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Travel Guide: Lucban-Sampaloc-Mauban-Tayabas, Quezon Bike Loop

Kara Santos

Lucban in the province of Quezon is best known for celebrating the Pahiyas Festival, one of the Philippines most colorful harvest festivals, every May. The town is also known as a religious destination for pilgrims since it’s home to the 50-feet high Kamay ni Hesus Shrine, reportedly the third biggest Christ the Redeemer statue in the world.

But if you’re not into local festivals or visiting religious sites during Holy Week rides, Lucban and other nearby towns like Sampaloc, Mauban, and Tayabas in Quezon are generally quiet and unassuming the rest of the year, making them ideal destinations for those who want to go bike touring away from the busy city. 

To kick off January 2023, we went on a bike loop from Lucban going down to Mauban and back up through Tayabas. The weather wasn’t really all that pleasant for biking. In fact, it was pretty terrible. The ride was mostly long stretches of rural roads, with rain dripping down my spine the whole way. The second half of the ride involved a sustained 40-km ascent, which made me question why I even suggested doing this ride.

I enjoy looking at scenery and the food pit stops the most when I go on bike rides, which I didn’t really get to do much here. I regret not being able to take photos, as I wanted to keep my phone dry and it got too dark to take pics on our way back. However, biking offered a new experience. Having motorcycled around the area several times before and attended the Pahiyas Festival years ago, biking gave us a fresh perspective and motivation to revisit the place. It also let us enjoy (or in my case suffer the uphills) at a slower pace. At least hindi mainit.

Staying overnight also gave us more time to enjoy the swimming pools and resort the next morning before checking out.

In case you want to explore the towns in and near Lucban more, here’s an account of our bike trip with some tips.

Where is Lucban, Quezon? 

From Metro Manila, Lucban is a 2-3 car drive passing through the Rizal province via Manila East Road or South Luzon Expressway. Coming from Quezon City, it’s more convenient and pleasant to pass the scenic backroads rather than the Expressway. 

Along the route, you can get a view of the Pilillia Windmills, Laguna Lake from various vantage points, Pagsanjan, Luisiana (home of Hulugan Falls) before you reach Lucban. 

Top sights and things to do in and near Lucban

Possible routes for bikers

The whole area offers several possible routes suitable for road bikers, mountain bikers, and bikepackers. You could combine biking with visiting churches in Laguna or Rizal, bike to San Pablo and visit the seven lakes, go bike camping, or even do a full Banahaw Loop. You could also opt to bike all the way to Lucban from Metro Manila (which is over 100 km just getting there through mountain roads) if you have more time to spare.

Our bike itinerary

For our bike itinerary, we decided to use Lucban as our base and bike down Sampaloc to the coastal town of Mauban and go back up via Tayabas on a clockwise route.

You can also tackle this counterclockwise, but the downhill is more sustained going clockwise based on Strava data, while there’s still some recovery points in the Tayabas route. The total distance was about 75 kms from the parking area in Batis Aramin Resort in Lucban to Mauban Port and back.

It’s better to take off early so you’re not biking at night and so you can enjoy the scenery more. We originally planned to start in the morning, have lunch somewhere in Mauban and then bike back.

From Quezon City, we drove there in the morning, got to hotel at around 9am (check in is normally 2pm). Unfortunately, it was raining hard the whole morning, so we had to wait it out and have an early brunch instead. Our actual take off was around 1:00 pm.

There were a few interesting spots along the Sampaloc-Mauban Road including new restaurants in the intersection going to Mauban, but I wasn’t able to take photos because it was still drizzling hard.

By 2:00 pm, we passed by Kainan sa Tubigan, a simple riverside restaurant, but since we had lunch already, we didn’t go in anymore. The whole first stretch was a very long and enjoyable downhill, which meant that the return was going to be a killer ascent. From the main road, there’s a small stairway at Bebing’s Resort leading to the riverside, but the wooden bridge here seemed to be washed away.

The most scenic part of the road along the Sampaloc-Mauban road had views of Maapon River. We stopped for coffee at around 2:30 pm in one of the riverside areas. There was also a hanging bridge nearby, which we checked out.

We got to the intersection of Mauban past 3:00 pm and to the Mauban Port at around 3:20 pm where we stopped for a quick snack of coffee and bread, before taking off again.

It took another 4 or so hours going back up via the Tayabas-Mauban Road. It started raining again and I was very cold, wet, uncomfortable and hangry by this point. We saw a few decent looking restaurants along the way, but I suggested we just have dinner at the resort instead after the ride. 

Photo of Mauban restaurant from visit in Feb 2020 (it was closed when we drove past in Jan 2023)

It was really dark by the time we got to Tayabas. At around 8:30 pm, we decided to eat in Nawawalang Paraiso in Tayabas, about 7.4 km away from Batis Aramin. Because of the number of guests, it took a while for food to be served, but I appreciated the hot sinigang on that chilly night.

It was kind of eerie biking in some of the stretches at night. If not for our bike lights, we would have been biking in total darkness. All you could hear was the sound of cicadas. Finally, after what seemed like forever, we finally got back to the resort in Batis Aramin close to 10:00 pm.

According to my Strava stats, the area we biked covered 75.86 km with a 745 meter elevation gain, and almost 7 hours of moving time. Depending on your pace, bikers could probably do this faster with minimal stops and better weather conditions.

While this was not quite a century ride, just completing the loop felt like an achievement, because I seriously wanted to bail several times. I was just happy to have a comfy room to crash in and change of dry clothes waiting.

If you plan to bike here, I recommend bringing fully waterproof cycling jackets because weather is unpredictable in the mountains, bike lights, blinkers, snacks (powerbars, etc). and enough water. The coffee we brought was a lifesaver. There weren’t a lot of places to buy food and drinks along most of the the route we passed. The shops/restaurants also close pretty early in town in case you end up biking at night. It also helps to wear bright or reflective clothing, to increase your visibility on the road.

If you’re planning a motorcycle road trip from Manila and back with a similar route, this is doable as a day trip, unless you’d like to relax and stay longer overnight.

Where to stay and eat in and near Lucban

For this trip, we stayed overnight in Batis Aramin Resort and Hotel in Lucban. This well-known establishment is right across the Kamay ni Hesus Shrine and is easy to find near the highway. It has a secure parking area for all types of vehicles.

As of January 2023, their basic room for 2 costs P2,750 per night with a consumable food voucher of P500 for a total of P3,250. The overnight room stay comes with complimentary breakfast buffet for 2. You can easily book rooms by contacting them on Facebook.

The resort is good for family staycations, as there are several huge swimming pools, nature trails, an adventure park, and IG-worthy photo areas including flower fields and hobbit houses.

NOTE: The flowers were not yet in bloom in January 2023, but according to gardeners, they should start blooming by March-April in time for summer months.

Batis Aramin Resort has an in-house bar and restaurant that serves buffet breakfast and ala carte dishes.

Specialties here include Lucban Longganiza and Pancit Habhab, a noodle dish that originated from Quezon. The pancit uses dried flour noodles which are known as miki Lucban and comes with loaded toppings. 

There are a lot of new restaurants along the main Lucban highway right outside the Kamay ni Hesus Shrine, including Samgyup places, Japanese restos, carinderias, and more. For coffee pit stops nearby, the PTT Gas station on the Lucban intersection has a Cafe Jungle and a new restaurant along the Lucban Diversion Road.

In Tayabas, another dining option is Nawawalang Paraiso Resort and Hotel, which has a large restaurant that accepts walk-in guests. They serve family-style Filipino dishes and Quezon specialties like Pinais, Budin, Chami, Longganisang Lucban etc.

Another popular dining destination near Lucban is Kamayan sa Palaisdaan, the original floating restaurant in Tayabas, Quezon. This restaurant features a man-made pond with about 60 floating balsa and cottages. Guests can order typical Filipino dishes and fresh seafood.

Photo from Kamayan sa Palaisdaan FB page

There’s also an airplane-themed restaurant called Air Summit Gourmet, where you dine inside a small parked plane within the Kamayan sa Palaisdaan resort.

During previous trips in the area, we’ve also stayed at Graceland Estates in Tayabas. This resort, which has a lagoon and deer farm, has an in-house restaurant called Memphis Garden Cafe and Grille.

I’ll be sharing some video highlights of this ride (and other adventures) soon. Please check out my other social media channels and leave a comment if you’ve found any of my guides helpful. Cheers!

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