Taal Volcano

Taal Volcano has been called the smallest active volcano in the world. It is located about 70-km south of Manila in the middle of a lake called Taal Lake. What makes Taal Volcano unique is the fact that the volcano itself forms an island that has a lake of its own inside its crater which is called the "Crater Lake", thus, it is a lake within a lake. How to go there. Manila to San Nicolas via Cuenca: From Manila, take the South Luzon Tollway from Nichols or C-5 entry all the way to the south end. At the end of the tollway, take the exit that points to Lucena and drive along this National Road for about 6km until you reach the Calamba boundary. About 1.5km from the boundary of Calamba, turn right and take the Star Tollway (Batangas Expressway) up to the Batangas/Lipa exit. Upon exit, head westward towards Batangas City. 1.2km from the tollway exit is the Fernando Airbase and about 2.5km from the airbase, there will be a junction the leads to Cuenca. Turn right at this junction. Head for Cuenca then Alitagtag then Sta. Teresita. At Sta Teresita, head northwest towards Lemery/Taal. About 3.8km from Sta Teresita, there will be a junction to bypass Taal and Lemery with signs that point to Agoncillo. Take this bypass route on the right, and about 2.5km from the said junction, there will be a small road on the right side that leads to San Nicolas. This small road will be about 5km and will end straight into the Town Hall of San Nicolas. There will be a Y junction midway, just take the left road on this junction. Right behind the town hall of San Nicolas is the majestic Taal Lake. The boats that can take you to the volcano island are docked on the pier behind the town hall. 

 You can inquire about boat rides from the people in the town hall. The boats can take you to either of two destinations on the island. One is to a point where you can start a hike to the crater's highest point called the "ridge" where you can get a bird's eye view of the crater lake and the other to a point where you can start a hike to the crater lake itself.The volcano island can be reached by taking a half-hour boat ride from practically any town on the the shores of Taal Lake. The more popular jumpoff point is from the town of Talisay. Total hike distance from the boat landing point to the crater lake and back is about 6.2km. Because of the steep terrain and soft (and hot) nearly powder-like ash surface, the hike takes nearly 4 hrs (four 10-minute rest/stops included).

you can hire a horse and save yourself about 4.5km worth of hike. But even on horseback, you have still have to hike 1.6km as there is a portion of trail down the crater where the terrain is too steep for horses to pass. Tips Bring lots of drinking water. Probably double the amount of water that you would normally take on a hike of similar distance. It is one hot hike, very little shade, hot ground and steep climbs. 

-waypoints.ph 

Taal Volcano is located on the island Luzon, south of the Philippines' capital Manila. It has been selected as one of 15 Decade Volcanoes. There is currently no Taal-homepage by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology's (PHIVOLCS), hence this is only an unofficial home-page (PhiVolcs' "blessing" is indicated by a link from the PhiVolcs-www-page to this site). Aside from information on Taal, this site provides information on and translations of 19th century work of German/Austrain scientists travelling the Philippines and exerpts from the famous work of Fr. Saderra Maso, who summarized the pre-1911 activity on the basis of historical ("hard-to-get-to") accounts. Taal Volcano is located about 60 km SSE of Metro Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is a complex volcanic system composed of a small volcanic island (Volcano Island), which has been the site of almost all historic activity, located within a 20x30 km lake-filled complex caldera(?) (Taal Lake, in older texts also called Lake Bonbon), one of the great volcano-tectonic depressions of the world. The whole region surrounding Taal is at considerable volcanic risk. Taal Volcano is situated in a highly populated and rapidly growing agricultural and industrial region. Five towns are located around the lakeshore and 2 cities and 8 more towns are lined up along the caldera rim. Two large power stations are located 15 km and 17 km, respectively, from Taal Lake. The geologic setting of Taal, and the variability of eruption sites and magnitudes, generates a diverse range of volcanic hazards, such as base surges, lava flows, ballistic fallout, ash and scoria fallout, toxic gases, acidic flashes from crater lake, lake tsunamis and seiches, lakeshore flooding, earthquakes, ground fissuring and subsidence, landslides and sectoral collapse, turbulent ash flows, and lahars. Base surge eruptions in 1911 and 1965 blasted the villages to the west of the vent at Volcano Island, travelling 3 km across Lake Taal. In contrast, the aa lava flows erupted in 1968 and 1969 were confined within the embayment created by the 1965 eruption in the SW flank of Volcano Island and, apparently, did not pose a significant threat at that time. However, lava flows could be a serious hazard at Taal if erupted from a lakeshore vent and accompanied by violent hydrovolcanic explosions resulting from lava-lake water interaction. The presence of a scoria cone at Boot, located east of Volcano Island, also suggests that eruptions along lakeshore areas are highly probable, although without historical precedence.