Most tour companies do not offer group tours the first week of January. The price for a single traveller for any tour group is ridiculously expensive regardless of the tour you book so I was really lucky that Yolo Travel happened to be offering this group tour.

I did the Taal Volcano: The Secret Trail Tou­­r­­ January 4th 2019. The pick up time was­­­ betwe­en 4:40-4:55 AM. There were two very sweet Chinese girls that also booked the same tour. We had a large van drive us a few hours south. There was a man driving and our tourguide was a local female.

We got on a bangka boat and were provided life jackets. After a few minutes we reached Taal island where some locals, dogs and horses greeted us. The dogs looked a bit malnurished and the horses a bit overworked, but not as bad as say the horses driving carriages in New York City through central park. One of the locals, wearing flip flops, took us through the forest on a dirt trail. Luckily it had been raining for a few days and it was very sunny so there wasn’t much dust but it wasn’t muddy either. I felt a bit strange that some other locals followed us on horses, it seemed a bit overkill to have our Yolo Travel guide, local island guide and 3 or 4 random other island men all walk with us. They probably have nothing else better to do as we were the only ones there (met one other small group on the way back) and want to make some money hoping someone gets tired along the way and wants a horse. One of the Chinese girls actually ended up needing a horse, but isn’t the point of a walking trail to walk?

The only bad thing was that a dog followed us which annoyed the local island guide so he kicked the dog and tried to shoo it away several times. No one said anything, and being in the middle of the island I did not want to be abandoned or anything so I did not say anything either, but it seemed like none of the locals nor Chinese girls were bothered by it. I tried to give the dog some food and comfort it when we got to the lake to go swimming. The reality is that it’s probably cultural and most people treat strays badly, but it’s still upsetting, though not necessarily Yolo Travel’s fault. This is why I gave 4 and not 5 stars.

The day was perfect, water was refreshing though the bottom was muddy with sharp volcanic rock and there is no place to change clothing. When we got back a delicious warm meal of fish, chicken, veggies and rice prepared by locals on large leafs was waiting for us to eat with our hands.

A friend and myself have done a variety of YOLO tours here in Manila. YOLO tours offers exceptional experience, service, price and tour guides. I cannot recommend YOLO Tours more highly.