To celebrate our recent Wedding Anniversary, my husband and I decided to take it easy and explore nearby Tagaytay.

Famously known as the main city on the rim of Taal lake and volcano, it’s only 55km from Manila and only  a 25 peso (approx. 70cents) bus ride from where we live, which is only about 20mins away.

Our first goal was to get to Mushroom Burger. Since we are vegetarian, lots of people recommended it for the vegetarian burgers. After we mastered the exchange from bus to jeepney and figured out where we were going, we finally arrived at Mushroom Burger. Now I’m not sure if this is a classic case of cultural miscommunication, but upon entering Mushroom Burger  we quickly realized that it was not indeed a vegetarian burger place. It is just a normal burger place that puts mushrooms in its burgers! We actually walked out as we couldn’t see any vegetarian option on the menu and there were long queues, but once in the car park I thought there must be something, and did a quick google to finally find that they did indeed sell a vegetarian burger. By this stage we were sooooo hungry that I didn’t even stop to take a photo of the food! But let me assure you, the ‘veggie burger’ was indeed a vegetable burger, literally. Think: stir fried vegetables put into a bread bun with some cheese!

We shook off the feeling that we had just wasted a meal on average food and walked up to Sky Ranch. It was a nice surprise to discover how cheap entry and a ticket to ride the Sky Eye Ferris wheel is (100php entry plus 150php for the Ferris wheel). The Sky Eye is the biggest ferris wheel in the Philippines at approximately 60m high and has gorgeous views of Taal lake and volcano. It was a quick trip and we almost bought another ticket to go around again!

On our way home in the jeepney, we thought we’d make one more stop: Bag of Beans. We’d heard great things about this little coffee shop, and knew it would have more great views of Taal because of its location, perched on the rim of the crater. We wanted to end our day of eating out on a good note, and tried the apple pie. And my oh my was it delicious! Perfectly spiced – home made goodness. Yep, we were happy and content now.

Do you have any tips for things to do in and around Tagaytay?