Road Ridge in Tagaytay

Ask your motorist friends, and chances are there are a few driving to Tagaytay ridge for the long Christmas holiday. This mountain resort is a favorite hideaway because of its year-round cool climate, steaming hot bulalo (beef shank soup), the panoramic view of Taal Volcano, and the hot kapeng barako (coffee from the Liberica variety), to name a few.

There’s a downside though—the Edsa traffic jam seems to have shifted to this ridge road which sometimes stretches from the boundaries in Silang to Mendez. But despite the gauntlet on the highway, it has an irresistible pull because of the infinite options it offers, and the gridlock may cause you to stumble into interesting spots in the hidden nooks and crannies.

While serendipitous discoveries while on the wheel has its own thrill, the bottlenecks may just compel you to have a more definite driving plan to make the most of your time. Here are some suggested must-go places away from the usual suspects in traffic.

Pit Stop 1: D’Banquet. The variety of food Tagaytay offers is perhaps the most compelling reason to drive to up to the ridge. In this department, D’Banquet more than satisfies with its extensive buffet of Filipino and international favorites, a coffee shop, and a one-stop pasalubong center of Cavite delights. Cap a hearty meal with desserts from Amira’s Buco Tart Haus, one of the sought-after local sweets, as you get serenaded by acoustic musicians.

Situated a few hundred meters away before the Tagaytay rotunda along Aguinaldo Highway, it has ample parking space and has alternate routes in case of traffic.

Pit Stop 2: Nurture Wellness Village. Considered an icon in wellness and farm tourism, this award-winning resort and spa is arguably the best place to be on Christmas if you want the precious gift of health for yourself and loved ones. It embraces environmental protection as a philosophy, and is a member of Zero Carbon Resorts, a group which aims to reduce carbon footprints through green practices.

In recent years it has received prestigious awards such as the Anahaw-Philippine Sustainable Tourism Certification, 28 Most Relaxing Spa in Asia of CNN Go, and Top 7 Spas in Asia by Asia Spa magazine.

This garden resort, which can be accessed through a back road in Amadeo, has a restaurant serving locally grown farm-to-table food, function rooms, lodging with tribal motifs, and swimming pools. It offers holistic, medically-supervised programs with therapeutic massages as its core service. It has also manufactured powdered kale juices, ready-made salads, and organic produce which you can buy at their corner market.

It also has the Nurture Farmacy a few minutes away where guests are taken for an educational tour on organic produce and medicinal plants.

Pit Stop 3: L & J Country Estate. Tucked at an interior barangay in Mendez, this farm resort has been operating under the radar with great results. Owned by a former Tagaytay City employee, the property adheres to strict standards of quality set by the Department of Tourism.

The sprawling retreat will keep the family occupied with recreational facilities such as swimming pool, aviary, playground, and all-terrain vehicle to tour the plantation and its vicinity.

The resort is also known for its regional cuisine (read: bulalo), having been in the catering business before this latest venture. But aside from the beef specialties, L & J also promotes organic farming and healthy way of life with the farm-to-table dishes they serve.

Pit Stop 4: The Oriental Luxury Suites. If you’ve been itching to go to the fabled Thai mountain city of Chiang Mai, this could best approximate the place. Adorned with Asian-themed furnishings and accents sourced from Thailand and Indo-China, this is this seven-suite mansion is an intimate vacation home away from home with the amenities of a modern hotel, but without its trappings.

With a landscaped garden and panoramic infinity pool, you can laze around and gaze at the panoramic vista of Taal Lake and Volcano.

Strategically located on the ridge’s Laurel side way past the traffic-prone areas, guests can easily swing by the Twin Lakes or drive further into the heritage town of Taal or the beaches of Batangas.

Pit Stop 5: Tomzen Estate. A major player in Alfonso town’s growing tourism sector, this sprawling family property boasts of a 25-room boutique hotel with a lap pool, the nine-hectare Gorgeous Farm for a back-to-nature family bonding outing, and The Wild Juan, a countryside diner.

The unique complementation of these establishments gives guest a diverse experience in one location. The Wild Juan takes pride in its long list of Filipino-Western fusion comfort food which is best paired with craft beer.

Gorgeous Farm, which supplies the restaurant veggie’s requirements, organizes salad bowl tours where guests can sow seeds, do pick and pay for fruits and vegetables, tend the livestock such as black native pigs and free range chicken.

With these off-the-grid options, driving on the ridge would hopefully be a less stressful experience that hopefully wouldn’t lead to road rage, especially in this season of sharing and forgiving.