Kabayan Beach Resort

Summer. I have planned a trip to Boracay Island in the Philippines supposedly for May. but the month of May entered with heavy rain showers and even a forecast of a storm. I dropped all the plans until I reached Manila on 12th of May. All throughout my first week of stay in Manila never rained so I had a last minute plan to go to the beach that is near Manila. I first planned to go to Subic but can't find a resort with a good beach water and a swimming pool. Next option was either Ternate, Cavite or Batangas. I found Aquatico Resort in Laiya upon browsing the net and immediately contacted them. The resort was fully booked. I contacted another 5 resorts in the area with the same response. I then settled for Kabayan Beach Resort in Laiya, San Juan even if the only available room they have was in the extension of the resort, which is about 80 meters away from the beach and outside the resort proper. The area is gated, adjacent to the main entrance of the resort. There are 4 cottages lined inside plus a staff house at the rear end. The first cottage as you enter the gate is Malungay cottage which accommodates 2 pax, the 3 other cottages are for 4 to 6 persons. Since internet booking is not available, to confirm the reservations, I was asked to pay 50% of the booking fee and deposited it to metrobank. A scanned copy of the receipt has to be faxed or emailed back to the resort and they will send you an email confirmation. I find this process very inconvenient!

Getting there. We took SLEX from Taguig and left home at 1230 noon time. The traffic was heavy. It took us an hour and 15 minutes to exit SLEX. From there we followed the signs to Laiya. The drive was smooth and signage are a lot, so even if we didn't check the detailed driving directions we printed from the hotel website, we reached the resort without a miss. Thumbs up to Batangas Officials for that! The total driving time from Manila to the resort was 4 hours!

The Petchay Cottage. It's an air conditioned bungalow with two queen size bed, a dresser and a wardrobe. Safety deposit box is also available inside the room to keep your important belongings. There is an attached bathroom clean and large enough. Outside the bedroom is a veranda with long table, a cabled tv, hot and cold water dispenser with free 5 gallons of mineral water, a refrigerator, cooking stove and utensils if you plan to cook. They encourage cooking so, you may bring in food without the usual corkage fee.

The Resort. Apart from the beach, there is a small swimming pool, a small chapel, restaurant and sari-sari store which sells just about anything like souvenir shirts. If you want to use the pool, you have to pay 100 pesos each and has to be in proper swimming attire. If you have forgotten to bring your swimsuits, its also available in their store.

The Beach. We woke up at 5:30 am to enjoy the beach before it gets crowded as it was a weekend. The sand was white but don't expect boracay sand of course. The water was very shallow and pebbly in the first 6 meters but clean.