Maldives is one destination most of us mortals have on our bucket list. The cottages on the water are so picture perfect and Instagram worthy that so many people dream of going there.
But did you know that you don't have to go to Maldives to experience staying in a cottage located right on the water? Yes, there's a place like that in the Philippines. It may not be as grand as the Maldives, but this place is also beautiful on its own. I am talking about the Calatagan Stilts Beach Resort in Calatagan, Batangas.
It was a spur of the moment decision to drive and just go and breathe in the salty breeze. We left Manila just before 10 AM, we stopped briefly for lunch in Tagaytay, and continued on and arrived at the resort just around 3 PM.
We were just asked to pay for the entrance fee since we were too late to pay for the day trip fee. It was PHP480 per person, and with that fee, you can swim in their four swimming pools and roam around the area and take IG worthy pictures.
We arrived just in time to see this beautiful rainbow. This is the most vivid rainbow I have seen my whole life. It doesn't look vivid in the photo but it was really so beautiful!
It even looked nice from the parking lot! :)
We did not do much- we swam a bit in one of their pools, we walked around taking pictures, we lounged and had some snacks and waited for the sunset.
The resort is huge, and aside from swimming, there are other activities you can do. They have water sports, and they also have ATVs that you can drive around the area.
The resort is also a popular venue for weddings, prenup photoshoots and just about any event that you could think of. Imagine this gazebo decorated, and the sunset at the beach as the background for an evening wedding.
This is two of their four pools. We swam at the lower pool, which is the deepest pool in the resort. The water is 6 ft deep, so if you can't swim, better use the other pools. :-)
There are several cottages on the water, some by the beach, some rooms are as tree houses, so you can choose a room that fits your mood. Prices vary from size and season, of course.
The grounds are very well maintained.
I even enjoyed one of their hammocks for a while.
Here are the cottages just as the sunset was starting. The color of the sky was beautiful.
We watched the sun slowly go down, until it was just a line on top of the water.
Around that time a family moved in front of me, and I took this picture as well.
I took this picture from the walkways going to the cottages on the beach. The sun on top of the roof is just so nice.
Took different photos from different angles. I just couldn't take enough!
I took this picture of one of the outer pools just as we were leaving. The color of the sky was just dramatic.
This is a game called 'sungka', where in you need to scatter the shells one by one and not have to put your last in an empty hole. Doing that would lose your turn.
These are the two other pools. They are located right by the reception for day trippers like us.
The sun at different times and from different vantage points.
The water at the beach is just knee-deep for quite a distance- about a kilometer or so. So if you want to ride a boat or do any water sport, you'd have to walk quite a distance to get to the boarding point.
We also walked in the knee deep water and encountered quite a lot of sea creatures. There were small eels, a lot of starfish, sea slugs and sea cucumbers. It was fun seeing them since the water was very clear.
There were so many of this kind of starfish, it was like a breeding ground, so since we did not want to step on them, we got out of the water.
We even said hello to a hermit crab passing us by.
Just love taking pictures of things like this.
The reception area for day trips. There is another reception area for those staying the night.
We went to take pictures by the cottages on stilts. Picture taking is allowed, just don't go disturbing the privacy of the people staying in the cottages.
These are the names of the cottages in the water.
Imagine waking up in the morning, open your door, get down a few steps of stairs and you can swim in the water. If it's too shallow, then I guess you can just dip your feet or walk around, ha ha!
The restaurant. We only bought drinks to quench our thirst. We had snacks with us.
It was a nice experience, and it was nice breathing in the sea breeze for a few hours. I definitely recommend this place, even just for the beautiful sunset!
For more travel articles, you can go to this page. Please look forward to more travels as I will be visiting Seoul again in the next few days!
Comments
Post a Comment