By Gerard Ramos / Lifestyle & Entertainment Editor
It used to be that when you felt the need to seek relief from the maddening heat of lowland living but had not the wherewithal, in time or money, to go on a mini-break in Baguio, there was always Tagaytay—that city of Cavite which sits at an elevation high enough (anywhere from 2,000 to 2,326 feet above sea level) to allow you to wear a jumper (also known as a sweater) without looking silly or, worse, delusional.
These days, however, it would be best to look for temperate refuge elsewhere, as the temperatures that greeted me on a recent overnighter in Tagaytay were not all that different from the heat and humidity that define everyday living in the lowlands that make up Metro Manila. Arriving a little past noon, I was hoping the pleasant chill I have always associated with Tagaytay would creep in as night fell, like some illicit lover, but I had no such luck.
Talk about global warming and climate change.
Of course, even with Tagaytay’s famously temperate climate MIA, there are still plenty of reasons to keep the city on your list of mini-break options, with pleasures to be enjoyed that range from the epicurean (among them the comfort foods offered by the restaurants situated in the so-called Bulalo Belt on Mahogany Avenue) to the thrilling (the various rides and attractions on offer at Sky Fun Amusement Park on Aguinaldo Highway) to the sublime (Our Lady of Manaoag at Tierra de Maria on Tagaytay-Calamba Road for spiritual renewal; Qiwellness Living, also on Aguinaldo Highway, for a pampering of the senses).
And then, there’s Taal Volcano, the view of which never gets old no matter how many times you have seen it. Rising to heights neither as impressive as Mayon Volcano in Bicol, nor as imposing as Mount Banahaw in the Calabarzon region, its seemingly benign quality heightened by the picturesque beauty of Taal Lake that surrounds it, Taal Volcano is nonetheless the second most active volcano in the country whose violent eruptions in recorded history have claimed thousands of lives.
Tourists who want to wake up to the visual feast that is Taal Volcano in repose amid placid Taal Lake could do no better than to check-in at Domicillo Design Hotel, also on Aguinaldo Highway, as it has rooms with lakeside views so picture-perfect that they seem to have been superimposed from a postcard. Those who are just making a quick Tagaytay stop, meanwhile, can also enjoy the spectacular vista over lunch, dinner or cocktails at the hotel’s restaurant/café La Finica, which complements the visual feast with palate-pleasers of Filipino and international favorites scrumptiously reimagined (the Ensalada La Finca of fiddle fern, cherry tomatoes, baby radish, salted eggs, kesong puti and adobo floss is gorgeous, and the Oven-Barbecued Pork Belly is seriously good).
Rene Alacala, the man behind Domicillo who is also an acclaimed designer of embellishments for the home, is inclined to call his hotel a bed-and-breakfast, but old-fashioned quaintness that the appellation would readily conjure is something that can’t be applied to Domicillo, which is, instead, a showcase of the stunning modern design sensibilities of the acclaimed Budji Layug of the Budji + Royal Group, who also designed the rooms along with other celebrated Filipino designers Milo Naval and Tes Pasola.
Typical of modern design, the architecture is all about clean lines and angles, with concrete surfaces treated just so without losing their raw beauty, while wood is judiciously employed for panels and furniture to add warmth, as does the generous deployment of plants that include bamboo, ferns and colocasias. Not surprisingly, given Alcala’s masterful use of glass and other reflective natural materials in his award-winning line of home accessories, Domicillo glistens and glimmers with mirrored accents everywhere.
The boutique hotel has eight rooms in all, five of which has a direct view of the lake and Taal Volcano from the bedroom windows and verandas, while the other three look out to the beautiful garden that Alcala has built for everyone’s visual delectation and which the hotel’s efficient staff nurture and maintain. All the rooms have the niceties you would expect from an establishment that aims to please—beds that are soft enough for the sweetest slumber but with enough support for anybody’s poor bad back including my own, plus huge comforting pillows for cuddling and cocooning, along with cable TV and high-speed Wi-Fi connections because there are some of us who just can’t leave work behind.
Domicillo has a lounge area that is for the exclusive use of hotel guests, and which can double as a function room, while there is also an upper deck that makes for the perfect spot for cocktails or a late-night round of single malts—and, yes, both have a spectacular view of the lake and the volcano. Meanwhile, a generous portion of the hotel’s reception area also doubles as pocket shopping haven where embellishments for the home and for the self are on sale.
In the 24 hours I spent in Tagaytay for a quick mini-break, the cool climate that I have long associated it with never turned up. Thankfully, the transcendent view of Taal Lake gently rocking that furious giant into a deep slumber remains—and taking in that beauty from my tastefully designed room in Domicillo, with the air-conditioning set at 18 degree Celcius, more than made up for the climate change.
Image credits: Gerard Ramos