Ternate–Nasugbu Road

Ternate–Nasugbu Road is a scenic highway between the provinces of Cavite and Batangas in the Philippines. It runs between the town centers of the municipalities of Ternate and Nasugbu, and provides better access to remote coves and coastal mountains between them. This guide covers the whole route between the town centers, not only the winding scenic segment that is opened in 2013.

Understand
The winding section of highway, officially named the Ternate-Looc-Nasugbu Road is opened in December 2013, and connected two former dead end highways into Caylabne cove in Ternate and the remote barangay of Santa Magdalena in Maragondon. Before 2013, travel between the two municipalities involved passing through Tagaytay via congested multilane highways such as Governor's Drive and Aguinaldo Highway.

The guide also cover the sections between the town centers and the termini of the scenic section. Ternate-Nasugbu Road is mostly a two-lane highway, with slopes protected by guardrails, but with few overtaking opportunities except for a leg through Ternate, where the ascending leg towards Caylabne is three to four lanes wide. The scenic highway zigzags through the slopes of the Pico de Loro mountain range, which contains the remaining patches of lowland tropical rainforest of Luzon. It is a popular biking route, and there are also points providing views of the West Philippine Sea (or South China Sea). Don't underestimate the distance, as the speed limit ranges between for safety of bicyclists traversing this route.

The highway is numbered Route 405 between Ternate town proper and Caylabne, and Route 407 between Caylabne and Nasugbu town proper; the latter also part of Governor's Drive which forms the major east-west backbone of Cavite.

Prepare
The road is remote, passing through the rainforests of the Mount Palay-Palay/Mataas na Gulod Protected Landscape, but is not far from the nearest town center.

Get in
The town centers of Ternate and Nasugbu is within a fair distance from Manila, so transportation is not hard.

By car
To Ternate, the main roads is Governor's Drive, and you can either drive via Kawit or Dasmariñas if coming from Manila. Watch out for a road space rationing scheme in force on Aguinaldo Highway and Governor's Drive during weekdays.

Nasugbu is reachable from Tagaytay via Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway (Routes 407 and 410), and from Batangas City through Palico-Balayan-Batangas Road (Route 436). Both routes join at a roundabout at barangay Palico in Tuy.

Go
This itinerary is written from north to south, from Ternate to Nasugbu, but can be done the other way around.

Ternate to Caylabne
The northernmost part of the route is outside. From there to Caylabne, the highway shares the route with Governor's Drive, and is a four-lane road. Crossing Sapang creek, it becomes a two-lane highway, with a short section with climbing lanes. It passes by Puerto Azul, a cove housing a large private resort complex, until you get into the junction at Caylabne, where it splits into Caylabne Road and the scenic section of Ternate-Nasugbu Road.

Stay safe
Be careful driving through Kaybiang Tunnel. While lighted and ventilated, many accidents happened there due to reckless driving, and some people believe the tunnel is haunted.