Villa Escudero

Villa Escudero is a coconut plantation founded in 1872, first for sugar cane, and opened to visitors in 1981 by the family that still owns it, and the day tour has changed little since: a carabao-drawn cart ride through the coconut groves, a cultural show of Philippine folk dances, bamboo rafting on the lake, and a museum in the old church-shaped building crammed floor to ceiling with the family's accumulated collection - religious images, Chinese ceramics, weapons, taxidermy, costumes and a great deal else, arranged with no discernible system, which is either the charm or the problem depending on the visitor. The signature is lunch: tables and benches set in shallow running water directly below the spillway of the Labasin dam, so diners eat with the water flowing over their feet and the falls a few metres away. It is thoroughly packaged and unashamedly so, and it has been on Philippine tour itineraries for more than forty years.

History

Plácido Escudero and his wife Claudia Marasigan founded the plantation in 1872 for sugar cane, and their son Arsenio turned it over to coconut in the early 1900s and built the Labasin Dam, the country's first working hydroelectric plant, to power his desiccated coconut factory and the plantation house. The estate opened to visitors in 1981, with the family's collection as its museum, and in 2008 some 415 hectares, more than half of it, became a residential development (Wikipedia, Villa Escudero).

What to look for

• The waterfall lunch - tables set in the water below the dam.
• The carabao carts - the ride through the coconut groves.
• The family museum - a dense, unsorted private collection.
• The cultural show - folk dances performed for the tour.

When to go

November to May for dry weather. Weekdays are far quieter; weekends and holidays fill the dining area completely.

Good to know

It is a packaged tour with a fixed programme, not an independent visit, and the day-tour price is high by local standards. The museum is unsorted and unlabelled in parts. Weekends are crowded and loud.

Nearby

San Pablo's seven lakes are close; Tiaong, Sariaya and the Quezon heritage towns are east.

Key facts