 2pm check-out. After relaxing at our rooms for a couple of hours, we decided to do the SPA. Best decsion we did that day. By the way they have an ice cream 'caritela' at the lobby . You must try the chocnut flavored ice-cream... the avocado too! All four of us truly enjoyed The VEDERA SPA. We did the 60 minute body scrub and 60 minute massage for 2800 pesos each. That was rejuvenating and relaxing. Our skin felt smooth and soft after the scrub and the massage, solid excellence - you can tell the staff are well trained therapist. Not just fly-by-day masseuse. After the massage, we had dinner indoors due to the ash fall. There was simple entertainment with a female singer accompanied by male guitarist. Pleasant tones I say. Even sang our requested songs. Come morning, the buffet was scrumptious. Tiny fried fishes were a favorite at our table. 'Tawilis' I believe. So many food options and they had TAHO!!! My childhood breakfast food...how wonderful was that! The buffet had all-american and filipino dishes. Oh and the steam/ash died down in the morning. Giving us a great view for breakfast. The concierge, counter staff, servers as well as the spa staff were great. Real assets of this hotel. Everyone was in smiles and ready to help at all times. Our young server even took amazing pictures of us. BRAVO ESCALA, keep up the good work.

As of today June 5th , this hotel will welcome guest without having to undergo a covid test, as…read morelong as you have to show a proof that you have a booster dose of covid 19, plus show your passport or valid id. Price is so affordable today:)) By the way, this hotel does not provide toothbrush and tooth paste however you may buy it from them for a of 75pesos /1.25$ they have provided a 3in 1 shampoo conditioner/ body wash. The customer service lady is very friendly and explained it well the do's an dnts of the hotel.

I was at this hotel from January 29-31,2020 for a supposed to be extended stay. The hotel was small…read moreincluding the elevator and room but was nonetheless clean and the staff were very friendly and accommodating. A very basic hotel meant for rest and sleep. Period. The only negatives for this hotel were- no cabinets for clothes. You have a small corner rack to hang clothes with 4 hangers provided. No telephone in the room so you have to have a smart phone with a strong Wi-Fi to be able to call the front desk or outside. No in house restaurant but you can order out and have it delivered. In short, this is not good for any stay longer than an overnight.

i loved it here. we were visiting the philippines for about 2 weeks and my cousin booked us a suite…read morein this hotel. they had a full on buffet in the morning and the food was delicious! they had many pools, i'm pretty sure it was 4, and there's this pool where a kiddie pool is connected (there's a platform in between the pools) to a 4 feet pool so you can swim around while your little one is also swimming and you don't have to worry about them. overall, i definitely recommend staying here because it's literally so nice and luxurious, you'll love it here!!

This hotel gets a 4.5 (nearly 5 stars but there is always room for improvement). From the moment we…read morearrived until the very last day, you can feel the warmth of the Filipino people. We were genuinely welcomed and invited to return...may have to take them up on their offer! We stayed for 13 nights and it was pleasantly and comfortably amazing!