One Tagaytay Place - One Fine Day

MANILA, Philippines - “One Fine Day! One Great Place!” is the battle cry of One Tagaytay Place.

Arriving at 10 p.m. Friday evening, after a long week’s work, to my surprise the general manager of the hotel, Karl Velhagen, was still waiting to welcome me to this home away from home! With him was Diane Caasi, the very helpful assistant front office manager.

One Tagaytay Place is one of a dozen properties under the umbrella of Genesis, headed by Miguel Cerqueda, the general manager in the eighties of Manila Hotel, the country’s premier hotel at that time.

The 10-story hotel is in the heart of Tagaytay, within the city limits. Turning left at the junction of the Tagaytay-Sta. Rosa Road, One Tagaytay Place straddles the ridge toward the direction of Picnic Grove and the People’s Park in the Sky. Right on the main road, you just can’t miss it.

If you wish to take a weekend break, like what I did, you need not go as far as Baguio City to enjoy its cool and refreshing climate. I was billeted in one of One Tagaytay Place’s premier one-bedroom suites, very cozy and restful, and I was supplied with CDs and a DVD player where I enjoyed a couple of nice movies on the suite’s flat-screen LCD TV. “Valkyrie” and “10,000 B.C.” were two movies I missed in the theaters and never found time to watch at home either! Thus, this was a most welcome break for someone who wears “many hats” like me.

The weather that July weekend suited me perfectly. Saturday was hazy and I slept in. Sunday was sunshiny and I took a nice drive out to enjoy the Taal Lake view and went shopping at the many fruit stalls in Tagaytay where I bought a giant cantaloupe, larger than a large watermelon! When I awoke late Monday morning, the fog was setting in. In fact, it thickened so that I couldn’t even see the main road in front of the hotel, but I loved it! It reminded me of when I was a young child in Baguio and had to get up early for the sunrise service at Eastertime in our mountain resort. Now, Tagaytay is the country’s emerging southern “summer capital.” A nice place to get away from it all with minimal travel time. A perfect sanctuary for body, mind and soul.

Meanwhile, One Tagaytay Place is also geared up for private weddings, social gatherings, corporate strategic meetings and workshops. Check it out “one fine day,” and see for yourself that it’s “one great place.”