Three days and two nights of holiday in Tagaytay is not enough if you happen to stay in a quiet and cozy resort, more so if food trip goes along with it. I am referring to the unforgettable foods of Josephine’s in Tagayaty. I may need appetite suppressant every time we visit this place.

After we recommended Josephine restaurant in Tagaytay to my sister and brother in-law, this became their favorite restaurant, too. The beef pochero and crispy beef ribs will really make you forget your family name. At least we can have lot of foods to try everytime we visit Tagaytay apart from the traditional “bulalo”.

Since it is semestral break among students and in line with the upcoming long holidays, most of the families living in the Metro are now packing things to have a vacation in their respected provinces. As a Filipino tradition,  some people also pay tribute to their loved ones who already passed away.

But for those with out any provinces and to those who do not practice this tradition, these are the times to have an out-of-town get away.

I am sure during these times, people are searching online for possible getaway places. They could be a resort or hotels that offer discounts and other hotel rooms promo especially in a favorite tourist destination like Tagaytay, Laguna, Subic and Baguio.

Last holiday my wife and I decided to have another thrill adventure. We didn’t really plan to stay overnight apart from to visit Tagaytay to discover new restaurants and places to stay. We just decided to pack things for over night in case we will discover something exciting.

We told ourselves that almost all of the hotels would be fully booked since it’s a long holiday during that time. We did not even bothered to try any place in Tagaytay and headed further to Batangas instead and see some of the resorts that we saw in the internet. But due to the traffic congestion at that time that we were in Tagaytay, we decided to have our lunch there before going straight to Batangas and it was 2:00 pm already when we left Tagaytay.

On our way to Batangas, we passed by the Evercrest Golf and Country Club in Nasugbu. It is not our first time to see the place but the last time we were there was new year’s eve of 2008. We never realized that this was the time and chance to stay in the place. Luckily the club had a current promotion which is discounted overnight stay in the place.

We had a great stay that night although they didn’t have wi fi connection in every room apart from that in the restaurant and they only have local cable channel. If you want a quiet and relaxed atmosphere in the place you’re staying in, this is a place to stay for the family. No need to have central vacuum anymore since the place is surrounded by nature and green grass of the golf course.

You can let your kids swim in the swimming pool from the club near to the place for free since it is still part of the club. The breakfast area in their restaurant is so refreshing and relaxing too since it overlooking the golf course. I look forward to come back and stay in Evercrest again.

Another long weekend is up coming by August 29-31 since August 31 is a regular holiday. It is National Heroes Day here in the Philippines. Since it falls on a pay day (end of the month) I am sure as early as today Filipinos are now searching for a better, nice but cheap place to stay overnight for the family. As usual, outside the Metro are hot spots like Antipolo,  Rizal in the east, Batangas, Tagaytay, Cavite and Laguna in the South and Bulacan, Subic, Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan and Baguio in the north.

If you have money outside the country trip is also a possibility but you have to sacrifice your Friday. Near places like Hong Kong and Singapore are possible places if you have money. You might also consider orlando vacations.

Hopefully we could find a nice out of town since we are planning to have an rest and relaxation spree out of town as well. Metro Manila is so hot for the past days because of some low pressure area in the country and we need a cooler place at the moment.

My wife wanted me to try Josephine’s restaurant branch in Tagaytay. We already tried their Cavite branch we never had a chance to try its Tagaytay branch. After lunch we’ve learned that the newly constructed Robinson’s Land hotel in front of it called Summit Ridge is already open. Out of curiosity, we went to see the place and inquired for their rooms rates.

We learned that the hotel offered 50% discount on all of their room on that day that it soft opened. While it was really our intention to spend overnight in Tagaytay that day, we ended up staying in Summit Ridge.

We’re lucky to be among the few who got to try the comfort of its new rooms and took advantage of the newly operational hotel. The staff were really accommodating as expected of new players.

Summit Ridge hotel has 90 standard and 18 2-bedroom suites, 400 – 500 capacity ballroom, training rooms, event lawn, auditorium, restaurant, badminton court, gym and swimming pool.

It was really nice to have a break here sitting on the side of the pool with out thinking of the busy and the noise of life in the city. If life is like this always, there would be no need to have insurance quote since you will have a stress free and happy life even for a time.

Last week, it was not really our intention to visit Club Balai Isabel, a lakeside Residential resort located in Talisay, Batangas. It became famous lately when two of the well known celebrities held one of their wedding activities there. We just happened to be on our way to Tagaytay to have a lunch. While on the South Luzon express way my wife and I were busy talking about some pet supplies for my son’s ornamental fish that we didn’t expect to give birth. I did not notice that we already passed by the Sta. Rosa exit so we decided to have it in the next exit and just turned back. But we saw a road sign “20 minutes to Tagaytay Highlands.” Hoping that there would be another route to Tagaytay, we decided to continue but never expected that in order to pass through on that private estate to Tagaytay you must be a member or it. Although there is another way to Tagaytay via Tanauan and Talisay Batangas, it would take you almost an hour to Tagaytay.

So we had nothing to do but take that road trip rather than turn back. Since we also wanted to see my father in-law’s home town in Talisay. We accidentally passed by Club Balai Isabel. Although we heard about this Balai Isabel we are not really sure this was the Balai Isabel featured in some show business news lately. My wife insisted to check the place since we were searching for a better place to spend the night as well.

We never expected the beauty of this place located here. Sadly the place is fully occupied that day but the place is nice and quite. You will see the view of Taal lake and the Volcano. On their sea side are floating cabanas where you have your food over the water. If I am not mistaken this was the place where a celebrity couple had their brunch after their church wedding.

The place had a swimming pool and restaurant. Club Balai Isabel offers beautiful amenities, facilities and other services like massage. Hopefully we could a night here on our next road trip.

I saw the Josephine’s restaurant and resorts featured on TV four to five months ago. I even suggested it to my family before to give it a try and dine in the Department of Tourism winner of “Kalakbay” Award for restaurant of the year.

Josephine’s is one of the longest running restaurants in the country today that started way back December 22, 1966 when its first restaurant opened to the public. From eight hectares of fishpond business in Kawit, Cavite, it was converted to a restaurant and in May 1967 when it first opened the resort. Josephine’s has branches in some parts of Metro Manila but the most famous one is in Tagaytay.

Two weeks ago before my brother in-law went back to Belgium, we were searching for a place where we could have our lunch and stay for our while before going to airport. Josephine’s came first to our mind since we still have a lot of time left before his flight so we thought why not tour him first in some of the historical place in Kawit and have lunch at Josephine’s.

Although it was my first time to see the place also and didn’t have the idea of specific dishes they are serving but we know they are serving Filipino cuisine. My wife already tried its Tagaytay branch and even suggested before to have lunch there again. We ordered Pancit bihon, fried tilapia, ginataang tilapia which later captured my Belgian brother in-law taste buds, chopsuey, grilled panga ng tuna and bulalo. Imagine these dishes for five adults and one kid only. But we never went wrong as foods here are really great. We almost consumed all of it, I think I need Colonix for all the foods I ate especially those fats from the bulalo. Imagine a Belgian foreigner who is a meat and steak eater eating ginataang tilapia. He will never forget this place and soon we will visit it again.