Rooms

Sundowners Vacation Villas Bolinao

June 2, 2019 / Filed Under: Pangasinan, resorts, Rooms, swimming pools, travels

I think Summer is the busiest part of my year, mainly because this is where everything happens — family vacations, birthday celebrations, and a lot more. Now that it’s June, I can finally breathe… ay wait, hindi pa pala because it’s the start of the school year.

Well, before everything starts, let me share with you our Summer escapades!

We always have at least mga three summer getaways every Summer. Last Summer, we were still able to go so Sunset Bay Beach resort and Thunderbird Resorts in La Union before my nanay got sick and became bedridden. Our trips cannot be refunded so we just had it rebooked. One of those trips that was rebooked was this… at Sundowners Vacation Villas in Bolinao.

READ:

We left Caloocan at around 7am at arrived around 2:30pm. Medyo matagal ang byahe because we had stopovers for breakfast and lunch. Pero sa totoo lang, ang layo naman talaga ng Bolinao no!

Medyo “twinning” pa si ate Ykaie and Twinkle with their outfits…

Our Villa – LOFT VILLA

We booked the Loft Villa mainly because it has its own private infinity plunge pool. We planned to have Twinkle’s 3rd Birthday Pineapple party celebrated here which didn’t happen last year. We still pushed through this year, though, parang advance 4th birthday celebration na lang (I’m gonna share it with you on my next post)

The Loft is moroccan style and the small dining area-slash-kitchen will welcome you upon entry. It has a fully equipped kitchen so no worries if you’re bringing your own food to cook. If you’re not, you can order room service or dine at Nykos Kitchen + Bar located at the resort entrance near the pool area.

If I remember correctly, sis booked this for ₱24,000 for two nights.

There is a small sleeping/resting area on the dining area.

This is the first floor balcony with the private infinity plunge pool. It’s located just outside that dining area.

This is the airconditioned open mezzanine style bedroom with one single queen sized bed and two single beds. It’s located on the second floor. This is where we slept together with my ILs.

Outside the bedroom is the second floor balcony with relaxation area…

and last but not the least, this is the airconditioned master bedroom with one queen sized bed. This is where sis, Chellie, and Shy slept.

Ang laki ng villa no? This has a minimum capacity of 6 pax and maximum of 10.

And this is how the plunge pool looks at night!! Bongga diba?

Swimming Pools

There are two common infinity pools for all the resort guests. The first one we went to was located at the other end of the resort where in you have to pass a lot of stairs going up and down bago mo pa mapuntahan because of the location of our villa.

We thought yun muna ang puntahan dahil nga medyo malayo sa amin.

Hingal na hingal kami pero sige, hala, pose!!

We stayed here for about an hour before we decided to go back up and check out the infinity pool near the restaurant…

Ito yun. Di na kami nagtagal dito dahil pagod na kami. We just went back to our villa and ordered room service .. LOL!

After that, since may kasama kaming seniors — my ILs. We just stayed here in our villa and swam in the plunge pool.

So here’s What I Like About Sundowners Vacation Villas Bolinao:

The place is really nice. Kita nyo naman how nice the resort is. It’s Santorini-inspired and it’s clean.
It has a fully equipped kitchen — fridge, microwave, rice cooker, pots and pans, glasses, plates, utensils. It even has a grilling area at the back.
They clean the room and change the sheets and towel daily. (we stayed there for two nights)
Mediterranean food is available — diba nga we love mediterranean food?
The plunge pool is also cleaned daily.

What I Didn’t Like:

It is not senior and PWD friendly. Not just going to our villa but going around the resort. We were with my in laws but we weren’t able to bring them with us when we went to the common infinity pool kasi it’s either hihingalin sila or sasakit ang mga tuhod nila.
There was fluctuation in electricity when we were there. The front desk didn’t even call us to inform us what was happening or reassured us that power will be back shortly.
We stayed there for two days and ordered dinner twice. A lot of the food on the menu is not available.
There is a P100 charge for pool towels (per piece ha).
The a/c on the 2nd room floor cannot keep the room cool except at night — pag mga midnight na when it’s cool na rin outside.

Hopefully next year we can try the new Sundowners Zambales naman…

Sundowners Vacation Villas Bolinao is located at Luciente 1, Bolinao, Pangasinan

Check Out Our Crazy Video Here:

A Day at The Oriental Luxury Suites Tagaytay

August 1, 2018 / Filed Under: Hotels, Rooms, staycations, swimming pools, Tagaytay, travels

One of the things I’m thankful we were able to do last May is that we were able to sneak in some R&R despite such a busy schedule.

This escape at The Oriental Luxury Suites in Tagaytay would have been included in the second leg of our Summer 2018 trip. If you can remember the first leg, it was in April at Sunset Bay Beach Resort and Thunderbird Resorts Poro Point. No more trips followed after that because nanay became bedridden. All our scheduled trips were already booked and we had to cancel and rebook them. We weren’t able to cancel this one, though, since we got the reservation at 50% off. So we went with my ILs, instead.

Our Rooms

The original rate of rooms at The Oriental Luxury Suites is ₱10,000 per night — well, at least on the first level. We got it for just ₱5,000 per night. We were able to book two first level rooms that has two queen beds: Khao Sok and Phanom Rung.

The hotel asked us if we can give one of our rooms to another senior guest that night and in turn, our room will be upgraded to one of the second floor rooms at no extra cost.

This is our upgraded room: Chiang Rai. It also has two queen beds…

…and it opens up into balcony with a nice view.

The Hotel

This is the hotel lobby…

…and this is where you’ll find the coffee and tea making facility. The rooms don’t have it. You can prepare unli instant coffee but there’s an extra charge if you want your coffee prepared from the espresso machine.

Swimming Time

The infinity pool

Swimming time came just a few hours after we arrived. Syempre, the kids are really excited to go swimming. This is what they’re always looking forward to every time we go on a staycation. At first Twinkle was a bit afraid of the water but after a few minutes nagda-dive na sa knee-deep stairs..LOL.

Tagaytay was a bit cold in May, would you believe? Well, maybe because it was drizzling a bit that day too. Ang #TitaOfManila –which is, well, me — syempre hindi nakatagal sa lamig. Umahon kaagad kasabay ni Mama Lucy and Papa Sony. peanutbutter♥ remained in the pool to look after the kids…. na ayaw pa umahon at kulang na lang ay dun na tumira sa swimming pool. Good thing there’s such a thing as being exhausted and when they used up all their energy, they needed a refill.

The kids were hungry after swimming but hotel didn’t have any restaurant. Thankfully, we were in Tagaytay and there were lots of restaurants nearby. We went out to eat dinner and went back at the hotel for coffee before retiring for the night.

Breakfast

Breakfast was included in the reservation and it was served at the dining area in the lobby just outside the Phanom Rung room.

Mama and Papa had the the Filipino Breakfast which consists of a little bit of everything — parang fiesta!. There’s garlic rice in that small red container, boneless bangus, danggit, beef tapa, salted egg, and tomato and a side salad which I wasn’t able to take a photo of….

peanutbutter♥ and I had the American Breakfast which is composed of wheat bread, chicken sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, two eggs, and a side salad.

Ykaie got this..Ito yata ang “kiddie meal” nila — garlic rice, fried egg, chicken sausage, and tapa.

Swimming Again

After breakfast, swimming ulit ang kids. While the lolo and lola took their sweet time to rest in the lobby and breathe in the fresh air while watching their apos play in the pool.

What I Like About The Oriental Luxury Suites:

The staff are friendly and accommodating.
You can get unlimited serving of instant coffee and tea at the lobby.
There were lots of restaurants around the area.
The room is big, the beds are super comfortable to sleep in, and there’s fast wifi connection.
Super cold a/c and the place is beautiful.

What I Didn’t Like:

The only toiletry we had was shower gel, we didn’t have soap, shampoo, conditioner, and toothbrush. (Maybe because we got it at 50% off?)
The coffee and tea making facility was located at the lobby. If you want coffee at say, 4am (like me), well, you have to go out of your room to get a cup.
No phone in each room and you have to use a bell to call a staff for help.
No room service because there’s no restaurant in the hotel.

Over all, it was a nice break from our everyday hustle. I just wished we were on vacation for two days…

The Oriental Luxury Suites is located at 001 GS Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo Highway Luksuhin Ilaya, Alfonso, Cavite

Thunderbird Resorts Poro Point La Union

May 21, 2018 / Filed Under: Beach, La Union, resorts, Rooms, swimming pools, travels

After checking out of Sunset Bay Beach Resort (Part 1|Part 2), we went straight to our next destination: Thunderbird Resorts Poro Point. We were excited because the resort has earned quite a reputation. Aside from that we’ve been to Thunderbird Resorts Rizal five years ago and we really enjoyed our stay back then. This time, I’m excited ’cause we had a two day reservation — meaning there’s more time for sis to chill at hindi picture taking every second of the day… heehee.

At talagang tumerno kami sa color theme ng resort because we had matchy-matchy striped blue and white OOTDs.

Oops, hinangin ang dress ni ate Ykaie! Pretend you didn’t see that.

Our Room

We had two Premier Deluxe Room which we got for around ₱9,000+++ per room per night. We requested for the rooms to be beside each other and for it to be at the ground floor since we have our nanay with us who is a senior and needs a wheelchair from time time.

Each room has two double beds, cable tv, balcony and a coffee and tea making facility.

Our room didn’t come with a bathtub but the other room has it. Both came with complete with toiletries.

Swimming Time

This is what the pool looks like. Their infinity pool is located in another area and is much deeper than the pools in this area.

Twinkle was very excited to go swimming in her Flamingo Swimsuit..

We brought two floaters on this trip… the peacock…

and this rainbow on a cloud.

Kiddie Pool

Sis also bought several matchy-matchy swimsuits for Ykaie and Twinkle.

Breakfast is included in our reservation but for lunch and dinner, we chose to dine out. We had lunch and dinner at L.U. BBQ and lunch at Halo Halo de Iloko Balay.

What I Like About Thunderbird Resorts:

The staff are accommodating. We were allowed 1-hr early check-in when they found out we had a senior with us.
They have a coffee shop inside the resort that also serve cookies and cakes.
Lots of restaurants around it if you don’t feel like eating at the resort.
The room is worth the price and there’s super fast wifi connection.
There’s a big pool area.
The place is wheelchair friendly. Pool is kid-friendly too.

We had a great time at Thunderbird Resorts especially Twinkle na hindi na mapaahon sa swimming pool without crying.

I’d like to think that life is perfect and full of rainbows but it’s not the case for us. Just a few days after our La Union vacation, nanay got sick. She was hospitalized for five days and went home weak and is already bedridden. Our plan was to have three trips this Summer and all of them with our nanay. We already cancelled the rest of them and we are taking care of our nanay at home. I’m happy na naipasyal pa namin sya bago sya naging bedridden.

Thunderbird Resorts is located at Poro Point Freeport Zone San Fernando City, La Union

Sundowners Vacation Villas Bolinao

READ:

SUNSET BAY BEACH RESORT, LA UNION (PART 1)

SUNSET BAY BEACH RESORT, LA UNION (PART 2)

THUNDERBIRD RESORTS PORO POINT LA UNION

Our Villa – LOFT VILLA

Swimming Pools

A Day at The Oriental Luxury Suites Tagaytay

Our Rooms

The Hotel

Swimming Time

Breakfast

Swimming Again

Thunderbird Resorts Poro Point La Union

Our Room

Swimming Time