The 45-Minute Commute
That Changed How
We Live

"It's too far."

That was my answer every time my husband brought up moving to the South. For years, he kept saying it was time to leave the city. And for years, I kept finding reasons not to because I had to be close to work. My office was in the city. It just was not a practical choice for me to move.

Moving to Cavite meant a commute. And in Manila, the word "commute" carries the weight of every hour and every peaceful moment I have ever lost to EDSA, every evening I missed dinner because of C5, and every Sunday night dread knowing Monday traffic was coming.

So when we built our house in Ayala Westgrove Heights, I kept my condo in Pasig. Just in case. I was not ready to bet my daily sanity on a highway.

Then I actually drove it

The first time I drove from Westgrove to Makati on a Monday morning, I left at 6:30 AM. I was bracing myself. I brought two cups of coffee just in case I needed a refill before I got to my meeting.

I took CALAX from the Silang entrance, got on to SLEX, merged onto Skyway, and before I had finished a podcast episode, I was in the city. Forty-seven minutes from Westgrove to Makati Shang.

I remember pulling up, checking the time and thinking to myself: "Wait. That's it?"

Forty-seven minutes. No EDSA. No C5. No stop-and-go through three cities. Just expressway, skyway, arrive.

What the commute actually looks like

I want to be honest about this because I know it is the single biggest question anyone considering Westgrove Heights will ask. So here is the real version, not the marketing version:

The route is straightforward. The tolls are an added cost but a small price to pay for starting the day without unnecessary stress.

And I will be honest about the bad days too. My longest drive was about an hour and twenty minutes — holiday weekend traffic heading back, when half of Manila was driving to Tagaytay. During heavy rain, CALAX holds up well but I slow down naturally and SLEX traffic builds up. These days happen. But even on the worst days, it is still better than a regular Tuesday on EDSA. The difference is that bad days here are the exception, not the rule.

The part nobody talks about

Here is what surprised me most: I started enjoying the drive.

When I used to commute in Manila — EDSA, C5, Ortigas Avenue — I was not really driving. I was surviving. Watching brake lights, switching lanes, clenching my jaw. It was not a commute. It was almost a siege.

The CALAX-SLEX-Skyway drive is different. It is open road. Green on both sides for the first stretch, then the elevated Skyway with the city skyline in the distance. No stoplights. No intersections. No jeepneys cutting in front of me.

This is when I listen to audiobooks or sing along to my favorite Broadway songs. Forty-five minutes became my quiet time — the only part of the day that was totally mine. And sometimes, I even dial into calls.

I have built a routine of me-time mornings and I look forward to it.

The drive home

But the real gift is the drive home.

When I lived in the city, "going home" meant going from one concrete box to another. The temperature was the same. The noise was the same. The air was the same. It felt more like relocating than going home.

When I drive home to Westgrove, the temperature actually drops as I gain elevation. I roll down my window as soon as I pass the main gate and the air changes. It smells different. It smells like trees and earth and rain, even when it has not rained.

The first time I noticed it was on an early morning walk to a breakfast place in BGC, after my husband and I decided to stay in a hotel so we could just crawl into bed after a late night out with friends. That morning, I asked him if he could smell the faint but foul smell of sewer. He said he always had. Then I realized — I had gotten so used to it that I only noticed when Westgrove showed me what clean air smells like.

I can actually smell the difference now. Once I started living in Westgrove full-time, I noticed the city air immediately every time I went back. It is something I cannot un-notice.

By the time I pull into the village, the city feels like it happened days ago, not forty-five minutes ago. I see people walking, kids riding their bikes, the sun painting the sky all the shades of gold and orange while trees try to catch the last light. And I realize that the commute did not take something from me — it gave me a clean break between two worlds.

The secret nobody tells you: you stop going

After a few months of living in Westgrove full-time, I started going to the city less. Not because the commute was hard — it was not. But because I stopped needing to.

Nuvali is ten minutes away. Solenad has everything — supermarkets (Landmark & Robinson's), restaurants, clinics, banks. Vista Mall and Paseo de Sta. Rosa are close. There is S&R and Landers. Tagaytay is twenty minutes in the other direction when I want a change of scenery. The South has quietly built an entire ecosystem that did not exist ten years ago.

For families with school-age kids, Brent International and Miriam College Nuvali are about fifteen minutes away. Beacon Academy, almost right outside the village back gate. There are several strong private schools in Sta. Rosa and the Laguna-Cavite corridor that Westgrove families use. The commute question does not just transfer to the children — it actually gets easier for them because the schools are nearby, not across the city.

I used to drive to the city three or four times a week. Now it's once, sometimes twice. Not because I can't — but because I don't need to. Everything I need is here.

And on the days I do drive in, I enjoy it. Audiobook playing, windows up on CALAX, windows down when I come home. Forty-five minutes each way. My quiet time.

If you are on the fence

If this sounds familiar, it's probably because someone you know moved south and now you're curious. Or maybe you drove through Westgrove once and thought, "This is beautiful, but it's too far."

I had the same thought. I held onto it for years. And then I actually made the drive, and everything I believed about it turned out to be wrong.

It's not too far. It's forty-five minutes to an hour of peace, and then I'm home — really home.

If the idea of life outside Manila has been quietly crossing your mind, I would love to share more about what living here is really like. Not the brochure version — the real version. The one with the rainy Tuesdays and the Tagaytay-weekend traffic and the mornings that make all of it worth it.

We love Westgrove so much we now have 3 properties here. We built a second home we wanted to keep but decided to let go. It's brand-new — five en-suite bedrooms, infinity pool, forest views. If you're curious, the details are on our website. But honestly, even if it's not this house, I think the drive is worth making at least once. You might surprise yourself.