Celebrating Five-Thirteen in Canyon Cove Beach Club

First off, five-thirteen means five years of married life and thirteen years of being together. We celebrated the day by going to the beach and we were all very excited as it was also Johan's first beach trip.

I bought a Metrodeal voucher priced at PhP 2,999 back in January and booked a room for our anniversary. I corresponded with the resort only through email and everything went smoothly from the day of the booking until the day that we arrived at the resort.

Upon arriving, I was glad that we were allowed to go up to our room even if we arrived an hour earlier from check-in time. My room requirements: a king-sized bed, an unobstructed view of the sea and a bathtub. All were available except for the bathtub which is really okay. The room is huge! It can fit more than four people!

I love almost everything about the room: the huge bed, the daybed, the private balcony, the clean bathroom. What only needs improvement is the air-conditioning which is only set to 20 degrees and it's not really installed in a good spot making the bed area not properly ventilated.Overall, the room is pretty nice.

Johan immediately declared the daybed as his own space, set up camp and stayed there the whole time. We rested a bit, waited for the sun not to be at its harshest and then we went down to explore the place.

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Looking out into the horizon

Johan announced that he was making sand angels!

Johan had so much fun at the beach! He even liked it better than the pool and won't leave until it got dark. When we finally coaxed him to move to the pool, we only stayed a while in the warm pool water until he saw the playground and pulled me out of the water.

When it was beginning to get dark, we carried the boy back to our room to bathe and rest for a bit while we wait for dinner time. Our voucher did not include any meals and our original plan was to get out of the resort for dinner and just eat in one of the fastfood chains located in a nearby town. But, given that the resort only allow guests access to the pool until nine in the evening, we decided to just stay and have dinner at the resort.

Wrong move. The price of the food at the resort is UNBELIEVABLE! The food concessionaires were Max's Restaurant and this BBQ place. We don't want to eat at Max's anymore so we chose to have barbecues for dinner. Imagine paying more than 500 pesos for the following: three tiny sticks of BBQ, 2 sticks of regular sized hotdogs, two cups of rice and two sodas in can. It is expensive!!

Nevertheless, I didn't let that dampen our spirits as we still have a night and half a day to stay at the resort. We finished our dinner, swam a little in the pool then Johan and I went up to the lobby to go online and post a few photos. Wi-fi is only available at the lobby which is both good and bad, good for those who wanted to have quality time with the family inside their rooms and at the beach or pool and bad for those social media addicts who cannot last a day without going online. I guess I am both in one way or another. Hehe! We left the husband at the pool as he wanted to do a few lapses without Johan constantly calling him while I and the kid went up to our room earlier so I could put him to bed.

Bagsak agad sa sobrang pagod

The next day, we got up early so we could make use of what little time we have at the resort. The boy was still so eager to go to the beach so as soon as we brushed our teeth, off we go!

Johan looking out the window to see if it's morning already

Ready to go to the beach!

Photo ops first while we still have the pool all to ourselves

The beach was very calm that morning

The only photo we have of the three of us in the pool

We only stayed for two hours in the water as the sun became too hot by 9AM. We went up to our room, ate the sandwiches and noodles that I was able to sneak into the resort, lounged on the bed and waited for check out.

Canyon Cove really is a nice resort. I only wish that they make the pool hours longer than just until nine in the evening and it wouldn't hurt to have more food concessionaires to choose from or at least make the cost of food cheaper so guests wouldn't have to sneak in food or go out of the resort to dine somewhere else.

We will definitely go back!

Canyon Cove Resort

Far East Road, Piloto Wawa

Nasugbu, Batangas

Philippines

Phone Number: +632.908.1111

A Weekend at the Valentino Resort and Spa

My sister, RK, turned 30 this year and she chose to celebrate her birthday with the rest of the family in a resort in Batangas. Too bad that the entire family cannot come to celebrate with us but nevertheless we still had loads of fun especially Johan who didn't want to leave the pool, ever.

Valentino Resort and Spa is located in San Jose, Batangas. It is a large resort with 4 swimming pools, a jacuzzi, basketball, tennis, badminton and volleyball courts, a fitness center, a children's playground, 5 huge villas that would fit a maximum of 8 people, rooms for two persons, dorm type rooms for larger groups, an event hall, a restaurant and a spa - yes it is that huge of a resort!

The Mediterranean Villa

The Contemporary Villa

There were 12 of us that went to the resort plus 2 kids so my sister chose to rent out 2 villas next to each other to accommodate everyone. The Mediterranean Villa has two rooms with 2 double beds each. This villa can house up to a maximum of 8 people. The other one is the Contemporary Villa  which only has one room with a queen-sized bed. This villa can fit up to six people.

Room 1 of the Mediterranean Villa

Room 2

Contemporary Villa room

The villas are quite nice-looking with only the basic furniture inside. Downside is that there are no refrigerators in any of the villas and even the guests are not allowed to cook food. However, there is a restaurant inside the resort where you can order your meals and the staff are kind enough to let you store your food in the restaurant's fridge.

The kiddie pool

Infinity Pool

Jacuzzi

There are four swimming pools inside the resort, three of which are just a few steps below our villa and the other one is located a few steps from the entrance to the resort. The Jacuzzi is installed at one corner of the Infinity pool and this is where we stayed until 12 midnight of November 23. Johan enjoyed the kiddie pool and even if he went under the water more than a few times, he still stood up, "swam" and had a great time!

Other facilities include an indoor basketball court, a fitness center, volleyball and tennis courts and a spa. Too bad that Papa didn't bring with him his rubber shoes and his tennis rackets, he would have enjoyed playing tennis here. The boys wanted to play basketball but the court rental is quite steep at 400 if you'll be playing during daytime and 600 if at night.

So we just settled ourselves in lots of picture taking, swimming and hanging out at the villa. Thank you to that person who invented the camera timer - we were able to take pics of everybody!

My Mom and two sisters with our niece, Zalia

Look up, look up!

It was a great almost 2 day stay at the resort and everybody sure had fun especially Johan who didn't want to get out of the pool. Hopefully, we can come back to this place soon.

Valentino Resort and Spa

Barangay Pinagtung-ulan, San Jose, Batangas

Telephone Number: (043) 783-0558

Mobile Numbers: +63917-5155936; +63918-4952338