Staycation at Bakasyunan Resort and Conference Center

The Malacañang Palace declares that November 18-19 is a special non-working holiday for Public and Private sector in Metro Manila to ease the traffic congestion during  APEC Summit. All business owners must have been angry, but us, ordinary workers were celebrating. Hooray!!! It's two days off.

When I learned that we have upcoming holiday I immediately plan where to go. Planning a getaway that needs to ride an airplane is not a good idea because the flights will be cancelled during the APEC Summit. I checked Ensogo Philippines and found the discounted offer for Bakasyunan Resort. I bought and booked an overnight accommodation for two for 1200 pesos. Three days before our check-in, I received a call to confirmed our reservation but the guy on the other line told me our reservation was November 17-18 not 18-19 and the Cliff-side rooms are all fully-booked. He insisted that our voucher is not valid on a holiday but I told him that it's not written on the voucher and holiday is in NCR only, Tanay Rizal is not included. I told him that they can give us any room on November 18-19. He agreed and upgraded our room reservation without additional cost. Yehey!

Getting there from our place in Cainta, Rizal is hassle free. From Cainta we rode a jeep bound to Tanay Rizal for two hours and told the driver to dropped us off near Jollibee Tanay. From Jollibee Tanay, we rented a tricycle going to Bakasyunan Resort for approximately 20 minutes.

we thought that this is the reception area near the entrance gate
but it's empty when we arrived

we waited for a couple of minutes until we saw other guests
and ask them where are the people, they told us it's not the reception area

Check-in time is at 2 PM but we arrived at 11 AM so they just registered us and we paid additional 450 pesos for extra person. While waiting for our assigned room to be vacated by other guests we started exploring the 15-hectare property.

the pools overlooking the Sierra Madre mountain ranges and Laguna de Bay

you will not get lost, they have maps everywhere

What I like most is their team building facility but of course best to enjoy with lots of your friends.

For the broken-hearted, here's specially for you :D

Freedom Wall

For golf enthusiasts, they have mini golf play ground for you.

Mini golf play ground

They also have Maze for the kids or even kids at heart.

The cliff-side rooms, we supposed to stay in one of these rooms.

Cliff-side rooms

When we got hungry, we went back at the restaurant but we want to settle first our bags inside the room before we have our lunch so I approached the receptionist if our room is already available since it was nearly 2 PM. We were given our key and then we hurried to our room.

Here's our upgraded room, Private Room # 16. It has refrigerator, toilet, and cable tv without remote control.

In their website, they said if you bring food you will be charged a corkage fee but other guests are bringing anyway and they eat it inside their room. But us we prefer to try their restaurant and it didn't disappoint us. The price ranges from 200-350 pesos per viand but serving is good up to 4 persons. I loved the beef kaldereta but since the serving is big even we are three who shared it we didn't finished it so we packed it out for dinner :D our tipid moves hehe

beef kaldereta and garlic fried chicken for our lunch and dinner :)

banana split for dessert - served with a view :D

After our late lunch I've spent my entire afternoon swimming in the pool. I had the pool near cliff side rooms all to my self :D I was practicing what I learned from my swimming lesson which I had finished 2 sessions already out of 5 sessions.

the pool near cliff-side rooms

We planned to have few drinks at the bar in the restaurant after eating our dinner (the leftovers) but I was exhausted from swimming and my sister and my friend didn't want to go without me so we decided to just sleep and rest. We had a peaceful night.

there are many drinks to choose from at the bar

In the morning we wanted to rent a bike but unfortunately it was not available due to on the week before our visit, a guest fell on a bike. I was a little broken hearted :( 

What a beautiful view while eating breakfast

my breakfast - Hungarian sausage, french toast and egg.
I don't like the way they cooked the egg but at least the sausage was good

our superb coffee

After our breakfast my sister and Ness tried the ATV and me I explored by foot :) and then swimming again.

Check-out time is strictly 11 AM, you'll pay 200 pesos per hour if you exceeded.

Expenses:

550    - 1N accomdation 1650/3

 45     - Jeep Fare Cainta to Jollibee Tanay

 40     - Tricycle fare Jollibee Tanay to Bakasyunan

293    - lunch 879/3

270    - breakfast

  40    - Bakasyunan to Van Terminal

 70     - Van fare Tanay to Cainta

Bakasyunan Resort also offer day tour packages, cottage rental, horse back riding, mudslide and many more. For other rates and information you may visit their website. I definitely coming back to this place if I get a chance. It was short but sweet staycation indeed.

How about you? Where did you spend your APEC holiday?