The Apiary Mountain Camp Tanay Rizal Experience Review

Last Christmas, we wanted to go out-of-town for a quick overnight trip. This was literally decided on Christmas day though, so everywhere was pretty much fully booked already. Thankfully, my sister saw The Apiary and they still had a big dome available!

We happily booked it and prepared to go on an adventure. As check in was at 3PM, we decided to pop by some Tanay restaurants first.

First stop: Kamala Cafe

It’s a quiant cafe atop the Tanay mountains. Weird that they serve Thai cuisine, but ok let’s roll with it. We arrived at 11:00AM which was just right, because we got here ahead of the lunch crowd. Love the mountain views and the chill breeze.

Overall, food is decent. None were standouts, but see my assessment below:

• Pad Thai: Very fresh shrimp, good mix of flavors, noodles were stickier than desired
• Pad Kra Pao: Chicken sliced very thinly (too thinly imo). I liked the flavor thought, and egg is always good
• Sriracha Wings: Taste too buttery, but overall tasty
• Lechon Kawali: Skin was crackling – super good. But the meat itself was rather tough
• Tom Yum: Good, pretty normal
• Thai flavored sarsaparilla milk w/ ice: Ginger beer is always so good.

Next up – a quick coffee break at Kaulayaw Coffee. I’m not a coffee drinker so I just chilled while my family drank their coffee.

Then finally, it was time to head up the Apiary! We’ve actually been hereabouts before, but previously we had gone to Treasure Mountain, which is further up! You can read my review here: Treasure Mountain Tanay Rizal Camping Adventure (Itinerary + Tips) – Goldie Goes Global

Between the two, I will say Treasure Mountain has much better views if you’re aiming to see the sea of clouds and the sunrise. But the Apiary is a lot bigger, and a lot more glamping – in that we had a private bathroom, and an actual bed to sleep on vs sleeping bags and tents. Note that Treasure Mountain also has rooms for rent, but then they’re no longer what you would consider “camping.”

The road up was not so bad, but there was a deep part in the road that was created by the rain 4 days ago. As we had brought an HRV, we were told that there was a possibility sumayad ang car. As such, we ended up leaving the car at the nearest parking lot (Nanay Minda’s). From there, it was a 5 minute walk to the Apiary, or you can also take a tricycle. I’m just a bit sad coz technically we could’ve taken the car all the way up to our tent and unloaded there. Alas, exercise it was.

We got there a bit before the check in time actually, so we walked around a bit. There are a couple of “activities” so to speak, but we found the place wasn’t as well-maintained as it could have been (they let go of some staff during the pandemic I think, and unfortunately it really is a humongous property). On the plus side, it’s beautiful and the unkemptness added to its rustic and all-natural allure.

Some of the sites we visited were the following:

• Farm/Flower garden: Not super well-kept, but the soil here must be very good, because it was literally overflowing with produce. Actually, my dad had fun naming the different vegetables and showing off his gardening knowhow. On my end, I recognized the different bahay kubo vegetables by name but could in no way identify which names belonged to which plant
• Bee farm: Ohh honey! I’m always a bit leery of bees though and we were told the bees were in a particularly aggressive mood this season, so we steered clear and just viewed from afar
• Apiary: Very nice big cages with really colorful love birds! I also take care of some love birds at home, but these were a lot more beautiful
• Fishing at the pond: Lots of tilapia actually, but they were all rather small

• Play boardgames (sungka): My brother played against my dad and he was roundly trounced. Upon watching them, I realized I’ve never played it before? Because I don’t seem to know any of the rules!

 

Other activities we didn’t bother checking out were as follows:

• Archery: we saw this, but it seemed like a very short range so we didn’t bother
• Mudslide: Sounded rather dirty so no.
• Hiking/Waterfalls/ATV package tour: We were interested in this! But then the tour person took so long to reply, we decided to not do it anymore and just chill at the Apiary instead.

After exhausting ourselves (it’s a lot of walking up and down the stairs as you visited the different sites), we were pooped.

So, we then camped out at the restaurant for a nice glass of halo-halo. Their halo-halo is just so-so, not a lot of toppings

Finally, it was time to check in! We requested for the big dome with the best view, and ohlala we got it! Let me just say this glamping tent of the Apiary is a HUGE step up from our Treasure Mountain itsy bitsy tent. Here, we had 3 big double beds which could comfortably sleep 6. There was also a nice area where they laid out pillows on the floor and where you could nap.

We set up our stuff, and my brother and I immediately plopped down for a nap.

Everything in the Apiary is actually solar powered, so they highly discourage you from using electricity indiscriminately. There are two solar powered fans inside the tent as well, so it’s not super hot. There’s one USB charger which you could use to charge your phones, and thankfully, the bathroom was also powered up so we had running water (toilet, shower) throughout our stay here.

Our dome also had its own private grilling area and a cute picnic table to just chill. Lots of people brought hotdogs, marshmallows etc for them to grill (you can buy charcoal from the camp) but we didn’t bother.

Instead, we ate at the Apiary restaurant, which was surprisingly very good! What I would definitely reorder:

• Bulalo: Super tender beef, soup not too salty, generous servings
• Flower Power Pizza: Two cheese pizza base, with edible flowers on top
• Kutchay Flatbread: the flatbread is blah, but the tomato mozzarella dip was DELICIOUS!!!

Afterwards, we tromped back to our tent and spent the night talking. It was super breezy out and it was nice seeing the stars and just bonding as a family. At around 10PM, it was time to sleep as we were planning to wake up at 5:30AM the next day to catch the sunrise.

Here you see me with my trusty warm socks as I tucked myself in for the night hehe.

In the morning, I rolled out of bed and waited for the sun to rise. Alas! There is little sunrise to be seen, not even from the viewing deck. Ohwell. Such is life.

We trooped down to the restaurant to eat the included silog meals. Of them all, we liked the bangus and the beef tapa. Although the real winner was the garlic rice.

And that was it – we packed up and headed home. A one-day adventure!

If you’re interested to go glamping, I do recommend The Apiary Mountain Camp. Here’s their FB page: The Apiary Mountain Camp and Farm. Just keep in mind that you go there more for the “glamping” adventure, and to be surrounded by nature, and less to see the sunrise and sea of clouds.