What to Do in Picnic Grove, Tagaytay City

Summer is here!

Summer means sweaty body, hot temperature and intense sunshine. Thus, it is good to escape the heat of the sun and go to cold places like Baguio City and Tagaytay City. If you are living in Metro Manila and is looking for a nearby cool place, I suggest that you visit Tagaytay City. If you chose to visit Tagaytay City, I also suggest that you stop by the popular Picnic Grove.

Picnic Grove is a park and popular tourist spot in the area. Picnic Grove boasts of the perfect view of Taal Volcano. Also, there are other activities that you can enjoy once you are inside Picnic Grove. Here are some of them:

1. View Taal Volcano

Like what I said, Picnic Grove boasts of a great view of the Taal Volcano. It is good to pose for some pictures in side Picnic Grove with the Taal Volcano and the Taal Lake as the background.
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Taal Volcano.

2. Have a Picnic

Picnic Grove is the best place for, of course, picnics. Picnic Grove has a wide grassy area that is perfect for laying down your picnic mats. Aside from grass, Picnic Grove also has trees that provide shade for picnickers if the sun become too hot. If you don't want to sit on grass or the ground, then you can rent a covered table. The price for each covered table ranges from 15 to 20 pesos. You can sit on these benches for free. Park personnel will charge you if they saw you place packed/picnic foods on the covered table.
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Covered table for rent in Picnic Grove.

3. Ride a Horse 'Round Picnic Grove

Once you enter Picnic Grove, lots of people will crowd around you offering horseback riding, pasalubong, or rooms that you could rent for the night. Horseback riding is a popular activity inside Picnic Grove. Horses can be rented for 200 pesos per hour. I suggest that you haggle with the horse owners so that you can lower the price down to 150 or 100 pesos. Europeans, who want to ride the horses inside the Picnic Grove, are reminded that those horses are smaller compared to horses found in Europe. We had a German visitor who rode a horse inside Picnic Grove. She told us that she is afraid of falling down because the horse is too small as compared to the horses in her hometown.

4. Experience Zipline or Ride the Cable Car

The most exciting facility in Picnic Grove is the zipline. Experience the Picnic Grove zipline and feel the cold wind as you slide down the zipline. You will be crossing a chasm between two mountains when you fly the zipline. Picnic Grove zipline is not for the faint hearted.
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Picnic Grove zipline.

If you are too afraid of the zipline, then I suggest that you try their cable car. The cable car is like a giant bird cage that allows you too see the Taal Volcano and the green land below as you move along the cable. On ordinary days, the zipline and the cable car costs for 100 pesos for one-way trip and 200 pesos for two-way trip. During holidays and weekends, one-way trips costs 200 pesos and two-way trip costs 300 pesos.

5. Buy Your Pasalubong

Picnic Grove is also a good place to buy your pasalubongs. Their shops inside Picnic Grove that sell handicrafts, sweets and other pasalubongs.

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So, those are some of the things that you can do inside Picnic Grove. Some people do other things, like kite flying, inside the Picnic Grove. If you are looking for a cool place, then go to Tagaytay City and don't fail to take a peek of Picnic Grove.

For more information, I recommend my article about Picnic Grove in my personal-travel blog.

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PHIVOLCS Info for Communities around Taal Lake

Taal Volcano is active once again and many people living on Volcano Island and around Taal Lake are alarmed by the increasing activity of this volcano. I saw in the news last night of the fissuring of the ground around Taal Lake. PHIVOLCS personnel went to the communities to check the effect of Taal Volcano’s activity. PHIVOLCS personnel noticed fissures on the ground. Also, the floors and walls of houses around Taal Lake have cracks. People living around Taal Lake are considering evacuating the area if the volcanic activity escalates.

In times like these, information is quite vital, especially for people living in the vicinity of Taal Lake.

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Taal Volcano taken from Picnic Grove, Tagaytay City

So, for people living around Taal Lake and threatened by Taal Volcano, here are some info available from PHIVOLCS:

According to PHIVOLCS, Taal Volcano had 33 eruptions recorded in our history. The last eruption occurred in October 3, 1977. 

Before the Taal Volcano erupts, it will show some activities that will be noticeable by people. According to PHIVOLCS, the precursor activities before Taal Volcano eruptions are.

1. The increase in frequency of earthquakes and other felt events that is accompanied by rumbling sounds.

2. The increase of temperature in main crater lake of Taal Volcano. Also, the increase of temperature at groun probe holes at Mount Tabaro.

3. Swelling of ground on Volcano Island and fissuring or showing of cracks on the ground around Taal Lake.

4. Reactivation of new thermal areas or development of new ones.

5. Sulfuric odor and acrid fumes.

6. Death of fishes and other aquatic animals in Taal Lake and the drying up of vegetation on Volcano Island.

For Taal Volcano, the permanent danger zone is the Volcano Island. Thus, no one should be allowed to live on the island. Additional buffer zones are the barangays of the towns of Agoncillo, Balete, Laurel, San Nicolas, Talisay and Tanauan that are located beside Taal Lake. The danger zone and the buffer zones may change depending on the activity and the eruption of Taal Volcano.

Those are the information I gathered from PHIVOLCS website. For people living around the Taal Lake, I suggest that you prepare for emergency evacuation. I suggest that you prepare emergency kits like the one suggested when preparing for earthquakes.

Emergency kits contains canned goods, bottled water, medicines, flashlight, extra batteries and battery-operated radios.

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