COSTA VILLA BEACH RESORT: Family Fun and Surfing

While Baguio City is still one of the premier destinations during the Holy Week, people tend to want to hit two birds with one stone. After getting some r&r in the cool climes of the City of Pines, a brief or overnight sojourn to the beach soon follows before the weary travel shoves off to home.

Costa Villa's beachfront

And since Baguio is a mere 45 minutes from San Juan, the most happening surf town in the north, learning how to surf may just be the perfect end to a long vacation. 

There are a lot of perfectly decent resorts in San Juan La Union especially those that offer surfing lessons. But if you ever find yourself missing out on the last room in those resorts, here’s a pretty decent alternative for you and your family: Costa Villa.

Our last trip to the place was triggered by the need to warm up, and get some sun, after the plummeting temperatures here in Baguio City.

 We were a group of 3 kids and 3 adults. It was a spur of the moment booking via agoda.com, and we were faced with the uncertainty of getting x amount of rooms. Thankfully, we were not disappointed in our decision.

cottage #17

Renting out their apartelle for an overnight stay, the uber helpful and friendly staff helped us settle in our home away from home. The place is enough to fit a family of 6 comfortably. 

While there was only a queen bed in the solitary bedroom upstairs, there was an adequate amount of mattresses and corresponding pillows and sheets to make the night’s 40 winks, A1.

An ensuite bathroom that had hot water was reliable. Nothing special.

A small balcony gave us our little nook to see the night sky and to hang our wet swim stuff dry.

Down below was our own living room, dining area and small kitchen, that had all the basics (stove, fridge, utensils and pots and pans), should one want to cook.

The resort also has it’s own restaurant. The food should be better now, as the lackadaisical cook we encountered is now gone.

Restaurant's just above the pool area

Should you not want to eat there, a good many food establishments are 10 to 15 minutes away, some housed in a not so far mall that has a Puregold Supermarket as it’s ground floor. 

In close proximity to the other “Surfing” resorts, Costa Villa does rent out gear and offers lessons. However, the waves in the area are quite wicked that they make you sign a waiver prior to hitting the waves. For novices, they highly recommend surfing in another area.

The place, if anything, is clean. They also have a covered pool for those who want to swim without the sun burning down on them.

Aside from that one isolated incident with the cook and his knowledge (lack of) on the food and beverage industry, we had a pleasant stay. It’s not the Ritz, but hey..we’re mediocre that way :)

For a look at their quite cost effective rates, services and facilities, please visit their website  (PLEASE CLICK HERE).

From TMW, may your wanderings be better than ours!

RASA PURA: Bringing A Little Bit of Singapore To Baguio

 
If you're coming up to Baguio anytime soon and would like to eat awesome Singaporean cuisine, drop by #42 CM Recto cor. Leonard Wood Road, a.k.a. Rasa Pura.

Opened in late 2013, Rasa Pura has had a good mix of reviews. Out of curiosity, we sampled their nomnoms and found our food choices to be quite excellent.

Getting there is quite simple. If you're in front of the Baguio Botanical Gardens, there's a road across it that leads into CM Recto. Lots of signage now, so keep your eyes open. Parking is easy, there's enough space at the building's carpark, and more at the street in front of it. It's a pretty safe neighborhood and they do have guards out front.

Upon getting there, climb (no elevator) 2 floors up to check out the restaurant run by an authentic Singaporean chef, Joseph Cho.

I loved the place from the get go. Its' modern yet cozy ambiance, enhanced by the avant garde metal works on the walls and ceilings down to the trendy dividers give you your own "nook" even if it gets crowded during the lunch or dinner rush. Not to mention the wood and wicker furniture filling up the place.

The menu is quite extensive with a whole lot of everything for everyone. Because of it's size, I've added a link of their menu (PLEASE CLICK HERE) but posted below some of their specials.

Price wise, it's a bit pricier compared to normal Baguio rates but quite average when compared to a meal in a decent restaurant in Manila.

They do however offer various serving sizes which you could use to tweak your meal budget.

They've also thrown in set meals to make selection easier.

This place is not fast food, so expect a slight wait for your food. Props to the staff though as service was fast and efficient. The staff was knowledgeable and when they weren't sure, did strive to answer customer food queries after asking about it from someone more in the know. Everyone was so gosh darn pleasant too! ;-)

Of course, being a Singaporean restaurant and all, the specialty of the place are mud crabs. Cooked in more ways than you'd like (hard to choose what not to get, they all sounded great!), the  huge tank of large live mud crabs, assure you of the best crab meat in town! Of course, curry fish head  is another specialty, but we plan to try that another day.

As there were only 3 of us, we got the smallest female crab at that time (750 grams) and had it done in the famous Singaporean chili crab style we've grown to love. Served with the best cuapao ever (which was made fresh - plump, soft, with a slight crust), trying to leave space in my belly was a tall order. Add 2 appetizers and fried rice, to say we were stuffed to the gills was an understatement.

Crab was perfect, the shell cracked strategically to make meat extraction easier. Of course the tools of the crab eating trade were all complete. The sweetness of the fresh crab meat merging with the spicy, robust flavors of the egg-y (is this even a word?), rich sauce was just heaven!

While the chili crab was the star of our meal, the other stuff accompanying it wasn't bad either. For starters, trying out their Teochow Prawn Rolls was a good face stuffer while waiting for the main dish. It's like a really nice fish ball (have you tried the ones in Thailand? Like those fishballs.), with a sweet shrimp taste. It's complemented with a sweet chili sauce dip. Our son MAX loved these rolls.

Of course, being the Asians that we are, we just had to order some good ol spicy fried rice. Of course, I think they used the word spicy too loosely. Ask for an extra glass  iced water if and when you order this.

Then there was the pork satay. We carnivores would not have enjoyed the meat as much without that oh so fabulous peanut sauce that came with it.

To see what you're missing out on (and while I dream in detail of my next Rasa Pura food trip, or is it food vacay?), here's a peek at their Facebook page.

one satisfied custo..burp!...mer

From TMW, may all your wanderings be better than ours!