Adventure TIME!

Oh hey! We just got back from a proper weekend getaway. I think this was the first time we went on a break since we had our first child and that’s over 3 years ago!

We had an amazing time, the Hilton Hotel Sun Valley Resort was very consistent in terms of their customer service. The facilities remain fabulous and the interiors are gorgeous as always.

Guests are greeted by a giant Christmas tree in the lobby. There’s another one in gold at the Casino’s lobby:

After checking in, we had late lunch at the newly opened Chinese restaurant, cannot remember the name. I took a couple of pictures of the interiors. The design was tastefully done, very elegant.

The food was good but sorely overpriced considering the serving sizes, which were tiny. I cannot remember what we had but we had a couple of set rice meals + 2 orders of dumplings and drinks. The bill was about PHP3K or so.

I’ve no problems paying more for food if it meant that the entire spread would be amazing. The food’s great, but for that price, we were bitin. The order of rice is definitely NOT for sharing and it’s PHP500 per order. I know.

We booked a suite for our anniversary because my husband knows how much I love taking long soaks and ordering off LUSH lol. That’s exactly what I got!

I got us several bubble bath bombs on the LUSH website and the entire experience was silky smooth. Got my orders a week after ordering, which was acceptable. I also received a bunch of samples and I was so happy with dem freebies! I used all of these and still use them now. Would love to order a couple of face masks but they’re sold out at the moment. Here’s the rest of our suite:

On our first night, we booked a reservation at the Olive for the dinner buffet. The selection was small than your usual hotel buffet, so be warned.

Also, the quality of the food isn’t as good as the last time we were there. The sashimi was watery, clearly, the fish was frozen and defrosted too quickly, it was a soggy, tasteless mess. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of dinner.

I noticed that the seafood seems to be the most problematic. The prawn is very soft, maanta. The rest is okay.

Word of advice: getting room service is better because the food is higher in quality. Below are the dishes that we ordered in our room because we’re not paying PHP1600 for a dismal buffet dinner again.

The chicken parmigiana is so so good guys! So is the burger that the hubs got but the chicken is fabulous!

Here’s what we had for dessert. My husband got the carrot cake while I ordered the calamansi cake. Both are good!

The hotel was just a touch crowded during our stay because it was a holiday or something. But not too crowded. In fact, we had the pool to ourselves from 2 to 4 in the afternoon when we took a dip. Not too shabby!

We also went to the executive lounge, it was opened finally! We stuffed our faces in canapes and coffee, lol! It was fun.

Overall, we had such a great time at the Hilton. The food quality went down compared to our first stay but this is probably due to the Covid restrictions. But apart from that, we had fun spending our 5th wedding anniversary here.

We will be back at the Hilton on December 15, which is next week. We were supposed to celebrate Rocky’s first birthday there last September but it was canceled several times due to covid. This time, we will go there for Damien’s birthday so the celebration will also include Rocky’s first.

Can’t wait!

We almost swore off Clark Pampanga hotels because of a bad experience with the Marriot. But while surfing Instagram (or IG as the young ones say), my husband came across an ad for the Hilton Clark Sun Valley resort. He did the usual stuff, checked out the website, checked the room rates, checked the reviews, and was pretty much blown away by it all enough to show me.

I was apprehensive at first, I feel like we’ll be wasting money again (hahaha!) but he showed me the reviews man. I must say, old clients of the Hilton are pretty convincing. From what I learned, this is a brand-spankin’ new hotel, they just opened December last year. I love going to new hotels, guys, the amenities are so fresh. Anyhoo, I became excited and we decided to book a weekend stay to celebrate my husband’s birthday.

Now here’s the thing, I excitedly brought our toddler along and that’s the reason why I don’t have any pictures of everything. I’m literally kicking myself for forgetting to take a picture of the hotel itself and the interiors. Can I just say, family trips are exhausting man.

I managed to take pictures of the food (IKR, priorities, hahaha!) just to show you that I’m not making this up.

We had such a great experience, we’ll book a return visit sometime in April. It will be just the two of us this time, hahahaha! On to the review:

The Exterior

Sorry for the lack of images, we were with Damien so I didn’t spend a lot of time taking pictures. I love how the building was set up, it’s right across the parking area so the walk between the entrance and the parking area only takes a minute or so. Very nice! Also, the staff members were very alert, you’ll be greeted by someone who’ll collect your luggage and take it upstairs. All you have to do is to head to the entrance.

Safety

Basic health protocols were observed guys. You have to fill a form before going to the entrace. Your bags will be scanned before entering the lobby. Checking in is very, very quick. The receptionists were very nice, they explained all the inclusions of the room perfectly. A perfect 10 for customer service.

The Interiors

The interiors are not as grand as The Marriott but they’re still nice, very elegant, and modern. The escalator is near the entrance so it’s very convenient to go in and out of the building itself.

From the lobby, you’ll get a great view of the playground, the courtyard, and the pool area. On the left side of the lobby is the Olive restaurant. We stayed here for coffee and snacks because our room was not ready when we arrived. We ordered coffee, brownies and strawberry cheesecake for us and sosyal an mac n’ cheese for Damien. Presentation is top-notch.

Here’s little Damien by the way:

He’s so big na, no?

Getting to Our Room

Once the room was ready, we received a text that says we can go to the room. We took the nearby elevator and stayed in the room somewhere on the 5th floor. I did take a video of the room while going in but somehow, my phone became glitchy or something because it only captured a second of the shot. Huhuhu! My only consolation is that we have plans of returning to this hotel and I’ll take more pictures this time.

The room itself isn’t grand, it’s a PHP10K a night room so no bathtub. We didn’t get the one with the bathtub because frankly, we were not sure if we’ll have a good time, hahaha! Nakaka-trauma and Marriott kaloka. Anyhoo, the bathroom is nice, they use Crabtree and Evelyn bath essentials. I loved the bath gel, it smelled so nice.

Amenities

Love love the amenities. All the fixtures were brand new and medyo hi-tech so it took a little tinkering to do things. We love the playground, Damien had such an amazing time playing. The timing was a bit off, we were hoping that there will be few visitors but we somehow booked a stay on Chinese New Year so there were more people than usual, according to one staff member. Not crowded at all pero a bit more peeps than we realized. It’s okay because we felt safe naman because I can see the staff members tirelessly sanitizing the busiest areas regularly.

The pool area is so nice as well. It overlooks the hills so the view was green and picturesque! The water is only 4 feet deep so perfectly safe for kids. There were a lot of cabanas and lounge chairs with umbrellas. Gorgeous. You can order your drinks poolside also pero we didn’t have the chance since we were busy with Damien in the waters. And as you can see, medyo nag enjoy and bagets. He was totally knocked out by 8PM hahaha!

Shoutout to the life guards BTW, they mean business. They don’t go around loitering and pretending to check the swimming folks. They’re literally standing at the edge, giving you a stern warning if you’re having way too much fun. Ilang beses kaming nag eye-to-eye nila kuya hahahaah! I remember that one time at the Marriott when this foreigner teen slipped and hit his head on the tile floor. Yikes, I was so shocked medyo napatayo ako and still, walang lifeguard. Totally different experience which says a lot.

For dinner, we had room service. We ordered the Premium Platter, the Bocconcini pizza, and pumpkin soup + rice for Damy. Damien’s not picky with his food but he prefers soupy dishes. Since the menu is limited, we had to order soup. The soup we wanted was not available and the receptionist suggested pumpkin soup because it’s child-friendly.

Stomach Ache AGAIN

I’m totally not making this up. Remember last time when I had stomach cramps while staying at the Marriott and came face to face with the most incompetent nurse of all time? Well, I had a stomach ache again no doubt from eating too many things. You can totes ask for the logbook and check if someone on the 5th floor asked for meds at 4 in the morning.

We informed the hotel via their app and yes, you’re not the only one surprised that they actually check the messages at that hour. I almost got angry at my husband for using the app instead of calling the receptionist, hehehehe! But it worked! We were informed that the nurse will arrive in two minutes. And guys, like fucking clockwork, the nurse did come in 2 minutes or less. And he was accompanied by the manager or something. I had to talk to them in the hallway kasi Damien was sleeping.

I was told that they were not allowed to give meds and suggested we ask my husband to drive to the city for the meds. Eh I couldn’t because we have a toddler and we’re basically in a remote part of Clark (hilly areas) and I wouldn’t take the hot compress knowing it won’t ease the cramping. They relented when I begged them to give me a buscopan. They only allowed one but it did the trick hehehee! Thank you, nurse and manager!

Food and Breakfast Buffet

I was very curious how a hotel like the Hilton Clark Sun Valley would handle a buffet knowing we’re in the middle of a pandemic. It was surprisingly great because instead of getting the food yourself, there is an attendant at every station. All you have to do is choose what you like from the spread and the dude will do all the food hoarding for you, hahaha! I had zero appetite since I was just recovering from the stomach cramps but I had a fried egg, a pork sausage, fried rice, and bacon. They’re so good!

Damy ate a cup of yogurt, a few sips of juice, and French toast. He loved all the food! My husband had everything else and was happy as a clam.

Checking Out

Checking out was very seamless, we got a call a few minutes before checking out and we prepared our bags. Someone came in to collect the luggage and then after checking out, we decided to eat at the Olive before driving home. We had the Premium Platter, yes again, along with the carbonara for Damien. We also ordered two servings of rice.

Final Thoughts

Guys, believe me when I say that the Hilton is worth checking out. We had a great time despite the anxiety of the pandemic. It’s worth mentioning that this is Damien’s first trip after his birthday celebration at Marco Polo in Ortigas so it’s a big deal. It’s also my husband’s advanced birthday celebration so the day was very meaningful. Amazing service, great food, and fantastic amenities. My only gripe is the menu, which is quite limited. I get it tho, not much people are going to hotels so they curated the menu items. That’s cool because the food we had naman was fabulous. 10/10 would come back again!

Since life will never be the same again in a couple of months, the hubs and I decided to go on a babymoon. The concept of babymooning isn’t popular here in the tropics as say, honeymooning. Essentially, a babymoon is the last getaway before the birth of a baby. Usually, the babymoon is held once the pregnancy reaches the second trimester. But since we were focusing our finances on getting the nursery ready, we decided to hold off the babymoon until the third trimester.

I’m heavily preggers (7 1/2 months) at this point and was not in the mood to travel to a remote beach. Well, I was not in the mood to travel throughout my pregnancy, to be honest. I was too paranoid. That’s why we decided on a staycation at a nice hotel. The pace is more relaxing and we could spend lots of quality time together before the baby comes.

There were loads of luxury hotels to choose from but we chose Raffles Makati for several reasons. First, it’s not your average hotel with 100+ rooms. Raffles offers a total of 32 suites, each elegantly designed suite provides the utmost comfort and luxury. I swear, our room is the swankiest we’ve been in. The package is quite pricey for what it is but our stay was inclusive of high teas in the afternoons and cocktails at night, apart from the breakfast buffet. Sounds good to me!

Before we checked in, I went shopping for bubble bath bombs and fizzies. I heard Raffles’ bathroom is massive and I wanted to take full advantage of the tub! I bought a total of four bubble baths bombs and fizzies but I forgot to take pics. I got an orange bubble bath one that smelled like fresh orange, another in lavender/floral mix, one with the glitter and honey, and another with a fresh ocean fragrance. I thought about reviewing each of these but something about being in the third trimester made me lazy as fuck. I will continue with the beauty reviews once this whole pregnancy thing blows over.

Who doesn’t love Lush’s stacks o’ soaps? And because a video is worth a million words, here’s a clip of our suite:

It’s overwhelming how massive the room was. To be quite honest, I was expecting a medium-sized room because we got the Junior suite. But this is by far the largest room we stayed in a luxury hotel. It was its own walk-in closet, which was set parallel to the bathroom.

I didn’t film the closet in full because it was quite messy with our stuff but above is a tiny portion of it! I requested a room with a view and Raffles Makati truly delivered:

The room was so huge, there were a total of 5 seating areas excluding the work desk. One is by the window, near the bed. This seating area puts the breathtaking cityscapes front and center.

The other is set farther from the bed, near the work desk (image below). Not pictured is the study, which is set near my husband’s bedside:

Another is a living room-esque seating area with its own TV. The mini bar is also hidden beside the sofa. Not pictured is the work desk, which was set opposite the bed, near the TV console table.

Incredibly, there is also a seating area at the foot of the bed so you can watch the TV comfortably. The TV was so far from our bed so I guess that’s what the lounging area is for. I didn’t take a picture of the bed BTW, the arrangement was ruined by the time I remembered to snap a pic, argh! But you can check out the clip for a quick glimpse of the bed!

Here’s the dining room, beside it, is the coffee maker.

Now behold, the bathroom:

It was so frackin’ huge! The toilet and the shower area are set away from the tub. The tub is set near the giant windows so you can see the gorgeous view while languishing in a fragrant bubble bath!

The marble sink (his and hers) dominated half of the bathroom but there’s ample room for the bath area. The toiletries and amenities were equally luxurious. The shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and soap came in FULL SIZE. We never experienced this from other hotels before.

For the bath essentials, a shower cap, loofah, and seemingly unlimited packs of bath salts were provided. There is also a pretty organizer set on the tub so you can read a book while taking a long soak! After checking in, we spent a huge chunk of our day enjoying the massive bed. The hubs was busy watching the game and I was busy enjoying the fast wifi.

Since we checked in late, we didn’t make it to the high tea. But we freshened up just in time for dinner. We had a dinner reservation at Spectrum, a resto buffet shared by Raffles and Fairmont guests. Here’s my first plate:

… and the second plate. Obviously, I was not able to eat a lot. We had lunch at Italiannis and was still full come dinner time, jujuju!

We also received a congratulatory cake. We said we were celebrating our babymoon and early anniversary:

The next day, we enjoyed the buffet breakfast. I loved the selection, it was better than the dinner buffet. We also made it to high tea!

Didn’t realize that they offer tons of munchies. We entertained my hubs’ relatives and ordered two high tea sets but we never finished any of the sets. Too many stuff but the quality of the treats was amazing! The high tea comes with free-flowing coffee, btw.

I made the “mistake” of ordering a cheese plate thinking that the treats won’t be enough for five peeps. Love the cheese selection and we ended up taking most of these home to munch on. So, yeah, not much of a mistake, after all!

After spending the rest of the day entertaining the oldies, the hubs and I finally had the night to ourselves. We had a reservation at Mamou, which was in Rockwell. Since we were still sorta full, we were not able to order all the other dishes that we wanted previously and limited our order to the Dry Aged USDA Prime Grade Bone-In Rib-Eye Steak (twin size for sharing) and the Lorenzo Truffle Cream Pasta. We also ordered the steak rice and creamed spinach to go with the steak.

Both dishes were divine. The pasta is rich, flavorful, and creamy while the steak, well, there’s just no words. I cannot articulate how good the steak was, the mouthfeel of the meat is springy yet soft. The flavor is robust and rich. It was perfectly cooked medium rare. We love our meat rare to medium rare, no medium well for these piglets.

I didn’t add any seasoning to the meat. No salt, no pepper or pepper flakes, nada. I never use steak sauce, even gravy. I prefer my steak lightly seasoned with whatever seasoning the chef added and that’s it. This steak was divine. Perfect in every way. My husband found the steak too rich though. Well, our entire meal was too rich with the truffle pasta, steak rice, and steak so he was a bit “nasuya” with the meat fat. But the steak, he loved it as well.

We spent the rest of the night swimming at the hotel pool. There are two pool areas at Raffles, one that’s exclusive to Raffles guests and another for Raffles and Fairmont guests. We went to the exclusive pool and it was wonderful, we had the place to ourselves!

We also used the gym to sweat all the guilt away. I didn’t take pictures because there were other peeps in the gym but even the gym was so nice. The equipment and machines were brand-spankin’ new and hi-tech. The view is so gorgeous. You’ll get lost in the nice view while working out. Lemon water, towels, and other niceties were provided for gym goers. After working out, we basically spent the rest of the day lounging around, taking long soaks and eating. It was amazing!

So yeah, that’s basically what went down during our babymoon. I felt so spoiled, Raffles Makati is something else, guys. The staff members are not only friendly and warm, they were efficient as hell too.

We love how the staff members put a personal touch on their service. We received a couple of these handwritten greetings, which we thought was so thoughtful. They really put more effort into making their guests feel right at home. We are planning to go back to Raffles Makati because we enjoyed our stay immensely! Perhaps next year to celebrate Damy’s arrival or on my birthday.

This post is a continuation of my Caramoan getaway series 🙂 Caramoan is known for its virgin white beaches, dramatic landscapes, and breathtaking coves so it was not surprising that the resort offers a variety of activities to choose from. During our stay, we planned an island hopping activity, a picnic near the lighthouse, bonfire by the beach, a boodle-fight, and a massage at the Tugawe Cove resort spa.

Picnic at the Lighthouse

All the activities were arranged by our butler, Gerald. I think that’s how they do it in the resort. One of the first activity we tried was the picnic near the lighthouse. I never went on a picnic before so you can imagine my excitement! Gerald arranged the snacks, pillows, etc. We rode the resort’s golf cart to reach the hilly area where the lighthouse was. The ride was a good 5 to 10 minutes long.

While we took in the views, Gerald was busy setting up the picnic. There were a lot of kids waiting at the lighthouse hoping for a buck, so don’t be surprised if you have a lot of uh, visitors. This can’t be helped because the lighthouse is just a stone’s throw away from the nearest baranggay.

The kids weren’t rude or anything but they won’t leave even when two adults tried to herd them. Gerald was kind enough to take a couple of pictures. I wish the skies were clearer for the shot but hey, check out the view.

Not sure what sorcery Gerald did to make the kids go away (there were at least 10 kids) for this gem, but I appreciate the effort:

The picnic is inclusive of snacks and drinks, of course. Don’t expect anything heavy for PhP350+++. We had a sandwich and juice. I gave my sandwich to one of the kids so the husband and I shared his sammich. I know having a picnic is not a big deal for most people but for a recluse like yours truly, this is an experience.

Beach Hopping in Caramoan

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating so we had to settle for a beach-hopping activity instead of an island-hopping sojourn. It’s all good because the sights were amazing just the same! We visited 4 different beaches, all of which are a part of the resort. How about that.

I cannot remember the names of the first three beaches but the last one was burned in my memory because it’s a funny name: Inaswang beach, hahahaha! I was like, “Kuya bakit sya inaswang?” and my husband said, “isla ng mga babaero”, or to that effect, it was hilarious.

Inaswang is a slang term used to describe those who poach other people’s spouses. Its root word is “aswang”, which is a liver-eating mythical creature. That means whoever stole someone’s husband is the aswang in question. Savagery, pure savagery.

Anyway, I took several pics of the beaches, including the stunning rock formations and limestone cliffs you’re seeing above! Cool huh? This short clip is even better:

I loved all the beaches but the first one and the last one were my favorites. The waters were so pristine, guys! At some point during the tour, we had the whole island to ourselves. It was pure magic!

We ate lunch at one of the beaches we visited. As usual, Gerald was busy doing something. He prepared this lovely spread while we were frolicking in the waters:

We had (and I’m only recalling all the dishes so bear with me) pork afritada (although that’s not the dish’s local name), squid ala pobre, chop suey, pork adobo of sorts, and lotsa rice.

For dessert, we had the sweetest orange slices. Not a huge fan of oranges but the ones that Gerald served were so good! A great finish to an awesome meal.

Tugawe Cove Resort Massage

We were so tired after we went beach hopping so we requested for a full-body massage. Shortly after taking a nap, we were told that the spa is ready and we headed to another room below our room. The spa doesn’t really look like one. There’s no music but there are two massage beds and a bathroom. It looks as if they converted one of the rooms into a spa.

It’s not that bad although I wish the management made more effort adding the usual stuff you see in a spa. A couple of water features, scented candles, flower petals, all that stuff. But at PhP 600+ for a 1-hour whole body massage, it’s not bad at all.

Other Activities

We were unable to book a boodle fight because this deal is only reserved for big groups. As for the bonfire by the beach, we couldn’t book the activity because the weather is too windy even at night. We were disappointed but we understood why we had to cancel these activities, would’ve been fun to try them though!

Overall, we were so amazed by the sights and if given the chance, we’d go back in a heartbeat! We loved Tugawe Cove resort and its many activities especially the picnic and the beach hopping! Maybe next time (when the weather’s cooperating) we could try the island hopping!