Valentino Spa and Resort and a Side Trip to the famoue Batangas Lomi

It was quite a busy season, hence our summer outing was postponed until about early July. We were looking at other options but Valentino Spa has offered us a perfect overnight stay for our alloted budget for about 20 people.

We stayed in a 2 dorm type room, with 4 double deck beds; There were only 2 bathrooms, hence we took turns taking a bath; There were shower areas near the pool at the back of the location where we were situated at and it sure helped the boys so they left the two bathrooms mostly for us girls to use.

Valentino Spa and Resort offers Villas too, for families and friends alike. They have a spacious area, suitable for team buildings too. There were about 3 swimming pools, and a jacuzzi (that is always on).

Since it was past the peak season, we almost have the whole place all to ourselves. We were able to do some team activities without disrupting other patrons. It sure was a great place to relax and take a dip.

Here we are, waiting for our turn at the famous Corcolon's Lomi in Batangas! Its a must try if you are nearby. We waited close to an hour before we were served with our orders! It's cheap and tasty! Cholesterol overload, though. =)

 

Team Building @ Club Balai Isabel

It was something new for the team, Usually when there are team buildings, it is at the expense of the employee and there was no activity that would really bring out the employees' potential. This year, were different though. Given that our new head has endorsed a team building and was approved... We were scheduled to go to Club Balai Isabel. It was an overnight team building and we have about 5 activities that day so that we would build relationships, say whatever we want to share... and so on. 

Given this, we of course had little time to go around the place.. but of course we managed to do so and off we went to check out the place and see if its worth going in here. We actually thought we could swim in the lake... but then swimming was not allowed in the place and only water sports were allowed. Too bad, we were so close to the Taal volcano you can see it from one of the road in Club Balai Isabel. It would have felt really wonderful to swim and feel being in the same place as the famous volcano! 

The resort was huge, there were private villas, the one assigned to us had 3 rooms that could accommodate a total of 10 people at the very least. The villa had a comfort room in each of the bedrooms, a kitchen and a sala which is spacious as well. Hmm.. even with the supposed directions, i really found it hard to find places in this resort. The villas are all over the place, it was like a small subdivision... with the function hall and the pool side far from each other. he he 

The Pool was huge though, it looked like an infinity pool from the view... it has a kiddie pool and as you swim the pool gets deeper, even reaching up to 8 feet if i am not mistaken. :D Club Balai Isabel also has their own church, but unfortunately we weren't able to find it as you had to go around a certain road.

Bataan... Churches and Beaches (Montemar Beach Resort)

It was a clear day when we left manila at around 6AM. Heading towards the north with no clear plan at all.. We just have a list of Bataan hotels and resorts where we can stay for the night... not sure where exactly though. haha We have planned to stay in Balanga Crown royale Hotel, but passing thru the small "Inn" looking hotel, we decided not to stop by and I am sure we will only be staying in our rooms if we did stop there as the Balanga is the "city" of bataan where there are not much nature attractions.

First Stop was in Abucay - we went to view the Balanga Catholic Church. It was close at the time of our arrival and only the small chapel beside it was open. We managed to take a few pictures of the church's front facade, which is not very attractive compared to the Manila(Intramuros) area churches. The left side of the church is a cemetery(it does not look like a century old cemetery but a very common one). The right side of the church is where the small chapel is, it also has its office to its right with very little space for car parking.

After our stop to the said church, we headed off towards Bagac Bay, with the hopes of having an accomodation facing the beach; we were informed that the bagac beach is a nice place with cheap rates too. Unfortunately the bagac beaches have suffered greatly from the "Ondoy" typhoon, soome cottages still need to be cleaned and the beach shore needs to be cleaned as well. We did not stop and take aa further look around, as their day tour rate is a stagerring 300 bucks!!

Next option is Morong Beaches... But we called and have been answered by someone from the Montemar Beach Club, so we did not go to Morong and decided to go visit Montemar First. Their overnight rate is about 3100bucks with free breakfast and well, we were told that the Montemar has really nice rooms and the beach is also quite heavenly. Since we are in Bagac stopping by won't hurt anyway. We were asked to call the front office first prior to the guard allowing us go inside the resort vicinity. We were given a room at the first floor, sea and pool view, but we requested to have a room at the 2nd floor instead, and they allowed us to change rooms and did not even charge us an extra hour since we arrived prior to check in time. 

The view is really great, the waves are almost perfect, but the water is rough and not quite good for non-swimmers. The Montemar Beach is in between two land formations...

There are lots of things to do in this resort, 2 swimming pools, but the one is closed when we got there. We dipped into the blue pool, the water is cold, chlorine free! We enjoyed the almost an hour dip and chitchat at the pool because it was shaded and we were not much exposed to the heat of the sun at noon.

Non-water activities are available as well and there are spacious places for sports like basketball and volleyball, and even a small children's playground. There was also a hanging bridge joined and supported by two old trees, one must be careful climbing these trees as the structure needs to be repaired, some soft spots can cause accidents, so I did not dare try to cross it.

There are some cottages where you can relax and just listen to the beach waves, and the bird's sweet humming sounds... even the sounds of the dancing trees makes the day in relaxation perfect!

At sunset, the montemar beach isn't the best site for sunset viewing, here is a picture of the sunset here in Bagac... its just ordinary, but still romantic, in my opinion... The weather too is perfect, it was such a blessing that we did not encounter rains and have enjoyed going around the resort from "left" to "right". If it weren't for the cost, I would have loved to go to this place quite often. From the services, the courteous greetings, the beach shores, the huge rock formations, the trees, the spacious rooms even is just a perfect getaway! We were there at a time where the beach is not packed with people and it feels as though we have the place all to ourselves!

It was such a sad time thinking about leaving the place... :( I was so relaxed at this place, felt as though I am really close to nature, and though there are no other things we did at the place aside from walking from one beach side to the other, it seems like the time is not enough for more than that! Oh if other beaches have ant holes in the sand like the ones in potipot, Montemar beach has a number of baby crablets! haha they are not biting, but are really cute crustaceans that walks or crawls really fast when they see moving people on the shores. No worries about the sea water too, it is really very clear - like that of a fresh water body. Montemar, by the way is a Triple A rated resort, and it does feel like everything is indeed rated triple A in this resort. :)