Resort Feature: Dasoland Family Adventure Park (Dasol, Pangasinan)

The resort's swimming pools

Flamingos at Zooland

The sprawling, 62-hectare Dasoland Family Adventure Park, a new eco-tourism destination set in vast and remote mango plantation, has a number of theme areas, around 3,500 mango trees plus a Japanese Garden, Cactus House, Bamboo setum (a showcase of different kinds of bamboo varieties) and Flower Park.  

It also has two authentic, pyramidal-roofed  Ifugao houses, knocked down from its original home in the Cordilleras, transported here and then reassembled.  For those who want to stay overnight, there are airconditioned cottages with bath and, for recreation, there are two swimming pools (adult and kiddie), a boating lagoon, gazebos, picnic huts, children's playground and mini-golf course.  

You can also explore the resort through horseback riding and biking.   The Nativity and Santa Village has an enormous collection of Santa Claus bric-a-brac ranging from the life-size to the miniature.  Around it are life-size dioramas of Nativity scenes. 

The Villa

The resort also has a display of World War II memorabilia (Willys jeeps, trucks, ambulance, etc.), kalesas (horse-drawn carriages used in the Philippines) and farm implements (plows, carts, etc.). 

For animal lovers, Zooland has a collection of ostriches, pink and orange-colored flamingos, snakes, cassowaries, cockatoos, horses, a dwarf pony, etc.  while the Butterfly Garden, built to show the life cycle of butterflies, features some of them in free flight and swirling around us. 

The two-storey Villa, a faithful reproduction of an ancestral bahay na bato (stone house) with a fountain in front, sliding capiz windows, grand staircase and a showcase collection of century-old Philippine furniture collected from around the country. It is also a venue for painting exhibits and folk dancing and singing. 

Dasoland Family Adventure Park: Brgy. San Vicente, Dasol, Pangasinan.  Tel: 816-3875. Mobile number: (0917) 545-5343. E-mail: dasoland@yahoo.com.