Taal Vista: A hotel with its own history

MANILA, Philippines - The servings at Pamana are so generous that you can’t help taking out the leftovers.

What our group did was eat the food for dinner at the balkonahe (veranda) of our room at the nearby Taal Vista Hotel which also, like Pamana, offers a sweeping view of the Taal Lake that gives you that sweet-sadness feeling when savored at sundown. That’s when, to the soundtrack of birds chirping on the trees around the hotel, the lights of the house around the lake slowly come to life, looking as if God has sprinkled a thousand diamonds on them.

Taal Hotel used to be Taal Vista Lodge back in the early ‘70s when I was there for the first time to cover (for the old Manila Times) a seminar for student leaders sponsored by the US Embassy. In four decades, with “Lodge” replaced by “Hotel,” it has reinvented itself several times over. It has now 261 rooms, most of which commands that mesmerizing view of Taal Lake and each has Internet access and is equipped with a mini bar, individually-controlled air-conditioning and cable TV.

Like Pamana, Taal Vista Hotel has its own history.

From the brochure, we learned that, built in 1937, the English-Tudor Mansion-style hotel has become a heritage to Filipinos. It has a rich history shared by many generations. Countless hotel guests and visitors have taken their photographs with the Tudor façade as a backdrop, “a stylish icon where the Past meets the Present.” Which was what our group did before we checked out.

(Taal Vista Hotel is located at Kilometer 60, Aguinaldo Highway, Tagaytay City. For inquiries, call 046-4131000 0r 02-8864325.)