Follow your Bliss at Stilts

When we had our vacation in the Philippines last month, I told my family that I wanted to go somewhere serene, relaxing and would allow me to swim a lot. After researching on a lot of beach resorts, we decided to try Stilts Calatagan Resort, which is in Batangas.

We made a reservation thru phone, and the good thing was they still have one last available accommodation despite booking two days before our arrival date. After paying atleast 50% of the cottage price, our overnight trip was confirmed (we extended for another night, upon my Pop’s request).

We left early Sunday morning and the traffic was still light. Then we made a stopover at our favorite Bulalo restaurant in Tagaytay for lunch. I believe it took us like 4 ½ hours to reach the resort.

Accommodation

We initially wanted to reserve a floating cottage, but since this was a last minute booking, the only available then was the large beach cottage (named Delight). The one we got was really spacious and big enough for us (we were 7 pax then). It has 2 rooms, living area, kitchen, dining and 3 bathrooms with toilet. The shore in front of our cottage was also allotted just for our use.

The rooms

Living area, Dining and Kitchen

Main door of Delight cottage

Shoreline allotted for Delight guests

The only problem that we encountered with the cottage was the kulisap (Sorry, I don’t know this in English) and ants which were all over the place. When we reported this, the staffs eagerly vacuumed the kulisap and cleaned the ants. They even gave us water based Baygon just incase the insects showed up again.

Below are some of the other types of accommodation that the resort offers.

Tree house and Floating cottage

Beach Area

I enjoyed staying at the shoreline since the view was somewhat relaxing to my eyes, add to that the white and fine sand. However, the beach fell short of my expectation due to low tide and floating sea weeds. I actually didn’t get to swim a lot at the beach, good thing there was a large swimming pool.

View from the floating cottage

View from the beach cottage

See the pile of seaweeds on the shore? Those were removed from the water, but there were still a lot left floating.

Restaurant / Food

Included on our package was a buffet breakfast (plated breakfast if there are few guests). They’ve got a lot of selections; from rice, breakfast dishes, eggs (cooked upon your request), fruits, cereals, breads, pancakes and crepes.

Their restaurant also offers a lot of food varieties for lunch and dinner. You can also request to either serve the food at the restaurant or deliver it to your cottage. The serving size is also good for sharing. By the way, there’s applicable corkage fees once you bring in food and drinks.

Activities / Amenities

The resort offers different activities like snorkelling, boat ride, kayaking and a lot. I just didn’t try any of these since I am already fine swimming in the pool, wandering around and relaxing at the shoreline.

Swimming pools

Resort map and the activity booking center

Greenery parts of the resort

Staff

I would like to commend all the staffs for being so helpful and accommodating with everything that we need.  They even lend my parents a “panungkit” since they wanted to pick some ripe duhat (they asked permission to do this.. hahaha).

Quotable Quotes

Yep, there are a lot of inspiring quotes scattered all around the resort. Below are just some:

Photos courtesy of my sisters

I would say that we had a fun and memorable stay at the Stilts. The resort is good for family getaways, honeymoons, company outings, soul searching, pre-nuptial pictorials and even for weddings. Given a chance, I would love to go back, to relax once again and try the activities that they offer. Hopefully by that time I can also get a discount since I find their rates too pricey.

For more information you may visit their website.