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Since the kids were TOO busy for photo ops, Hubby and I just let them play with their friends while we had our photo shoot. (*grin*)

Acuatico was so beautiful not to take photos of the place!

And the pool in the middle of the resort gave this away. We fell in love with it.

My family and I had so much fun!

Hope we could go back again one of these days!

Acuatico Beach Resort
Laiya, San Juan, Batangas
Philippines

So this is us. The whole gang who went to Acuatico Beach Resort in Laiya last February.

And oh yes, we all defintely had a blast! (*wink*)

Acuatico Beach Resort
Laiya, San Juan, Batangas
Philippines

As soon as we arrived the beach resort, we just drank our welcome drinks then off we went to check out the beach! The kids were too excited to wait…

And then when they were done in the beach, we all went to the pool.

I guess the pool was kind of the highlight of our trip. Will post more about it later! (*wink*)

Acuatico Beach Resort
Laiya, San Juan, Batangas
Philippines

Last February, it was a long weekend for the kids so my friends and I, together with our families went for a quick getaway in Laiya, Batangas. We’ve been planning to go to Acuatico for years, good thing my friend was able to reserve for 4 families. We all had a blast!

We left our house by 6:10AM. Check in time was around 1PM but we wanted to make the most out of our stay since travel time was around 3 hours. Good thing there was no traffic, we arrived Acuatico, Laiya at around 9AM. Yes! The kids were ecstatic and we checked out the beach as soon as we arrived.

Oh, this is the life!

Acuatico Beach Resort
Laiya, San Juan, Batangas
Philippines

We came back from a quick vacay over the weekend and guess where!?

At the…

Yes, we went to Thunderbird Rizal over the weekend to celebrate my birthday. We were under stress for a couple of weeks now so we decided to have a quick getaway.

Thunderbird Resort in Rizal is very well maintained. From the manicured lawns outside to the very clean pool. They did a great job in maintaining the place. The rooms were very clean and well maintained too. The beds were huge and very nice soft, it made me want to sleep there all day! The curtains were nice too, I was even tempted to ask if they have the same as the TheCurtainShop.com for swags so I could buy the same curtain like the one in our room. Yes, it was THAT nice.

Although I wished we could stay longer, but the kids have school the next day, Hubby and I have work. We needed to go back to reality. But the good thing is, I took photos of the curtain so maybe I can copy the style and get ideas from TheCurtainShop.com. At least with that, we can sleep in a room that looks like our bedroom in Thunderbird.

Watch out for more photos and details about Thunderbird after my Singapore posts! (*wink*)

Last October 8, Hubby and I braved the rain and went to Tagaytay for a much needed getaway. We haven’t done this since January when we celebrated our Anniversary at Quezon, so as my belated birthday celebration, we availed the voucher I got from Deal Grocer – an overnight stay at T House. Of course, another purpose of this trip is to eat!

So our first stop in our food trip was at Antonio’s for brunch.

The food was just ok. Hubby didn’t enjoy his beef tapa that much. I on the other hand, was happy with scrambled eggs, sausage and hashbrowns!

After our sumptuous brunch, we went straight to T House to rest and then had dinner at their restaurant around 7PM.

We had a movie marathon after dinner. We’ve missed a lot of movies for the past few months and it was the perfect time to catch up. While watching, T House served a goodnight tea and cookies. It was good!

And we slept well after that.

The next morning we were amazed at the view that we saw!

It was definitely foggy!

We don’t experience this in Manila so I would say that because of this, we love Tagaytay more!

T House
3195 Calamba Road, Tagaytay City, Philippines
(02)788-7356

Breakfast by Antonio’s
Bagong Tubig, Tagaytay City
(046) 413-0975

The adventure zone of Shangrila Mactan is probably the reason why we would go back to Shangrila Mactan again.

The kids had so much fun here and this is probably the only place that they kept on mentioning after our trip. If you avail a package, 2 hours of play time in this area is included. It’s important to bring socks, wear long sleeves and pants or else they won’t allow you to go inside and play. Children under 4 years of age must be accompanied by a responsible adult. While children above the age of 4 must be checked into the area by a parent or guardian and sign a waiver of liability.

I love, love Shang Mactan’s Adventure Zone. It was definitely one of the highlights of our Cebu trip!

I’ve mentioned here that food at the White House Resort was really good. The proof? We weren’t able to take photos of most of the food because we ate it immediately. HA!

Our First Lunch: We had chicken wings and puttanesca. I don’t know if we were just tired from our trip that I didn’t find the food that good. Although the Hubby liked it, but I found it just ok.

Our Second Lunch: We tried the huge cheeseburger since most of the guests were ordering this, Pansit Canton (my kids’ all time favorite) and salad.

Their Huuuuge Cheeseburger

The cheeseburger was surprisingly good. I think this one is their best seller. It was definitely huge but Hubby and I were able to finished it in a few minutes. We were that starving AND it was that good too.

The Pansit Canton was also good and tasty. The kids loved it!

Caesar Salad

Caesar Salad was just ok for me. The greens were not too fresh anymore. It was understandable since we were in the middle of an island. What do I expect, right?

Breakfast

Breakfast food at White House Resort were oh so yum!

Hubby’s favorite is Beef Tapa. He ordered this twice for breakfast. I loved it too. Their corned beef was also good.

Longganiza was my order on our last day, I was so happy with this, I wanted to order more. But of course, I had to watch my diet and decided to just wait until lunch time.

Every now and then we would order drinks which we found just ok. Their fruit shakes were fresh though and they would make it as soon as we ordered it. The kids and the Hubby had fun ordering as much drinks as they want especially during the “happy hour”.

During our last trip to Boracay we stayed at the White House Resort for 4 days and 3 nights.

It was recommended by my friend Joy (thanks Joy!). We were in Boracay during the Holy Week so I made sure I booked early. So, there were still a lot of rooms available 6 months before our travel date. I loved that they were very accomodating during reservations and were patient with my never ending inquiries. They answered right away through email and text messages. That’s why they were one of my choices since I was on a tight budget too. I had to really check the room rates thoroughly and they were one of the few resorts who gave me time to think and reserved our room until January. Yes, I had time to save for this. They also gave us 10 % discount for booking early

WE availed of the deluxe room for PHP6,100/night. It was a great location since it was just a few steps away from the pool and of course the beach. It was our first time at Station 1 and were so loving the perfect location. It was so quiet and serene, we didn’t feel the busyness of the Holy Week at all. I love the music at this resort too, no wonder, people would just hang around the restaurant or in front of the beach just to “chill”.

Here are a few photos around the area of White House Resort…

Here is the summarized version of my review of the resort:

- Room: It was clean and tidy and they would clean it up everyday. But everytime we turned on the airconditioner, moist is all over the place – floor, cabinets, and walls. The bathroom is also clean but I hope they clean it at least twice a day since we go in and out of the shower area right after swimming.

- Food: Food at this resort is a bit expensive. Although most of the food we ordered were good and tasty. Our breakfast was part of the package, we had beef tapa, corned beef and longganiza and all of these were great.

- Swimming Pool: This is what the kids truly loved! I liked that it’s not the typical tiled swimming pool. I think the kids stayed here more than they were at the beach. The depth of the pool was also perfect for my kids’ height. We all loved swimming here.

- Beach: All I can say is that nothing beats the beach of Boracay!

- Restaurant: I like the cabanas in front of the beach. Perfect for our lunches.

- Service: I would say their service sucks big time. My friends who recommended it couldn’t believed it either but I think they changed their management. First, they owed me a change after paying on our first day but totally forgot about it when we were checking out. They insisted that they already gave me my change. Oh well. I didn’t want to argue anymore.

Secondly, I asked for utensils, plates, and soup bowl, from one of the staff, that staff didn’t even bother to check their kitchen, she just flatly said that they don’t have a soup bowl. What?? I asked a different staff and she was able to give a large soup bowl.

Thirdly, while one of the staff was serving our rice, she was talking to someone on her cellphone! Wow! Some of the staff were good, some were not. I hope they would be consistent when it comes to service because I don’t think I would check in with them again if their service don’t improve.

Location wise, I would say this resort is perfect!

White House Boracay
Station 1, Sitio Pinaongon Balabag, Boracay Island
Malay, Aklan
Philippines
http://www.whitehouseboracay.com

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Last weekend was our weekend at Sofitel (Philippine Plaza) and we all had a blast! I took a break from everything. The kids had a great time swimming and I guess it was one of the great weekends we ever had this summer. Although I had to find some industrial supplies that weekend, but we were able to postpone it until Sunday. We didn’t have a hard time looking for it since I already looked for it online. That’s the thing about the internet, you can browse the details and what it’s like before buying it. At least I was sure that I was buying the right stuff for my Dad.

Anyway, a few photos of Sofitel.

Our Lovely Room that we got for a Promo!

Locittane Stuff in the Bathroom.

This is the Reason Why I Love Sofitel. It is beside Manila Bay!

Breakfast at the Spiral of course the next day, Sunday. It was greeeat as usual. It was our first time there for breakfast and we were really happy. The rest of our Sunday was spent at the mall. We ate lunch there and did a few window shopping. Since the kids got cranky afterwards, we decided to just go home.