Located about 3 hours from Manila, Lucena is the capital city of Quezon in the Philippines.
We visited Lucena towards the end of our trip and spent 2 days here. From Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, it’s about a 3 hour drive to Lucena.
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Things to Do
Brea’s uncle and mom picked us up from the airport in a rental van and her uncle was the one who drove us around for our whole stay there. He was a pretty guide tour guide haha.
The main reason why we went to Lucena was to visit Brea’s family. She hadn’t seen her grandma since she was young!
Surprisingly, there were quite a lot of things to see and do in Lucena. Here were some of the places we visited.
SM City Mall Lucena
This supermall in Lucena was huge. There were a lot of stores and restaurants and you can easily spend hours walking around and shopping.
Address: Maharlika Highway co r Dalahican Road Ibabang Dupay, Lucena City, Quezon, Lucena, 4301 Quezon Province, Philippines
Hours: 10AM to 7PM everyday
Cathedrals & Shrines
There are numerous cathedrals, churches and shrines you can visit while in Lucena. Brea’s uncle took us to Kamay Ni Hesus (Hand of Jesus) Shrine.
Address: Lucban – Tayabas Rd, Lucban, Quezon Province, Philippines
Bukid Amara
Bukid Amara is a beautiful flower garden!
Address: Sitio Aramin Brgy, Lucban, 4328 Quezon, Philippines
Hours: 7AM to 6PM everyday
Admission: 100 PHP ($2 USD) per person
Once you pay admission, you are free to walk around as you please. There were 2 small bridges you can cross to get more pictures.
It was pretty hot on the day that we visited, so make sure to wear sunscreen and bring water. They do have a small shop here that sells drinks and food though.
After we were done exploring the flower garden(s), we each got a halo-halo to cool down.
Batis Aramin Resort
It was like this resort was meant for tourists haha. We visited Batis Aramin Resort to check out their many, many photo spots (your Instagram will thank you). They have a map with each photo location numbered. We were only able to visit a couple of them.
One of the ones we visited was The Galliton!
The Galliton features the houses used in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. This was a pleasant surprise since I thought we could only see these in New Zealand!
Here were the other spots we took pictures at:
There were much more in Batis Resort but we just didn’t have enough time to see them all!
Eat at Palaisdaan Restaurant
This restaurant is famous in that you eat on top of the water.
Address: Quezon Brgy. Dapdap, Tayabas Quezon, Lucban – Tayabas Rd, Tayabas, Quezon, Philippines
There were also random vendors selling sweets. We bought one of each:
Nightlife
Usually when Brea and I travel to new places, we don’t really go out at night or indulge in alcohol because we’re exhausted from our day activities (we didn’t utilize the unlimited alcohol on our BDBM tour until the end). We usually save it for the end of our trip to also make sure we’re not too tired or hungover the next day…
On our last night in Lucena, Brea’s family took us out and we went to a few bars and ended the night at a karaoke bar.
We ended our night singing our hearts out at a karaoke bar – the best way to end our trip! Needless to say, I was asleep for most of the car ride back to Manila haha.
