If you live and/or work in Metro Manila, chances are you have been to Tagaytay a couple of times already. I have been there more than a dozen times! But it was only in January this year that I was able to see the Crater Lake in Taal Volcano.

Expenses

Below is the summary of expenses for your reference, inclusive of bus, boat and tricycle fare and all fees. Meals and drinks were not included since it is up to you if you will bring something or buy there.

It’s a taken – bring bottled water because it will be a long and tiring trek especially if the sun is enjoying a day out, too. I suggest that you bring something to munch as well like crackers, sandwich or chips.

Metro Manila to Tagaytay

There were three of us in the group – my friend and officemate Jhulie, and Jai who is from India and was in the Philippines on business trip. We went there because Jhulie wanted to show Jai one of the main tourist attractions close to Manila and I was just tagging along. I’m grateful for the invite! I was finally able to set foot in Taal Volcano, climb it, see the Crater Lake and learn a few things along the way.

We took the bus headed to Tagaytay in Pasay Bus Station. There are also buses going to Tagaytay in Buendia Bus Station. 

We got in the station at 7:30 on Sunday morning and waited for passengers to fill the bus. We left the station at 8:00am and reached Tagaytay at half past nine in the morning. 

Tagaytay City to Taal Volcano

We told the driver to drop us off in Tagaytay because the bus was headed further south. Upon getting off the bus, we saw many tricycles and transacted with one of the drivers for the price of the ride to the boat station going to Taal Volcano and back to the city proper later. We agreed on payment of P550. Let me know if it was a good deal.

We reached the boat station at around 10am and paid the environmental and boat ride fees. We stayed a bit to register and use the restroom. 

You can save more if there are many of you in the group or there are joiners because the payment for the P2,000 boat ride is fixed and not per head. 

Expect to get wet during the boat ride, a little or a lot, depending on where you’re seated in the boat and how well you evade the waters.

Our boatman was prepared for this so he gave us a wide plastic cellophane for cover. Jhulie and Jai shared it and extended a portion to me. Since it did not cover everything, we still got a little wet. 

I was surprised when the boat was not headed towards the volcano that was the popular symbol of Tagaytay. Apparently, it’s not Taal Volcano with a crater lake on top. We reached the foot of the volcano at quarter to eleven.

The Climb

We got our boatman’s mobile number and agreed to meet at one of the cottages at 2:00-3:00pm. That would give us one hour for the climb, one hour at the viewing deck and another hour to get back to the foot of the volcano.

We had two options – ride on a horse or climb by foot. We chose the latter which was a good decision because we saw some tourists get down from their horses eventually because they probably could not bear seeing the horses suffer. The horse ride fee is P500 (if I remember correctly).

Prepare to walk on loads of horse shit for the first 300 or so meters of the trek. And prepare to smell overpowering horse shit. For real. Then when it gets better with the smell and poop on the road, it will get harder climbing the mountain. The road is narrow so you will have to give way and go on the side if there are tourists going down. Better to wear a mask, which we did. 

We took our time climbing and made stops along the way. We had the below view in one of our stops. That’s the volcano that I thought has the crater lake at the top. 

There are cottages along the way so you could rest a bit before continuing the trek. You can track your progress by counting the crosses you have passed by already. There are 14 stations in total.

Taal Volcano is one of the destinations for the Holy Week Stations of the Cross. 

It was hot, as you can expect since we climbed at around noontime. I couldn’t contain my happiness when we finally reached the last cross and could clearly see the top of the volcano.

And finally, after a little over an hour, we reached the viewing deck and saw the crater lake. It was beautiful.

There’s a stall that sells chips, bottled drinks and fresh coconut juice. There’s another stall that sells printed shirts and souvenir items.

Further to the right is a road leading to what they call Red Rock where you will have the best view of the crater lake as well as Taal Lake. There was a group of Korean tourists when we reached the red rock. Anyong!

We rested a bit in the cottage and had snacks before going down. The trek down took less than an hour. The boatman was waiting at our agreed location and we went back to the mainland. 

Since it was not yet three in the afternoon when we reached the mainland, we decided to have a side trip at Picnic Grove where Jhulie and Jai availed of the zipline adventure package. We then had late lunch/early dinner.

We left Tagaytay at six in the evening, bringing home memories from our Taal adventure.