Villa Escudero: Highly Recommended

Villa Escudero: Highly Recommended

Of all the trips that I’ve taken and all the resorts that I’ve gone to, Villa Escudero is the only one that I’ll definitely go back to! Situated at the boundary of the provinces of Quezon and Laguna, this 180,000 hectare plantation and resort is one place that’ll make you not want to go back to the hustle and bustle of Manila.

After an hour and half bus ride (which was comparatively more comfortable than the cramped city buses) we got off the highway just after the Welcome to San Pablo City arc. A traffic enforcer helped us crossed the street and there was already a tricycle waiting to give us a ride to the resort’s reception area.

The cool breeze, huge coconut trees and smell of cow dung (which I found quite fascinating) signaled the start of a rural life.

The reception area was of a native feel with the chairs, tables and even trash cans made from designed wood. While waiting for the receptionist to process our credit card, someone gave us welcome drinks of refreshing gulaman. All the employees there wore a uniform of a colored baro’t saya style garb that definitely enhanced the native feel of the place.

Since it was still 2 hours until our check-in time, we were advised to go sight-seeing on the grounds. We decided to give the museum a visit since it was the nearest from the entrance. Before getting there, we admired the park which displayed several age old canons, a real fighter plane and a catapult. It was a relief that they had a baggage counter at the entrance of the museum which allowed us to unload our backpacks while taking the tour.

Taking pictures or videos wasn’t allowed inside the museum so we just took a snapshot of every bit and detail with our eyes. A curtain of shells served as the entrance to the museum and the first floor was filled with religious artifacts—statues of saints, Jesus and his disciples of different situations and forms. I do not really like looking at religious statues and just regarded them with little significance as display objects. What interested me on the first floor were the preserved insects and animals all lined up in glass cabinets.

There were different species of butterflies that were not merely displayed outright but paintings and dioramas served as a background to help the viewer imagine the natural habitats of these beautiful creatures. There were bugs and insects from different countries that gave me the creeps coz they somewhat reminded me of cockroaches. There was also a tough and massive crab on display that was reported to been able to break open coconuts!

As for the animals, there were calf heads, horns of goats, a jungle display with stuffed leopards, elephant hooves, monkeys, baboy damos, snakes, snake skeletons, deer, bats, eagles, different bird species and a whole lot more animals that I do not know of! It was really a great spectacle that got me all excited :) Replicas of indigenous tribes and their clothing, accessories and weapons were also on display.

As we went up the stairs, we were greeted with lots of money on glass cases that came from all over the world. Old Philippine coins and bills and even 32 pieces of 1000 peso sample bills! Imagine that, if only there weren’t ‘sample’ stamped across those bills, it would’ve been 32,000 pesos together in one picture frame, cool! It was an interesting experience because we started reminiscing and pointing out the coins that we still had in our piggy banks. The hexagonal 2 peso coin, the square 1 centavo and the flower shaped 5 centavo coins brought back some memories. Aside from money there were also priceless vases, jars, bowls, utensils, gold artifacts and gems on display. Clothing from the different eras in Philippine history—from Rizal to Estrada, were all there to give visitors a feel of the history, culture and traditions of the country. There’s a lot more to mention and everything that one could see in the museum was part of Don Aresenio Escudero’s personal collection that his descendants took care of and displayed in the museum for all the world to see. How well traveled and culturally-rich the Escudero’s are! No money could ever equal the knowledge and experience gained from these journeys.

After taking in the beautiful artifacts from the museum, we decided to go our cottage already since it was almost 5pm anyway. We rode in a carabao cart pulled by a carabao named Gigolo, while being serenaded with Tagalog love songs on a guitar. The place was breathtaking! We passed by several manicured gardens with lots of colorful statues of native folks specifically placed there for picture taking purposes with tourists.


After registering at the resort reception, we were led to our room called Rosas. It matched perfectly with the feel of the place since it was made entirely of wood. The windows were the rectangular sliding ones patterned with capiz shells. The very hospitable attendant showed us inside and there was a four-poster bed with white curtains made of some sheer fabric reminiscent of those Old English romantic beds! And the bed was as comfortable as it looked. I felt sleepy the instant that I lay down! It was just the right amount of softness and even though our room had no air conditioning, the fans and the location of the place provided a cool breeze that kept us comfortable.

The bathroom was not native at all which was just right to our tastes. There were three separate sections which enclosed the shower room, the comfort room and the sink with mirror of course. They also gave us towels and there were already packets of soap and a drinking glass, just like when you’re staying in a hotel.

The room even had a loft in case more people were staying in the place. It was, by far, the largest room that I’ve stayed in among the resorts that I’ve been to. There was even a buzzer for room service if ever you might need anything. We didn’t really use that buzzer thing coz all the attendants there were very hospitable that you wouldn’t want to trouble them any more.

After resting a while and enjoying the coziness of our room, we went to the pavilion for our dinner buffet. We were seated at a table overlooking the river and served soups. Again, the waiters and waitresses were very hospitable and would give you all the instructions you needed to go around the place. There was also some form of native entertainment every meal, be it performers doing the tinikling or singing Tagalog songs. The meals always left us stuffed that we couldn’t even go back for seconds!

For dinner, I think we had macaroni salad, lasagna, pork shepherd’s pie, soy chicken, savory vegetables and for desert, leche flan and buko pandan salad. :)

We were supposed to go swimming in the evening but were too full and lazy; instead we just hung around the outside of our room, sat on the wooden sofa and chatted the night away. We also bought softdrinks and water which were very expensive but this was expected since everything else was free. (30 for softdrinks in can and 40 for wilkins mineral water).

We woke up at around 8:45 in the morning and prepared for the day’s activities. Breakfast was served from 8:00-10:00 so we went to the pavilion again to fill our tummies with the delicious food, and we were definitely not disappointed. I think I ate the most during breakfast and filled my cups with hot chocolate, calamansi passion juice, and my plate with suman that you’d put sauce and toppings on, arroz caldo that you’d put egg and onion stalks on, potato omelet, tinapa, ensilada, corned beef with potatoes and fresh fruits! That was just what I ate coz there were others I didn’t get, like plain and garlic rice, danggit, hot coffee and some other stuff that I can’t remember anymore.

After that filling breakfast, we went back to the room to change into our rafting attire. We surveyed the entire river portion with our rafts and had fun maneuvering and looking at the riverside cottages. There were trees hanging from the other side of the river so we went under it for shade and some more chitchat. It was a really cool experience! Next stop were the swimming pools, there were 3 in all: 1 for kiddies, 2 for adults and both only 5 feet deep, 1 jacuzzi and another wading area. We really appreciated that there weren’t many people crowding the pool, I guess because there was a lot more else to see than just hang around in the pool unlike our visit to a resort in Antipolo before.

Anyway, I was quite surprised that one of the two pools made me float more than the other. One pool had the standard pool look—with blue water and tiled flooring. While the other had no tiles and just plain concrete flooring and had this river theme. This was the one that made me float more and also where the Jacuzzi, in the form of a shallow well, was situated.

Thinking that it was already 1pm, we got off the pool and headed to our room to have a shower. There were actually lockers, dressing rooms and shower rooms beside the pool for daytrippers but since we were staying overnight, we just opted to take a shower in our room. Turned out that it was only 11:40 but we didn’t go back to the pool anymore coz we were excited to have lunch at the waterfalls!

The staff pointed us to the right direction and it was an amusing sight to see. There was a man-made waterfall—water came from the river that we rafted in--and there long tables with benches set up on the ground. While eating the once more sumptuous food, you’d feel the cool water running up to your ankles and enjoy the sight of people having their pictures taken beside the waterfalls. We ate with wooden plates placed with banana leaves and drank soup out of niyog halves. Kaldereta, vegetables, lechon kawali, inihaw na manok, inihaw na isda, kalabasa soup, fresh fruits and some kind of coco-milk-sago desert were served among others.

We left the place really full and headed for the coconut harvesting demonstration. We were already late but still went, hoping to catch something. The harvesting was over but the men were still cutting up the coconuts for the tourists to have. Even though we just arrived, the men split a coconut, put two straws and gave it to us to drink. We tried to finish it best that we could and gave it back to them, we couldn’t eat the flesh anymore coz we were really full to the brim.

We had our picture taking session with the statues, flora, and the pink carabao named Pogi while walking around. There were also fat fishes under the little bridge leading to the cottages that I’d love to look for and have a photo-op with. We rented a sidecar (coz I don’t know how to ride a bike) to go around the area some more and we visited the church and rode around the houses of the staff. They actually lived in the place since the lot is really like an entire town.

The “biking” part was really tiring since the terrain would slope up at some points so we collapsed on the bed after that activity. We had a nap until it was time to checkout. The resort attendants were gracious and instead of having a carabao bring us to the main entrance, she called for their specially designed jeep (with the seats lined up horizontally for sight-seeing purposes) to bring us to the main road so we wouldn’t have to pay for a tricycle ride anymore.

I actually felt bitin coz I didn’t want to leave anymore! I wanted to stay one more day as the place was very relaxing and it would really cast away your cares for your entire stay :) A must must must must place to visit and revist! Villa Escudero is by far, truly the best resort that I’ve been to :)