Now that summer’s near and a lot of people are looking for some fun at the beach, my blog has been getting a lot of search hits on how to get to San Juan, Batangas, particularly on how to get to Barangay Laiya, one of the country’s top beach resort destinations.

If you plan to take a car, here are self-drive instructions on how to get to Laiya, San Juan, Batangas if you’re coming from Manila.

From Manila:

- Take the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx) all the way to the second to the last exit (Exit 50 going to Batangas, Lucena and Legaspi).

- Drive approximately 6.5 km along this National Highway and turn right towards the Star Toll Way entrance.

- From Star Tollway, drive all the way to Lipa City (approximately 20 kilometers) and take the Tambo/Lipa Exit at the end.

From Lipa City:

- After exiting the Star Tollway, turn right and drive towards Lipa City where La Salle Lipa will be on your left while a Petron gas station will be on the right.

- You’ll come across a Y-intersection just before the McDonald’s restaurant, where you must veer right. This is C.M. Recto Avenue.

- Traverse C.M. Recto Ave. then turn right at the corner of the Mercury Drug store. This is P. Torres St. Drive 8.5 km towards Padre Garcia town.

- Make a left turn at the road sign pointing to Padre Garcia.

- Turn right after passing the Padre Garcia town market.

- Drive approximately 4.5 km and merge with the road coming from Rosario. This road leads all the way to San Juan which is approximately 19 kms.

- When you see the main signage leading to the Batangas Racing Circuit veer left. This will lead you to the San Juan town proper.

Upon reaching the San Juan town proper:

- Drive past the Dunkin Donut and Park n’Go store (on your right) until you reach San Juan Municipal Hall.

- Immediately turn right after the San Juan Municipal Hall. This is the main road of Laiya. Just follow the main road where you will find a lot of beach resorts along the way approximately 25 km (20 minutes) onwards.

I hope this helps.

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Related Blog Entries:
Kabayan Beach Resort – San Juan, Batangas
Pictures – San Juan, Batangas Outing – Kabayan Beach Resort

We were finally able to take a family vacation at Puerto Galera over the weekend. Conne has been egging me all these times to try Puerto Galera out, and so, off we went.

This was sort of a post-valentine date, family vacation and celebration (Conne’s promotion to manager-lvl2) – rolled into one – event.

Conne, CJ and I had lots of fun. And we thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to have a safe and wonderful trip.

Cheers!

Today was a pretty rough and tiring day.

My boss called me up last night, on short notice, to inform me that I was slated to go to a client’s office in Subic Bay for a meeting early Monday morning.

I left early in the morning, a little over 6AM to head to the office and meet up with my boss to get some materials. Thereafter, I had to drop by Eastwood City in Libis, Quezon City to pick up a business partner, who turned out to be a former college schoolmate of mine. We then headed off to Pampanga, which was along the way to Subic Bay, Zambales to pick up another business partner. (Note to Self: Wake up earlier you lunkhead!)

The drive was long and traffic was unexpectedly moderate to heavy, which slowed us down even further. We ended up reaching the client’s site, an awesome facility nestled between the sea and surrounding mountains, after 4 hours of driving. My Toyota Innova, “Puti”, ended up battered underneath by rocks and boulders on patches of unpaved road strewn across a scenic, winding mountain pass heading to our destination. I wished I had one of them 4×4 Ford Expeditions or Toyota Fortuners so I could just plough through with ease. (Note to Self: Start saving up for that 4×4 you’ve always wanted!)

After spending much time trudging through high security protocols and miscommunication mishaps involving language barrier, missing key personnel and lunch breaks, we finally had a chance to meet our clients face-to-face at, oh, a little over 2:30PM! (Note to Self: Start catching up on some basic Korean language skills.)

Suffice it to say, we were on the road again in 45 minutes. ‘Twas another 4 or 5 hour drive back to Manila. The drive home would have been uneventful had it not been for the highway patrol pulling us over for having a busted left head light, oh man! But, lucky for us we were only given a warning! ;-P (Note to Self: Have that headlight fixed!)

I dropped off my colleagues along the way and picked up Conne, who had been waiting for me at her office, about half past eight and headed straight home. It’s a wonder CJ was still up waiting for us. :) (Note to Self: Thank God for a wonderful family He’s given you!)

To summarize my day, it was: 10 hours driving, 2 hours waiting, 30 minutes eating lunch, and 30 minutes meeting. And the rest? Some quality time with my family, of course! :) (Note to Self: Stop whining, you crybaby! It was worth it!)

Cheers!