Not being the least traveled kid on the block, I’m not prone to raving over hotels and Bn’Bs. Potter’s Ridge, however, is a rare exception.
Located just past the Alfonso junction along Aguinaldo Highway, Potter’s Ridge sits quietly amid greenery, calling to mind how Tagaytay was before fast food franchises and chain restaurant outlets started cluttering the ridge and basically wrecking the serenity that made people seek out Tagaytay in the first place.
That was the first thing, really, that got my attention about this hotel: the fact that it wasn’t stuck in between a Starbucks and a Yellow Cab. For some, that might be a minus, but come on. If you’re coming up to Tagaytay from Manila – which you most likely are – don’t you already have over-priced coffee coming out of your ears?
Potter’s Ridge offers not more of the same – which is to say, Manila with a killer view – but the opportunity to reconnect with the beauty of the ridge: the rolling green landscape, the majestic vault of the sky, and the mysterious volcano in the distance.
Don’t get me wrong tho. This isn’t some hick hut in the boondocks. Potter’s Ridge is an elegantly designed hotel, tastefully decorated by its dynamo of an owner, Marissa Potter who I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with.
Coming in from the highway, you enter the building at the fourth floor where you’ll find the lobby. Apart from how airy and light this area is – it’s actually a straight shot from the front of the building all the way through to the terrace at the back – the first thing you will probably notice is how cheerful the staff is. Being kinda crabby after a long drive up from Manila, through some of the worst traffic imaginable, the staff’s unfailing helpfulness and apparently bullet-proof good humor was exactly what I needed to get smiling again. It took me less than five minutes to get checked in, and before I knew it, I was already rhapsodizing about the view from my terrace.
When I was finally able to tear myself away from the vista, I realized that the room itself was no less gorgeous. With two massive picture windows – one looking out over the ridge and the other with a view of the sloping landscape – it almost felt like there was no room at all. While massive curtains could be drawn for complete privacy, the room effectively conveyed the sense of being part of the beauty that surrounded you, rather than being in a box with air holes. A king bed sat solidly in the middle of the room and was well appointed with realistically comfortable fluffy pillows – not the overstuffed kind that you see in many other hotels. But it was the day bed right up against one of the picture windows that really blew me away.
I’ve been a fan of day beds ever since my trip to Bali where I learned to associate it with the idea of complete relaxation. A day bed! Can you imagine lounging around in complete comfort while the hustle and bustle of the world melted away into the background of your consciousness? Seeing one in Potter’s Ridge just really put me in the proper frame of mind. It was like looking at my phones running out of battery power and knowing that I didn’t have a charger.
Chill, pare.
Apart from the two beds, the room came kitted out with modern amenities like a huge flat screen hooked up to cable and a DVD player – they have a bottomless pit of DVDs to choose from – and WiFi. Okay, I admit that having those things might be kinda contradictory to the whole idea of “reconnecting with the beauty of the ridge” but, come on. You don’t have to turn the TV on and you don’t have to connect to the web, right? The thing is, if you do want to, then you can. Which is a lot more than I can say for some big-ticket hotels where you’re charged an arm and a leg for a spotty connection.
As you can tell from these pictures, I arrived with the sun still high up in the afternoon sky. As night fell and an almost full moon rose, I saw that even in the dark, the beauty of this place just didn’t let up.
And as the night deepened, a string of lights in the distance looked for all the world like a golden necklace left lying carelessly on a bed of the darkest velvet.
These are vistas that should not be seen by yourself, alone.
Now, as with most hotels, the room rates come with breakfast. Meals – breakfast included – are served at the fifth floor restaurant: a wide open area with picture windows on all three sides. In keeping with the motif of the whole hotel, the tables and chairs are made of sturdy wood, and the decor do trend towards old wooden carvings. Two, in particular, caught my eye: a pair of cats, sitting on their haunches as cats do, with their backs decorated with an intricate pattern inlaid with shiny bits of colored glass. Unfortunately, my iPhone couldn’t do them justice, so I’ve resolved to just come back – which I would do anyway – with a either a better camera or a good photographer.
The food, however, was fair game for iPhonography.
This longsilog breakfast, and the pancit bihon that I had for dinner the night before are remarkable in the simplicity of their preparation and presentation. They’re not gourmet dishes – not by a long-shot – but they achieve the most important goal of any meal: they give you a sense of satisfaction and contentment. You’ve eaten good food, and you know it.
Which really captures the what Potter’s Ridge is all about. The whole place – the whole experience – is refreshing in its total lack of pretentiousness, in its sincerity, and its authenticity. You come here, stay the night, and you leave satisfied. You’ve been to a good place, and you know it.