Citylight Hotel in Baguio

Baguio has always been my favorite city in the Philippines. Baguio brings back childhood memories when my parents would bring me here and we would buy wooden toys and knitted sweaters. When I entered college, I studied in UP College Baguio and so the memories piled up that there are times I cannot bear to contain them anymore. Studying in Baguio has seen me grow from being a child to a young adult. Living away from my family became less dreadful because the fact that I am living in Baguio. It is the city that ushered my independence and has helped me a lot with regards to my self-confidence. It is where I met my dorm roommates who are now my lifelong friends. Baguio has seen me in aspects I myself did not realize I have in my personality. And even long after I left Baguio and pursued the rest of my college education here in UP Diliman, I always go back to Baguio just to reminisce and feel the cool breeze Baguio is well known for.

However, looking for a place to stay in Baguio has always been a hit and miss. Despite the fact that I always return, I do not have a particular hotel or BnB that I can always vouch for. I've stayed in so many hotels in Baguio but there's still none that I want to return to again. Anyway, for our most recent trip, we opted to stay in Citylight Hotel along Gen. Luna Road upon the recommendation of my mom.

Location wise, it is near the Katedral ng Baguio, and walking distance to Session Road. However, because the road is steep (as most Baguio roads are), it is quite inconvenient for a senior citizen, or parents with little kids to walk to and from the hotel. Hailing a cab can be quite a challenge especially during weekends. Because Gen. Luna isn't along the main thoroughfare, only a handful of cabs pass along it, and they most of the time have passengers.

Lobby is quite impressive considering Baguio hotel standards. It is spacious and welcoming and they have nice, new couches. There is free wifi in the lobby and free coffee and juice is overflowing.

The room that we chose is indeed spacious. Having stayed in hotels in Hongkong and Singapore, I am used to small rooms where you almost have no space to place your luggages. Citylight's rooms are huge, and the beds are, too! Upon booking, we know we are staying in a room with two queen sized beds.But upon entering, we find the queen sized beds can pass for a king-sized. The room is clean and new and they have not much decorations, which is a thumbs up for me. Faucet and shower are working, though a bidet could've been helpful. The only downside was that we were given a room with no view. And since it was only a second floor room, our windows, when opened, do not give us the fresh, cool Baguio air.

Breakfast buffet, I believe is one of the things this hotel is known for. They have a wide spread of choices and they accommodate walk-ins. Because of this, they hold the said buffet both in their in-house restaurant on the ground floor as well as on the penthouse. The ambience at the penthouse is far relaxing than on the ground, though.



All in all, it was a nice stay. It wasn't amazing, but yes, I would still recommend the place if you don't mind the walking. We found this out the hard way especially on our last day in the city, when we had lots of shopping bags and loads of fresh produce from the market with us and we couldn't book a taxi.

Hundred Islands Tour Part 2

In connection to my previous post about our family trip to Alaminos, Pangasinan, particularly in Hundred Islands, I will be sharing with you now the contents of the official flyer/price list of the amenities and activities available in the said tourist attraction. So here goes:

All entries are in Philippine Peso.

Environmental Fee P40.00 / person for Day Tour P80.00 /person for Overnight Tour
Entrance Fee/IPAF P30.00 / person

Note: Free 5 years old and below
Senior Citizen/ PWD Discount: 20%

Insurance (Effective for 24 hours) P10.00 / person

Activities

Zipline (546 m) in Governor's Island 250/jump
Zipline (120m) in Quezon Island 100/jump
Wall Climbing 50/pax
Rapeling 50/pax
3 in 1 package 175
Banana Boat (max 7 pax) 1,500 per ride
Helmet Diving 400/dive (20 mins)
Kayaking (max 2 pax) 250/hour
Snorkeling 250/set gear rental

Motorboat Rates

TOUR TYPE (boat size) One Day Tour with Service Boat Two Day Tour with Service Boat
Small (1-5 passengers) 1,400.00 3,000.00
Medium (10 passengers) 1,800.00 3,800.00
Large (11-15 passengers) 2,000.00 4,500.00

*Rates are subject to change without prior notice.

Hundred Islands Adventure in Pangasinan

For Holy Week 2016, me and my husband wanted to go someplace that's close to nature. Summer last year was a bit boring for us as we only stayed home, mainly because I had so many work deadlines and he was scheduled for a surgery last May. Our helper also went on a month-long vacation and we both felt overwhelmed by the tasks at hand.

Anyway, this year our helper had left for good but surprisingly, we felt more able to do more. Haha! Going on an out of town trip including. I first considered Puerto Galera while my husband suggested the Hundred Islands. It's been years since I last went to Galera; and the same goes for him with regards to Hundred Islands. To cut my usual long introduction short, I researched on Alaminos hotels and found Casa Del Camba. I immediately liked what I saw and read, though I was close to booking another place that's a bit cheaper yet less enticing in the photos.

Anyway, here are my personal tips/take-aways about our 3 day Pangasinan trip:


1. Don't go during the Holy Week. Traffic in NLEX is horrible. SCTEX and TPLEX are amazingly fast though.
2. Have your private vehicle checked-up for the long drive.
3. If commuting, check the schedules of major bus companies like Victory Liner. If I'm not mistaken, they have hourly trips to Alaminos.
4. Take the Camiling, Tarlac route. It's a lot easier to get to Alaminos if you take this route. We had to pass by my husband's ancestral home and visit my in laws in Calasiao, thus making our travel time a lot longer.
5. If taking private vehicle, make sure you have allocation for toll fees. Ours was around P500+ one way!
6. Gas up while in Manila. We noticed the diesel price were more expensive in Pangasinan.
7. As much as possible, book a room in Casa Del Camba. The hospitality of the staff and the owners are amazing. They just opened in December last year thus the rooms are all very clean and without the usual foul smell of old and dusty lodges and inns.

8. Sit back, relax and just have Casa Del Camba arrange your Island Tour for you. Their staff will be the one to line up and register for you.

9. Food in Hundred Islands are expensive so better arrange for take-out food in Casa Del Camba's restaurant. We realized this too late, that's why we had to buy groceries down town as baon for our boat tour on Day 2.

10. If you have kids, the Children's Island, they say, is more kid-friendly when it comes to shoreline and depth of the water.

11. We stayed in Quezon Island as we wanted to be "where the crowd and the activities are," thus it took us quite a while to find a spot to spread our mat and our stuff. Cottages and tables for rent are limited.

12. Since we are only a group of three (our family driver opted to rest on Day 2 so he didn't join the Island Tour), we got the small boat which costs P1,400.00 plus P80 (per pax) for insurance and entrance and environmental fees.
13. There are other islands where you can stay, like the Governor's Island, Braganza Island, Cuenco Island, among others. You may ask your boat man for the differences between these islands. Though a lot would agree with me when I say that they're all just the same.
14. Souvenirs are a bit more expensive in Quezon Island than on Lucap Wharf (where you will be starting and ending your boat tour). I got a set of 5 keychains in Quezon island which costs P100.00 but when we docked in Lucap Wharf, the same kind and design was only P70.00. A shell paper weight costs P150 but I was able to haggle to P100, and a set of 3 ref magnets cost me P150 though original price was P200.
15. On our way home, we took the Dagupan route again as it is really part of our itinerary to buy boneless Bangus, fresh oysters, shrimps and crabs. Since my husband is from Calasiao and he missed the Puto Calasiao so much, he also bought bags of those as well and packs of sampaloc candies (P10 each) and bukayo (P12 each).

16. All in all, it was a fun and blessed trip. Everything, except for the NLEX traffic was smooth. We will always cherish this memory of our Pangasinan trip, as much as we do our other travels as a family.

Travel Scrapbook

For my daughter's Social Studies project, they were asked to come up with a Travel Scrapbook. Eventhough they were given 2 weeks to prepare it, we found ourselves cramming over the weekend due to the power interruption that happened last week and lasted for 5 days in our subdivision. Glad we were able to beat the deadline. Here are some of the pages...

Cover Page:

The Table of Contents:

Of course, some of her growing up pics:

We decided to start with our trip to Hongkong, my daughter's first trip out of the country:

Then off to Singapore...

A few pages for our Universal Studios visit...

A couple of pages for our Malaysia trip...

And a few of our Philippine rendezvous...

The whole task of sorting out the photos and choosing which ones to print, as well as the process of pasting, embellishing and laying out the whole thing was in itself a blessing. For this project reminded me how good, gracious, and faithful the Lord is. He has caused us to afford these vacations and He has blessed us with wonderful memories. For sure, the same sweet Jesus will allow us to prosper and travel more and live long, healthy and abundant lives. To God be the Glory!