Tagaytay City is famously known as the City of All Occasions—and one such occasion that you and your loved ones may be looking forward to is a road trip. Few experiences can beat the leisurely journey to Cavite Province’s popular holiday town, as well as the drives between its parks, restaurants, cafés, churches, and other top attractions. It’s the perfect place to drive to for some R&R with your family, a food crawl with your friends or work colleagues, or a romantic getaway with your partner. But like any other type of trip, you’ll enjoy your Tagaytay road adventure best when you plan ahead.

Below are five tips that will help you prepare for the ultimate road trip to Cavite’s summer capital, from choosing among hotels in Tagaytay to determining your itinerary both on the way to the city and inside of it. Buckle up for a simple and fun road adventure that you and your posse will never forget!

Find Out What Requirements You’ll Have to Prepare for Your Tagaytay Trip

First, to guarantee that your road trip to Tagaytay is free of stress, find out what requirements you and your travel party have to prepare in advance. Contact the city’s tourism office, the hotel or resort staff of the place you’re staying in, or a trusted contact who’s based in Tagaytay to get updates on matters like health requirements for entry.

See if you and other members of your party need to take an RT-PCR or antigen COVID-19 test to check into your accommodations, and compile copies of your respective vaccination cards. Prepare all these ahead of time so that you won’t have to worry about rushing them close to your departure date.

Decide on Your Priorities for the Trip

The next thing you should do is plan an itinerary based on what you and your travel party want to do the most. Tagaytay is chock-full of things to do, but you may not be able to cross off all the items on your bucket list if you have limited time.

By deciding on your mutual priorities, you can make sure that everyone gets to have the Tagaytay experience they truly want. Decide on what you all want to do the most when you arrive in Tagaytay, like visiting its churches or hitting up its wellness facilities. Then, plan your itinerary around these must-do items.

Book Your Accommodations Ahead of Time

Some travelers enjoy the spontaneity of hitting the road without a plan and finding accommodations when they arrive at their destination. But if you don’t want to encounter any unnecessary bumps in your road trip, the wise thing to do is to reserve your accommodations ahead.

Booking ahead ensures that you have a cozy room and all-inclusive amenities available to you as soon as you arrive. Plus, the farther ahead you book a room for your trip, the higher your chances of securing discounts on your room rates and benefiting from other promotions your hotel or resort may offer. As soon as you finalize your headcount for your Tagaytay adventure, reserve a room in one of the city’s best establishments.

Make an Itinerary of Places to Visit Per Day of Your Trip

Before you make your way to Tagaytay via car or van, have a basic itinerary ready for all the places you intend to visit per day of your trip. For the first day, when you’re still on the way there, it would be a good idea to plan your stopovers at a gas station or roadside restaurant for lunch. For the succeeding days, figure out your route from one tourist attraction to another and estimate how much you’ll spend at each destination.

The order of items in your itinerary can depend on what you and your party feel like doing for the day, what times of the day these places are open, and the distance from one place to another. Regardless of what order you settle on for your itinerary, you’ll likely have more fun when you know that you’re saving on time, gas expenses, and daylight.

Make a List of Pasalubong to Get

No road trip in the Philippines is complete without pasalubong or souvenirs for home, and Tagaytay is one of the best tourist destinations to go for tasty, nifty, or thoughtful mementos. When planning your Tagaytay vacation, consider setting aside some extra time to write a pasalubong list—and to make pasalubong hunting an earnest part of your itinerary.

Popular choices of pasalubong from Tagaytay City include sweet pineapples, flaky buko pie or buko tarts, high-quality coffee beans, natural beeswax or bee propolis products from the Ilog Maria Honeybee Farm in nearby Silang, and ornamental plants from one of Tagaytay’s vibrant markets or roadside stalls. Decide on what to buy for your loved ones at home, and allot a portion of your schedule towards shopping in the city.

These tips will make it easy for you to have an awesome time on the road, both on the way to Tagaytay and within the city. Which Tagaytay attractions are you looking forward to visiting on your next drive here?