As you have seen from my previous blogs, I spent 4 weeks in the Philippines in October.
I absolutely loved every second of it and I cannot wait to get to visit that beautiful country again.
I partnered up with Astoria Hotels and so far, I've introduced you Astoria Palawan (in Palawan island) and Astoria Current (Boracay Island, station 3) and on this blog post I will introduce you the last, but certainly not the least of these 3; Astoria Boracay (in the island of Boracay, at station 2).
You may check out hotel's website here:
Astoria Boracay (click here to open the link)
This peaceful resort has 71 rooms and is located between tranquil station 1 and lively station 3.
The hotel has 5 room types; Deluxe room (29 m2), Deluxe Pool Room (same amenities as Deluxe room but this one has direct access to the pool), Luxury Room, Premier room and the enchanting, romantic Honeymoon suite (50 m2) that comes with a jacuzzi and a private veranda.
It's a building of only 2 floors, so there isn't much climbing up the stairs which is suitable especially for people traveling with children and also ground floor rooms are very easy to access, not to mention the fact that the pool is literally right there, say 10 steps away from the door, which is something that
pretty much everyone can appreciate.
Arrival
Since we stayed at Astoria Current first, it was such an easy transfer, from one hotel to the next one, all we had to do was pack our bags and our private transportation van was ready to take us there.
I had already met the general manager of the Astoria Boracay earlier so all the necessary info was delivered to them prior to our arrival. (For example food allergies etc.)
Once we arrived to Astoria Boracay it only took about 5 min and we were ready to get to our room.
We got to choose from two different room types, one on the ground floor and one with the balcony and for me, it was an obvious choice, the one with the balcony.
Room
Our room was a Luxury Room.
Our first impression of the room was very positive. The room was colorful, just like all Astoria hotels are, which I really like. It had kitchenette, fully equipped bathroom (shower & bath) along with all the wonderful Astoria products. I very much appreciated, once again, those flipflops that guests get to their disposal. It is so practical and such a smart move.
Naturally, the room had all the same amenities that other rooms have too: Complimentary coffee and tea making facilities and also breakfast buffet was included. There is also A/C, refrigerator, LCD TV + cable channels, DVD player, wifi, electronic safe and like I mentioned earlier, complete bathroom and toilet amenities.
On top of this, always so kind and helpful General Manager Yves provided us with welcome drinks along with a lovely bottle of red wine in our room. We truly felt welcome. Everyone is truly genuinely nice here. They always greet you with a smile and are willing to help with whatever it is that you need.
Pool and beach area
There is one pool in this hotel. There is also a separate pool for kids and a small slide for them as well. The cool thing about the pool is that it has colored lights at night time, which makes it look really fun.
There are sun two types of awesome sun loungers by the pool, ones without any shade and ones with a roof type shade on them. There is also a staff member always on site as well and you get towels from them, so no need to have one or take one from your room, very handy.
And those towels are large and good quality, I pay attention to such details especially since I have long hair so when I wrap a towel around my hair, it's normally soaking wet unless it's good quality, these didn't even get properly wet, even though they really dried my hair, for me that says quality.
This is the world-famous Boracay Island, which means that a) it's pretty windy, sailing and kite surfing are a huge deal here b) there are some pretty spectacular beaches here!
Unfortunately, it was the monsoon season while we were there so we missed out some of the excursions we planned on doing, for example, a sailboat tour around the island and a sailboat trip to Crocodile island as we heard that snorkeling there is pretty good. We also wanted to check out those other beaches of the island but it really rained quite a bit, actually, even a tropical storm hit the island during our stay, which meant that we missed out on some of the things that were on our list.
We did experience some stunning, sunny days as well, and on those days, I hit the beach immediately.
The Whitebeach is literally white. That sand is so bright and white and the color of the ocean is mesmerizingly turquoise.
Having such a beautiful day we decided to turn to the right from the hotel and start walking towards the end of the beach. That was probably one of the nicest walks ever, I loved how clean everything was. How happy people were. How beautiful everything was.
We also came across with this oddly shaped volcanic formation that was topped by a statue of Virgin Mary. We found out that this little island like formation was called Willy's rock.
We kept on walking until we reached the end of that part of the beach. We noticed that there was a paved pathway across the rocks, the place was called Lambros point, and it looks so fascinating that I just had to check it out.
There was a funny hole in the wall, I presume it had been formed by nature during last hundreds of years (not sure, but thinking that made it feel more fascinating!).
On the other side of the rocks, there was this jumping platform that local kids used to jump off, straight to the ocean. It was so much fun to watch them having fun, laughing and screaming. They were so comfortable with the water, which we later realized wasn't deep at all. We asked if it's ok for us to take photos of their jumps and they were totally cool about it. I think we weren't the only ones to ask that. I have to admit though, we didn't dare to jump, but based on how fearlessly these kids jumped off, it would have been piece of cake.
One thing I love about this beautiful country - among other amazing things - is that everyone speaks English at least to the certain extent as it is compulsory to study it at school. Communicating with people was so much easier in comparison to some other Asian countries. Also, since their language has some similarities to Spanish I found it funny that I actually understood a word or two every now and then and I couldn't be further away from my country.
After our little excursion, we were so thirsty, it was partly cloudy but a very hot day, literally calm before that storm, so we decided to go for drinks to the bar at the end of the beach, the bar was called Steve's Cliff.
Not the cheapest bar on the island, I'm sure, but I loved the vibes there and the view was out of this world. (Besides, comparing to Finnish prices, everything is very affordable here!)
And the beach and that intriguing ocean aren't just absolutely incredible during the day, those sunsets are something that I simply cannot describe even if I tried; unique, breathtaking, colorful, fascinating and unlike anything I've seen before!
People who saw me on the beach probably considered me as someone who's never seen the ocean before, as I was so stunned by its beauty, the color of the water was literally the most turquoise I've ever seen anywhere!
I could've sat there for hours, just watching those waves crashing the white sandy beach, sun rays hitting the surface of the turquoise ocean, clouds passing the sun during the fiery sunset, feeling the warmth of the sun and just breathing in those calming, empowering vibes. Colors during the sunset were never the same, one night orange was the main color, the next, everything seems to be blue and then, the next night, everything had shades of green... No words to describe.
I truly felt simply happy just by watching all that natural beauty. I felt like there's nothing else I need at that very moment. I just smiled like a kid on a Christmas morning, as if I just received the best gift ever!
Food, food, food!
Hotel breakfast serves a large variety/mix of Philipino & American cuisine, so there is plenty to chooses from and one can be certain that there is something for everyone.
There is an amazing buffet dinner serving every night along with live music and shows on the beach side.
However, we mostly ate à la carte meals due to food allergies.
On our first night, we enjoyed a proper 5-course dinner along with a lovely bottle of Pommery Champagne. Needless to say, we absolutely LOVED IT! We both have different food restrictions and all of them were taken into consideration, which was very much appreciated.
We had our own, private setting on the balcony of the restaurant, facing the beach and the live shows that we were able to watch from there. It was truly luxurious.
Chef Cester is an absolutely a star, I suggest this hotel never lets him go! His dishes are something else. He even prepared me my favorite, that one dish that I want to try everywhere I go: Pasta Gorgonzola and yes, he delivered - it was excellent!
I consider most of these meals I ate in this hotel the best meals I've ever had on my journeys and that is quite a statement coming from me, who travels all the time! I can't wait to get back one day and experience that lovely food again and of course those long walks on that amazing beach.
It wasn't just our first night but every single day after that we enjoyed our meals.
Since the storm, (that was actually a tail of a typhoon that was in Japan) hit the island during our stay, we preferred to dine in our room a few times and even then the food was nothing less than excellent. This hotel also has an excellent pastry chef, it was easy to tell when checking out those desserts on the dinner buffet.
Catch a cold - get a doctor, no problem!
My partner got a cold at previous Astoria hotel and after a couple of days here, I got it. It was some kind of flu virus which I normally suffer from only maybe two days, but this time it wasn't that easy and, since I needed to get better as our 26 hr journey home was about to begin on the last day, the hotel's general manager Yves suggested that I see a doctor so that I get some meds that make me feel better during the travels. It took maybe an hour and a nice female doctor along with her nurse came to see me in my room. They examined me, the doctor prescribed some meds (that were actually very helpful!) and they even delivered those meds to my room! All this cost about 50 euros, whereas in Finland, the minimum is about 90 euros and that is when you go to the clinic, doctor is not going to come to your home to treat you, and those who do, charge a whole lot more than 50 euros, probably around 300 euros and that doesn't even include tests...
I figured if I had to get sick during my travels, this was an excellent place for that to happen. I felt better already 1 day later. Hope my sincere thanks reach this lovely doctor and her nurse.
What else is there?
In case someone is interested in what else is there, around the hotel, I can say, pretty much everything you need you find within walking distance. We even used the same laundry than when we stayed at Astoria Current, it was only maybe 2 km. There is a supermarket maybe 150 m from the hotel, however, please keep in mind that traffic is nothing like in western countries so, please, pay attention when crossing the streets.
If you want to go and explore the island you can rent a car and a driver from the hotel's reception. If you feel like you want to try something more adventurous, check out the local three-wheelers. They are wild! They are half the size of a standard car, so they get around much easier. However, since space in them is very limited, I wouldn't get into one with too much luggage...
It was an absolute joy to experience all this but I have to say I was quite sad to leave. Once we got to the shore and saw our boat (in the photo below) it really hit me, our 4 weeks in the Philippines, the country I've always wanted to visit, was over. It was only 5 min boat ride and we got to Caticlan, wherein the airport is.
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| Photo 1. Local transportation vehicle: Three-wheeler Photo 2. Our boat to the island of Caticlan |
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| The Port of Boracay - so beautiful! |
You can check out Astoria Boracay's Promotions here, don't miss them, who knows they may have the perfect deal for you!
ASTORIA BORACAY - PROMOS! (click this to open the link)
When you see the above sign on the side of a building while walking through the Station 2 and you're in Boracay, make sure to step in and order a delicious meal, and please, tell Chef Chester and General Manager Yves that Mia said Hi!
Thank you for reading this and sharing a link to this blog with your followers!
All the best to you all, happy days and safe travels!
💖💖💖
With Love,
Mia
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