Silang

Silang is a rural municipality in Cavite, along Aguinaldo Highway. It shares a mildly cool climate with its southern neighbor, Tagaytay, but is somewhat off the beaten track.

Understand
Silang is bordered by Dasmariñas, General Mariano Alvarez, and Carmona to the north, General Trias and Amadeo on the west, Tagaytay to the south and by Laguna province to the east. It is a landlocked municipality with over 150,000 residents, scattered in 64 barangays.

Silang is rather overshadowed by nearby Tagaytay, but has a similar cool climate, and a few sights that can be visited within a day. The municipality has a large Korean community, who reside here as living is cheaper than in Tagaytay. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the Philippines is headquartered in this area, and they host an Adventist university along the highway between Santa Rosa and Tagaytay. Silang has many subdivisions housing some of the Filipino elites and some expats. Economic growth is making inroads through the real estate boom, so living costs slowly increases despite being rural.

By bus


Silang is easily reached by bus through Aguinaldo Highway. It takes over 1 hour or even 2 from Manila due to traffic jams to the north, but can be short as 10-15 minutes from Tagaytay.

Other than from Erjohn and Almark, most buses passing through Silang don't have their own dedicated bus stations, but all the other companies serving Silang can drop you off anywhere along Aguinaldo Highway if you request. Most important for travellers are the stops along a stretch of Aguinaldo Highway that bypasses the town to the west (as Bypass Road).

By car
Two major highways pass through Silang. Aguinaldo Hwy (Rte 419 to the north, unnumbered at the bypass west of Poblacion, and Rte 410 to the south), a four-lane at-grade highway, serves the town proper and the western portion of Silang. Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Rd (Rte 420), which is being widened to four lanes, lies to the eastern side of the municipality.

From the northeast, there is the two-lane Carmona-Silang Rd (Kaong Road), connecting the town proper with Governor's Drive (Route 65) in Carmona, but it is a narrow road through villages and jungle.

Silang is the terminus of four-lane tolled Cavite-Laguna Expy (CALAx) as of 2021, but is only accessible from Laguna. The remainder of the expressway is still under construction. The existing CALAx exit (Silang East) is at Kaong, and will involve travel through narrow rural roads; Silang West exit, connecting with Aguinaldo Hwy, is under construction.

By jeepney
Jeepneys ply both highways, and is the only public transport option along Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road.

Along Aguinaldo Highway, jeepneys run from Tagaytay down to Dasmariñas and Imus. Most enter the town proper, but some use the bypass instead.

On Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, there is only one route, the Balibago-Tagaytay route, which is unfortunately, operated by unfranchised and often crowded jeepneys. It is the only option to the eastern side of the municipality, and you'll likely have to take this if you travel via Santa Rosa by bus.

Get around
Tricycles are the primary mode of transportation through town and its barangays. Jeepneys are the most economical way to travel along the areas beside Aguinaldo Highway.

Most of Silang is in the countryside, dotted with barangays and crisscrossed by a network of local roads. Travelling by car is advisable if you want to avoid the hassle with tricycles, but watch out as roads are narrow and there are lots of pedestrian traffic through the barangays.