Tiaong is a town in western Quezon. It is the gateway to the province and is a primarily agricultural town with a few natural and man-made attractions in between.
Understand
[edit]Tiaong lies at a fertile and forested valley running south from San Pablo in neighboring Laguna. It is bordered by two inactive volcanoes: Mount Malepunyo to the west and the Mount Banahaw-San Cristobal complex to the east.
Get in
[edit]Tiaong is along the Maharlika Highway (Manila South Road, numbered Route 1/AH26) which also serves as the town's main street and a major bus route. The highway is a major bottleneck on the route in Quezon, necessitating the construction of a bypass road northeast of the downtown. An alternate route is through the Tiaong-Lipa Road from Batangas, but involves driving through a narrow and sometimes secluded two-lane road that is not fully illuminated at night.
Tiaong will be served by one exit on the South Luzon Expressway extension to Lucena.
Tiaong is also along the Philippine National Railways line running between San Pablo in Laguna and Lucena, the capital of Quezon.
- 1 PNR Tiaong Station (Lalig Station), Lalig.
Get around
[edit]
The town proper is fairly small, and easily explored by foot. Tricycles connect Tiaong town proper with other barangays.
See
[edit]- 1 Villa Escudero, Maharlika Highway, Bulakin. Tiaong's main draw is a sprawling family-owned agricultural estate that began in 1872 as a sugarcane plantation before switching to coconuts following a blight. The hacienda was opened as a resort showcasing rural life in 1981 and features a myriad of amenities such as a museum showcasing the landowners' art collection, a reconstructed Spanish-style chapel and ancestral houses, as well as a man-made dam and natural waterfalls.
- 2 Tiaong Church (Saint John the Baptist Parish Church), Rizal Street, Barangay III. Tiaong's main Roman Catholic church, built during the Spanish era and extensively altered since then.
- 3 Doña Concha Umali Ancestral House, Claro M. Recto Street, Barangay II. A 1920s Art Deco mansion built for one of Tiaong's leading families but later abandoned except by a few caretakers and subsequently rumored to be haunted. While prior permission is needed from the owners to enter, the low fences allow for bystanders to admire the fountain in the front yard showing a man wrestling with a crocodile, and even peek into the glassware laid out at the dining table.
- 4 Lake Tikub. A volcanic crater lake west of downtown Tiaong. It was formed as part of the Laguna Volcanic Field and is an extension of the more famous Seven Lakes of neighboring San Pablo, but is less visited and has few tourist infrastructure apart from two viewdecks.
- 5 Moises Escueta Alaala Park, Maharlika Highway, Barangay III (beside the municipal hall). A small recreational space with civic monuments, including that of Ye Fei, a Filipino-Chinese mestizo who moved to China and rose to become a senior general and politician under the Communist regime.
- 6 Mount Malepunyo. A towering massif west of Tiaong that separates the town from Batangas province.
Do
[edit]- 1 Ugu Bigyan's Pottery Garden, Lusacan. The residence of local pottery artist Ugu Bigyan, which was opened to the public in 2000 as an arts space and workshop.
Buy
[edit]- 1 Tiaong Public Market, Maharlika Highway, Lalig.
- 2 CityMall Tiaong, Maharlika Highway, Lalig (near the SLEX viaduct).
- 3 Puregold Tiaong, Maharlika Highway, Barangay II.
Eat
[edit]Drink
[edit]Sleep
[edit]- 1 Villa Escudero, Maharlika Highway, Bulakin, ☏ +63 917 583 7727, +63 917 114 1770, toll-free: +63 2 8-521-0830, +63 2 8-523-2944, [email protected]. Offers Filipino-themed luxury accommodation, cultural programs, buffet and tours into the inner workings of the still-functioning plantation.
Connect
[edit]Go next
[edit]| Routes through Tiaong |
| Lucena ← Candelaria ← | E  W
|
→ San Pablo → Calamba |