Santorini in Tagaytay: An Overnight Trip With Friends

Princess Belle from Beauty and the Beast comes to mind when I think about La Bella. In Italian, La Bella means The Beautiful.

True to its name, La Bella is a stunning Santorini-inspired Airbnb in Tagaytay.

_{In front of La Bella}

_{The view outside our room}

My grade school buddies and I decided to take a little break from our ordinary activities.

When I want to take a brief vacation from the Metro life, Tagaytay has always been my go-to destination.

Compared to Manila, Tagaytay provides a cooler temperature. Similar to visiting Baguio, but closer.

We booked an overnight stay in La Bella Tagaytay.

_{A balcony in La Bella}

Our room is called The Happy Place. The room has a blue motif. It includes boardgames, WiFi, and a little tent for photoshoots.

Click here for the preview of our room.

_{The cute tent inside our room}

We arrived at 5:30pm. The trip took us four hours due to traffic. The first thing we did was to unpack our things then head out for dinner.

We decided to have dinner at Bulalo Capital, which is close to La Bella. It has one of the best Bulalos in Tagaytay.

_{The Bulalo Capital}

We ordered two bowls of bulalo and tawilis! It's the ideal combination, especially in a place as cold as Tagaytay. We were too busy devouring the meal to remember to snap photographs of it.

We requested takeout since the two large bowls of Bulalo were too much for us to eat. The leftover bulalo was going to be our breakfast.

We stayed in the parking lot for quite awhile to take some photos.

_{In the parking lot. It was full moon.}

After dinner, my friends and I decided to go to the nearest convenience store to buy some drinks.

Outside the convenience store, we saw three street children eating a left over piece of chicken.

Luckily, the convenient store sells rice. We bought three, then we gave our left over Bulalo together with the rice to the street children.

We hoped that the Bulalo and the rice allowed them to enjoy a nice night as well because it was a warm one for us.

My friends wanted to try the Soju-Yakult drink. Luckily, Aly and I both know this recipe at heart. You know already who drinks in the group.

In case you wanted to try too, here's the recipe:

• 2 bottles of Yakult
• 1 bottle of Soju (preferably Peach flavor)
• 250ml Sprite
• ice

Mix them well then enjoy!

Rose, one of our friends doesn't drink alcohol beverages so we bought her Vitamilk and cheesebread instead.

_{Our drinks and snacks}

We played Jenga and talked about our lives while sipping Soju-Yakult and Smirnoff.

We made the decision to eat breakfast at Kopa Koppi, a cafe in Bulalo Capital, the following morning.

_{Kopa Koppi Cafe}

They provide a variety of cakes, muffins, and coffees. Blueberry muffins and a Cafe Latte were our orders.

_{The view while we're waiting for our orders}

_{Cofee and muffin from Kopa Koppi}

The Kopa Koppi cafe has a great view of Taal Volcano.

_{The Taal Volcano view from Kopa Koppi}

We enjoyed our mini-breakfast before returning to Bulalo Capital for lunch. We ate their silog dishes for lunch.

We had the opportunity to visit their rooftop for picture taking because we purchased more than 500 pesos worth of food from them.

_{At the rooftop}

There is a door that offers a glimpse of the Taal volcano. It's magnificent! It reminds me of the rooftop shrine from the anime film Weathering With You.

_{Another photo op at the rooftop}

Additionally, there is a man selling pastillas who is also an excellent photographer. He took some of our group photos and in exchange, we bought pastillas from him.

Fortunately, there aren't many people there, so we got to enjoy taking our time.

We lingered around the Kopa Koppi a little longer after taking photographs and placed another order of coffee. I ordered a hot cafe latte this time.

_{While waiting for my friends' orders}

We return to our room at La Bella after our second cup of coffee. While walking, we noticed that the La Bella's Sweet Knot Heaven Restaurant was already open. Too late; we've already eaten.

_{The Sweet Knot Heaven Restaurant inside La Bella}

A brief getaway with your friends, family, or even with your partner is possible at La Bella. They provide several rooms with various interior concepts. They also offer a pool that is suitable for both children and adults, however we haven't yet gotten a chance to check it out as we were only there for one night.

Despite the fact that we didn't have enough time to explore more, we truly enjoyed our time here. We'll go back for sure.

If you want to go to La Bella via commute, here's how to get there:

• From Buendia, ride the DLTB Bus going to Tagaytay. You'll see the sign 'Antonio's and The Cabana' signages when you drop off.
• From there, take a tricycle going to La Bella Tagaytay.

📸 All images are mine unless otherwise stated.