Perfect Moments at Pico de Loro — Part 1
If you're a regular reader here, or follow my personal blog, you'll probably know that I'm a firm believer in making meaningful memories with the people we love.
This applies especially if you’re a parent with young children -- bonding with your kids, especially in new and exciting places, will certainly make for wonderful memories, ones that your kids will 'store' in their minds and hearts for years to come!
A few weeks ago, my family and I were blessed to have been able to make such memories -- we were invited to go to Pico de Loro Cove, and experience what it’s like to stay at the beautiful Pico Sands Hotel, as well as enjoy the amenities of the Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club.
Our host, Celine Arenillo, Area Marketing Communications Manager for Pico de Loro (and Taal Vista Hotel), had arranged for us to stay at Pico Sands Hotel with my good friend and fellow work-at-home blogging momma Patty Cuyugan of MrsPCuyugan.com. So it was a double treat for me personally, because I got to bond with Patty -- and our kids ended up bonding too!
Getting to Pico de Loro
Our overnight stay at Pico de Loro was scheduled on April 30 (Wednesday) to May 1 (Thursday), so we decided to leave our home in Quezon City early in case there was heavy weekday traffic.
Thanks to the directions on the Pico de Loro website (plus the Waze app on my husband’s tablet as a 'back-up') we were able to get to the hotel without getting lost, a bit earlier than we expected. We were even able to have a quick breakfast on the way -- one of the best parts of road trips, don't you think?
The kids and I also had fun looking at the different landscapes we saw on the way -- of course, the homeschool mom in me couldn’t help sharing with the kids bits and pieces of trivia about the things we were able to see!
We got to Pico Sands Hotel around 2 hours after we left home, before Celine and her other guests (Jo Tan from WhenInManila.com, and her family) did. Patty and her family were due to arrive later in the afternoon.
We whiled away the time snapping photos and checking out the areas near the hotel lobby (and chasing around our toddler!). I love that the staff at the hotel were super friendly and helpful, especially towards moms with young (and noisy!) kids like me!
Luscious lunch at Pico Restaurant
Once Celine and her other guests arrived, we proceeded to the front desk, where Celine accompanied us for the check-in process. It was very quick, which was a good thing, because there were SO many people there at the time -- it just goes to show how popular and well-loved the place is!
Upon check-in, we were given key cards to our rooms, a map of the grounds, a list of activities that we could do around Pico, and breakfast and beach towel coupons.
Each of us were also provided with waterproof wrist tags that would give us access to the beach and country club's amenities, some of which are exclusively for members only. The tags help to identify non-member guests from members and sponsored guests.
We then proceeded to the Pico Restaurant to have a sumptuous lunch of different delicacies, like the pepperoni pizza, shrimps sauteed in chili and garlic and one of the resident chef’s specialties, the Bulalo Osso Buco.
The kids were treated to pizza, crispy, yummy fried chicken and spaghetti. There was a lot of food left over, so we shamelessly offered to bring the leftovers with us to our room for the kids to snack on later! (Ha, ha!)
After our filling and delicious lunch, we proceeded to our room. We were given a premier room with a lovely view of the hotel grounds. This is what the room looks like if unoccupied:
And this is what the room looks like with us in it:
The toilet and bath was comfy and clean, though the kids did say they wished there was a bathtub so they could 'go swimming' in it! We loved the view from our balcony!
The kids immediately settled in but after around 10 minutes, they started asking us if they could already go swimming! We relented after a while so off we went to the swimming pool area of the Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club.
Needless to say, it was hard to get the kids to come out of the water!
But come out they did, so we could all get ready for the guided tour of the grounds with the other blogger guests, courtesy of Ms. Arenillo.
To find out what we saw during our guided tour, come back here next week for the last part of this 2-post series on Pico de Loro!
In the meantime, if you’re looking for somewhere to have a last ‘summer hurrah’ with your family and/or friends, do consider Pico de Loro! You will have a blast making perfect moments together, I assure you!
Pico Sands Hotel and the Pico de Loro Beach and Country Club can be found at Pico De Loro Cove, Hamilo Coast, Barangay Papaya, Nasugbu, Batangas.
Contact information:
Tel. no: +632 2147800 / +632 2147888 / +639178091289
Email: reservations@picosandshotel.com
Websites: http://picodelorocove.com / http://hamilocoast.com
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/picosandshotel
(Note: All photos except those with the TrulyRichMom.com watermark are courtesy of Pico de Loro’s Area Marketing and Communications Manager. Those with the MrsPCuyugan.com and WhenInManila.com / JoTan23.blogspot.com watermarks are used with permission from the respective owners.)
