A year before the most recent eruption of Taal Volcano and the start of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020, we rode our motorcycles from Metro Manila circling Laguna Lake and Taal Lake. Back then, it was just for the thrill of the joyride and so we could hike to the crater lake on Volcano Island afterwards.

We all know what happened in the past three years. Now that travel is back to normal again, we’ve been trying to experience something new by revisiting familiar destinations by bicycles. We’re trying to embark on at least one long bike ride per month while we still have the energy and time.

Life is short, so we might as well enjoy the ride while we can. We’ve all got our personal bucket lists to tick off, and bike loops, which I always equate to traverse hiking up to a mountain summit, can feel very satisfying.

Before this ride, I wasn’t sure of the status of the Taal Circumferential Road. While going around, we found that there are more scenic lakeside portions now accessible to bikes, though there are still highway crossings and killer uphills to tackle. Hiking trips to the volcano are no longer possible after the eruption, but the lakeside towns have their charm and there’s potential for the circumferential road to be a major cycling route once it’s completed.

In case you plan to bike around the different towns of Batangas surrounding Taal Lake, here’s the updated information I can share as of March 2023.

Where exactly is Taal Lake?

Taal Lake is the third-largest lake in the Philippines and the second largest on the island of Luzon after Laguna Lake. The lake and volcano are visible from the ridge of Tagaytay in Cavite. There’s an ongoing Taal Circumferential Road still in the works, but as of March 2023, not all lakeside towns are linked around the coastline yet.

From Metro Manila, the quickest way to get to most of the lakeside towns in Taal is about 1.5 to 2 hours by car using SLEX.

Our bike itinerary

You can start your ride in any of the lakeside towns depending on where you’re coming from or where you want to base for the night. I recommend staying 2 nights – 1 night before and 1 night after so you can start early and have time to chill out afterwards. But if you don’t want to stay overnight, you can also drive early from Manila and back the same day.

Coming from Tagaytay, Talisay (reachable by Ligaya Drive or the Tagaytay-Talisay Road) is the nearest jump-off point. For this ride, the order of the towns we passed were: Talisay, Tanauan, Balete, Mataas na Kahoy, Lipa, Cuenca, Alitagtag, Sta. Teresita, San Nicolas, Agoncillo, and Laurel.

For easier navigation, I set the route to walking on Googlemaps, because the suggested route for cars kept pointing to the highway, which I wanted to avoid as much as possible. On the early part of the route, some areas are only passable to bikes due to road construction and narrow bridges.

Where to park: After asking permission, we parked beside the Talisay Municipal Hall near the church. Normally, this is a parking lot for employees, but they don’t have work on Saturday. There’s a church nearby that also offers secure parking, but the gates are closed after a certain time. There’s also a Shell Gas Station in Talisay with several restaurants and a hotel where you can probably ask permission to park.

8:30 a.m.: We took off from Talisay, one of the towns situated right beside along the lakefront, which has generally flat and rolling terrain. There are several resorts here including Club Balai Isabel and Taal Lake Park Wakim Resort and restaurants like Leonidas and Sora Bulalo near the town gas station. The Talisay Baywalk near the municipal fishport offers a scenic photo op spot to start your ride.

From there, we biked to Tanauan through the Banadero Baywalk. This portion of the Taal Circumferential road is fairly new and there are several large restaurants here including Lakeview Grill and Restobar. We passed The Vineyard at Tanauan going to Wawa Baywalk.

9:30 a.m.: Heading to Balete, we turned left at the Tres Marias Cottages to cross to the other side of the hill. This portion involved a really challenging uphill portion (a segment dubbed “Hwag mong akayin” on Strava) passing Looc to get to Balete.

10:30 a.m. There are more scenic lake views and places to eat in Balete including Lomi Houses, the Lakeshore Resort Balete, and a mini Baywalk area near the public market. Another option where you can eat is Kapusod, the in-house restaurant of a bike-friendly bed & breakfast in Mataas na Kahoy.

11:00 a.m. We were originally hoping to reach Taal town for lunch, but it was getting really hot, so we stopped instead at Tomato and Basil Cafe. Getting here involved another really steep ascent, so we decided to take a break. If you’re biking, follow the longer zigzag road where cars pass to save some energy, because the straight road going up to the restaurant’s parking area is a killer.

While the view here is great, the food here is a bit on the expensive side, so if you’re a biker on a budget, I suggest waiting until you get to the main highway to find another place to eat. Tomato & Basil Cafe is more of a romantic restaurant with a view/family resto with aesthetic interiors.

Following the uphill road, we eventually made it to the highway in Lipa. The national highway portions of Lipa, Cuenca, Alitagtag and Sta. Teresita were not as scenic as the lakeside towns, but at least the roads had gradual downhills and lots of buko juice stops to help us cool down from the noontime heat.

3:00 p.m. In Santa Teresita, you can take a diversion road to reach the lakeside towns quicker, but we decided to take a detour to the Heritage Town of Taal and stop by the Minor Basilica of Saint Martin of Tours, also known as the Taal Basilica, which is a major pilgrimage site and landmark.

Other points of interest here include the welcome arch of Taal Town, Balisong Drive and Galleria Taal (the first Camera Museum in the Philippines). Surprisingly, there weren’t a lot of cafes in the Taal town proper near the church, but there’s a 7-11 here where you can buy drinks and cold coffee.

4:30 p.m. From Taal town, we headed towards the Old Taal Church Ruins in San Nicolas, the ruins of the original St. Martin de Tours Church along the lakeside. The baywalk area here was nice and peaceful. I wish we could have spent longer here, but it was starting to get late and we still had more than 30 kms to go.

6:30 p.m. As long as you stick to the lakeside roads, the route remains mostly flat along the Laurel-Agoncillo road until you reach the area near Buso-Buso Landmark, where another punishing climb awaits.

It was dark the rest of our ride, so I wasn’t able to take a lot of good photos, but the route was much flatter on the last stretch and the nighttime weather was cooler, so it was relatively smooth pedaling. We got back to Talisay around 8 p.m. for a dinner of bulalo at the gas station, before heading back to the parking area.

Taal Lake Loop complete! Based on my Strava stats, I covered a distance of 100.56 km for this ride, with an 1,403 m elevation guide, with a moving time of 8 hours (though we were on the road for about 12 hours).

NOTE: If you want to shorten the ride, but still complete a loop, you can skip the church in Taal town, for a total of 88 kms. Because we took the detour, and had to backtrack several times, the odometer reading on Strava reached 98 km by the end of our ride. I took a couple of spins around the Talisay baywalk area before we ended to round it up to 100. The ride may exceed or be less than 100 kms depending on the roads you pass.

After the long bike ride, it was a crazy uphill drive with two bikes strapped to the car at night back to Tagaytay through Ligaya Drive. I honestly don’t recommend doing this, as this is one of the most dangerous roads in Tagaytay. This narrow road has multiple hairpin turns and steep areas that are difficult to navigate, especially for inexperienced drivers.

Should you ride clockwise or counterclockwise?

When we rode our motorcycles before, we took a counterclockwise route. This time, we decided to do it clockwise to get the uphill parts over with earlier on while we still had energy. I was more interested to see the lakeside areas in Tanauan, which we skipped last time because we ended up on the highway in Malvar.

Based on the elevation and grade, the clockwise route from Talisay has shorter but steeper climbs (with 20-22% grades at one point) and long downhills. If you go counterclockwise, the climbs are longer, but more gradual with some room for recovery.

If you’re after the good lakeside scenery and flats, there’s a longer coastal stretch in the areas of Talisay, Laurel, and Agoncillo versus the mountain roads in Balete and Mataas na Kahoy. There’s no choice except to take the highway in Cuenca and Alitagtag, but you can get more coastal roads by taking diversion roads to San Nicolas skipping Lemery. It’s up to you what type of route you prefer.

Where to stay and eat around Taal Lake

If you want to enjoy a simple and peaceful getaway, it’s best to stay in one of the lakeside towns before or after your ride such as Taal Lake Park, Wakim Lake Resort.

Along the highway, there’s Oyo 120 Balai Sofia in Talisay right beside a gas station, with a Bulalo restaurant and Japanese restaurant. There are several other seafood grills along the highway in Talisay.

For unique and eco-friendly accommodations, another option is Kapusod Bed & Breakfast in Mataas na Kahoy. This lakeside resort has a Treehouse room, Earth Dome, and open-air garden cottages, with a secure parking area for vehicles including bicycles.

Kapusod also has an in-house restaurant open to walk-in guests. The resto serves local specialties like tawilis, suman, and Kape Barako.

For more hotel and restaurant options, you can also use Tagaytay as your base and drive to Taal town and back on the same day.

For this particular bike trip, we stayed in View Park Hotel, a boutique hotel right across Picnic Grove in Tagaytay. The hotel has cozy rooms, a nice garden area, roof deck, secure parking, and two swimming pools.

The hotel also has easy access to a modern Filipino restaurant and in-house cafe Siglo Brew that serves craft beer and local coffee, making it a great spot for post-ride drinks and chilling out after a long ride.