Heaven in Laiya, Acuatico Resort Experience

Oh well, I am glad to say that the looong wait to experience Acuatico Resort was worth it. Our staycation fell on a Monday-Tuesday but that did not hinder us to enjoy. Since all our car’s plates end in 1, we decided to hit the road as early as 5am to avoid the number-coding scheme in the Metro. After following their direction carefully, we arrived at Acuatico’s lobby at around 9am. Coding turned out to be a real blessing in disguised because we had maximized our stay there.

The courteous staff served our welcome drinks at Oceano.

And since we’re way too early for their standard 1pm check-in, she advised us to stay at the playroom 1st for the kids to rest and/or sleep. Do you really think these kids can rest with toy overload?

Even the kids-at-heart partook with the toys.

And since the playroom just pumped-up the kids' energy, they 1 by 1 asked demanded to swim. And they changed inside the playroom. Lol

What’s good with Acuatico was that there were outdoor shower rooms and toilets at every corner and funny how they named those, very Batangueno.

FACILITIES:

Aside from the playroom and the public rest and shower rooms, Acuatico Resort also offers a lot of fun activities inside their premise. There’s an open basketball court at the parking lot, a game room at the 2nd floor of the hotel and a souvenir shop.

ACCOMMODATION:

Since we’re a family with 9 adults and 4 kids, we were asked to get 2 rooms. 1 was actually a villa called Estancia (P21400) which the (PIL’s) children and their family was assigned, while my parents-in-law stayed at the hotel room, called Vista de Laiya (P6950). The rate includes complimentary breakfast, bottled water, slippers, toiletries, towel and complimentary uraro.

Estancia has 3 rooms which can occupy up to 8 adults. 1 room have 2 twin size beds and 2 rooms with 1 queen size bed each. It has a private lanai, a loft, a sala area and view deck. It also has 2 LCD TVs with cable, 2 telephones, a personal ref, 2 shower rooms and 2 toilets. 

Though the villa was generally nice, the size of the shower room where notably small. How small? A little less than my kalahating dipa. I was literally outside the shower area as I gave bath to my kids. Also, they used smoked glass as a divider to the shower rooms, which was disadvantageous since 2 adults cannot take a bath simultaneously (unless they're okay to show their bare bodies to each other). I also dislike that 1 of it's bedroom don’t have privacy because 1) it only has curtain to cover the bed and 2) everybody need to go inside "that" curtain when going to the restrooms or upstairs. What’s the use of the curtain? If I were the architect I would definitely not design it that way.

Vista de Laiya was more luxurious, we think. This was where my parents-in-law spend their nth honeymoon. It has queen size bed, safe, LCD cable TV, personal ref and bath tub. It also has a view of the whole resort. It also have spacious cabinet to play hide and seek with. Lol   

Acuatico only accommodates a maximum of 70 guess at a time. I think it is safe to say that the resort was fully booked during our stay. But surprisingly, we hardly felt that. We felt like the whole resort belonged to us alone. And according the supervisor we spoke to, the resort is fully-booked until July. If you're planning to visit the place, better reserve at least 2 months prior your date to guarantee a slot, especially if it's within the peak seasons.   

AMENITIES:

Acuatico has an in-house restaurant called Oceano  (full review here), where we relied our main meals at. A spa and of course what we came there in the 1st place “the” infinity pool. For me, their version was the best I have seen so far. It’s perfectly flawless. It was actually divided into 3 parts, the deep (kiddie pool), the deeper (I’m guessing 3-4 feet deep) and the deepest (about 4 - 5.5 feet). I just named the divisions, actually. Lol Aside from those, there is also an outdoor Jacuzzi right in front of Oceano. Lifeguard was very visible, btw.  

The Infinity Pool

Outdoor Jacuzzi

BEACH:

If you’d been to Laiya, you probably know how the sand was. It’s white but not-fine kind of sand. But I like how that not-fine sand tickles my toes as I walked barefoot. Water sports facilities like pedal boat and kayak were complimentary with our stay too. But there were other fun activities available like banana boat and speed boat rentals. And if you’re a little romantic and can shed a little more than what you have actually spent, you can request for a dinner set-up by the beach.

With all the words written in this post, I can actually summarize our staycation in 1 word, F-U-N (ang dami ko pang sinabi noh). Here’s more photos just in case the photos above were not enough.    

               

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quezon City Memorial Circle

I’ve been itching to visit the place since it was introduced by my co-worker, they live near the place and they frequent it. He had all nice things to say about it which made me so curious. Thank goodness, last Saturday, mi familia was finally able to see it for ourselves. Apparently, my FIL is a regular jogger in that place, so that day, we went with him to jog and explore the place. We were at the place as early as… the sun had not yet rise but to our surprise many joggers were there ahead of us.  

But the QC Circle is not only for joggers, there are also numerous activities available for all, that includes all ages, all gender, all level of society and all species (yes, pets are everywhere). There is an area for boating and race track, called “paddle and ride”. There is also the playground area, where kids can play and slide 'till they drop. There's this mini-carnival which is called the "circle of life". There is also a place for adventure seekers where you can zip-line. Although these have minimal entrance fees, there are also entrance-free areas. Like the fountain, I heard that at night it has a dancing light and sounds, but during our visit, this place is the area for line-dancing and aerobics and take note, it has a professional instructor. There are also groups who do taekwondo and karate stuffs, although I’m not sure if it’s for members only. There is also the museum which showcases the life of Manuel L. Quezon, the father of the city and also the past mayors of the city. There is picnic area and of course my favorite the tiangge area, where you can buy plants, cloths, toys, pets and food.   

QC Memorial Circle is a great place for family get-away for less. If we have the opportunity, we’ll probably go back to try its other amenities. Unfortunately, I didn't come prepared, camera wise that is, its battery died on me, I was only able to take these few photos:

      

     

But we came prepared as joggers. We had running shoes, comfortable cloths, sweat towels and drinking water. We also did stretching before and after we ran.