Picnic tables at Villa Escudero's brook and waterfall
Villa Escudero Plantations and Resort, located in Tiaong, Laguna province, is a self-contained working coconut plantation. Founded in the 1880s by Don Placido Escudero and his wife Dona Claudia Marasigan, the plantation was originally planted to sugarcane.
According to the resort’s website, the crop was converted to coconut by their son Don Arsenio Escudero in the early 1900s. A pioneering agro-industrialist, Don Arsenio built the country’s first working hydroelectric plant to supply his dessicated coconut factory and Villa Escudero, which he and his wife Dona Rosario Adap built in 1929.
Their children opened the estate to the public in 1981 and since then the resort has become a prime tourist destination for locals, overseas Filipinos and foreign visitors. It is known as a showcase for the Philippines’ cultural heritage, particularly life in a coconut plantation estate, offering a beguiling glimpse of its history, cuisine, dress, customs and natural beauty.
Visitors enjoy a relaxed hacienda living in the vast estate. The resort offers a carabao ride while being serenaded by singers and guitarists. It also has a two-tiered church-looking museum exhibiting memorabilia collected by the Escudero family. There is a swimming pool and a romantic raft ride for two around the river.
One of the main highlights in the resort is the buffet lunch where the tables are located right on the waters of a light waterfall, with diners literally soaking their feet in the flowing brook.
Mabuhay ang Villa Escudero!
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