Unleash the Explorer in You at Foressa Trails

Dreaming to experience the thrill of adventure in hiking mountains? Wanting to try the refreshing and exciting feeling of chasing waterfalls, crossing rivers, swimming in natural pools and conquering caves? Enjoy these activities and unleash the explorer in you at

Foressa Trails!

Foressa Trails or Foressa Mountain Town is formerly known as Canso X was launched October 2017. It is situated at Consumuroy, Balamban, Cebu and is a 250 hectare land owned and developed by AboitizLand Inc.

About Foressa

AboitizLand's Foressa Mountain Town is envisioned, planned and crafted only by the best: US-based architecture and planning masters Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ Partners). Foressa is a reflection of DPZ's dedication to creating real communities that are pedestrian-friendly, transit-ready and sustainable. Helping DPZ bring this vision to life is SC&A (site planning) and Greenstrat (trails system).
Source

How to get there?

If you have private vehicle(s), you can use Waze to locate Foressa Trails.

There are two (2) identified ways for commuters (like me) to get to Foressa Trails:

1. Via Van (Ayala to Balamban)
2. Via Motorcycle (JY to Balamban)

However, for this post, let us focus on the latter choice. So, my friends and I set JY as our meeting place.

To get to JY Mall:
If you are from Colon, you can ride 17B, 17C, 17D, 04C, 04H or 04I. Just tell the driver that you'd like to drop off at JY Mall.

If you are from SM, just ride 04L and just drop off at JY Mall.

To get to Foressa Trail from JY:
In JY, there are many motorcycles you could ride on. Usually, these motorcycles are bound to the known Sirao Garden, Temple of Leah and the like. So what we did, we negotiated with drivers to take us to Foressa Trails.
Gladly, we have negotiated kuya Roland Laagta (contact no: 0997 324 8663 ) to take us to Foressa and wait for us til we finish our unwinding session.

_{Kuya Roland is the one in White Shirt}

So with that, no need to worry about our transportation. 👌

P.S. Foressa Trails is right across Kool Adventure Camp.

Note: Let me remind you that the place is located at Balamban and it might stress you to find a ride to get back to JY since the vhires/van from Balamban going to city are already full most of the time as it pass by Foressa.

The Foressa Experience

I was together with my friends that day when we decided to push through the adventure at Foressa. Originally, we planned to have mountain hiking at Mt. Mauyog but since there have been consecutive rainy days prior to the set date of our climb, we opt to find other alternative unwinding and bonding session that would give us the same experience. We're glad to have searched Foressa Trails!

Before heading to Foressa, we bought meal for lunch ahead of time at Jollibee JY since there's no store that sells or provides food at our destination. So yeah! Lez get it on!

_{Arriving at the gates of Foressa Trails}

_{Foressa Mountain Town}

Get ready to witness the great piece of land of adventure! Just one hour and a half away from the City.

_{Let nature be your playground}

_{The map of the trails}

There are 2 kinds of Trails, the Hike Trails and Bike Trails. As of this writing, hike trail costs Php 150.00 per head and bike trail costs Php 150.00 per head also. If you wanted to experience both, then you just have to pay Php 250.00 per head. Just to note, if you choose the bike trail, you have to bring your own bike 🚴.

_{Rates and Entrance Fees}

As for their rules for first timers like us, we have to hire a guide for us not to get lost in the trail. Sounds challenging?

You can choose from three different levels for each trails, like, Beginner, Explorer and Adventurer.

_{We chose to finish upto Explorer level, hence the title of this post. Maybe next time, we'll push through the Adventurer 💪 Hahah}

We had to register and listen to some orientation at the Trail Shelter before we start the hike.

_{The trail shelter with the kuyas cheering us up to finish the trail}

_{Meeting our guide for the hike. He looked unhappy hahah maybe he had ideas already that it'll take long hours for us to finish.}

_{Start of the Hike trail. This is it! Pansit!}

_{Signage along the trail}

_{Friends whom I have shared this hike experience. That's me at the center}

_{A very important reminder: Stay on Marked Trail}

_{Halfway through the Beginner Hike trail.}

_{Into the Forest Grove!}

_{Struggle is real in this muddy portion of the Forest Grove.}

_{Wooppsss! One of the highlights! River Crossing!}

_{Shout your heart out in this echo valley!!! 🗣}

_{The River}

_{Trust me! It's crystal clear.}

_{We had lots of river crossing, promise!}

_{Still kickin' to finish the Explorer Level!}

_{You can enjoy swimming here, but for us, we continued the journey because we were looking forward for the Falls! And it's still 45mins away from here.}

_{Another River Crossing session hahaha}

_{Still a long way to go!}

Yeps, that's all in pictures because the moment we reached the Falls, we have no water proof/resistant cameras to document it. We have to swim and go into some kind of rock formation in order to witness the falls. After, we spent some time to enjoy the refreshing body of water before hiking back towards the Trail Shelter.

So far, our hike session took more than 3 hours. We started at around 12:45PM and arrived back at the Trail Shelter around 4:10PM. We took a shower at the shower room located in the Trail Shelter and we enjoyed the scenery before dusk prior heading back to the city.

Hope you enjoyed! And may you find this place worth it to be your next unwinding but adventurous travel. Let nature be your playground at Foressa Trails!

For further details and updates, visit their website.

Thank you so much!
_{Photos are mine unless otherwise stated.}