La Luz est La Vie (La Luz Beach Resort, Laiya Batangas)
By altumviditur on March 6, 2010
Yes, La Luz is the life.
At least for weekend getaways and short vacations, La Luz Beach Resort will offer you a very relaxing and worry-free stay.
I can’t remember when or where I first heard of La Luz but every time I search for blogs and information about it, a certain image comes up — an image of a pair of lounge chairs fronting the sea. This could be one of the resort’s best features.
Lounge chairs fronting the blue sea
Since most of the write ups I’ve read says that the place is usually fully booked on weekends, I emailed La Luz for a booking on Feb 27-28. No one replied at first until I sent an SMS to their mobile phone. A reservation officer named Erna replied to my inquiry. Some of my last inquiries, she did not answered that’s why I had to text their mobile phone again, and call their office to clarify some things. Cherry, another reservation officer replied, until I paid my reservation fee of 50% on Friday, then Cherry sent the confirmation email to me.
It’s another housemates’ road trip, much like when we went to Subic, stayed at the beach and went to Zoobic.
Day 1 at La Luz Beach Resort
We planned to arrive at 12 noon and we were only late by 10 minutes. In the parking area, a staff approached us to help us with our thing, then down to the information and registration desk, we were greeted by friendly staff and a welcome drink (gulaman). Then we were ushered to our room at the Annex, near the day trip area.
Newly opened Annex rooms
The room is for four people and there were only two towels and two pillows set when we arrived so we requested for extra pillows and towels for our room and everything was delivered quickly. The staff at the desk would radio in the requests to the staff that’s probably stationed in the Annex, so service was fast.
Our room at Annex 2-C
There were probably no day-trippers at that time so we were lucky that our side of the resort had very few guests staying in the cabanas and the lounge chairs, unlike in the main area where the rooms where fully booked. Most people were hanging out at that side of the beach.
Junior Premier Rooms at the main resort area
There are naughty monkeys tied up in the tree near the dining hall. One of them has an amputated arm, but still very playful and snob at times. He did not like us taking his pictures while he was eating. Maybe he thought we’d take his cookie away.
monkey with the amputated arm
We freshened up when we get to our lovely room then charged to the dining hall where the lunch buffet was served. There’s chicken, pork, vegetables and fish, and water and juice. There’s burong mangga and a sweet yam-banana for dessert. We stayed in the dining hall until around 2PM, just chitchatting and having a lazy afternoon. We then went to one of the cabanas and fell asleep. We awoke at 4PM, then it’s already time for snacks, so we had snacks. We were still full from lunch.
Kalai with the ball
Then we played volleyball and was supposed to try out the Kayak and I really wanted to snorkel but Amrei said we can just wake up early the next day for that, since it might get dark anytime. Nick and Kalai took a dip at around 5:30 PM. Amrei and I went to the rock formations at one end of La Luz to see the changing skies because of sunset. Though the sunset is blocked by mountains. These could be what the mountaineers call as Gulugod-Baboy, a mountain area with three peaks.
beautiful sunset sky
We scheduled a massage at 830 PM, right after dinner. The massage is Php 250, which will be done in the cabanas. After the massage, we got our drinks and got a bucket of ice and played Pinoy Henyo. But a lesser competitive version. We also played “dugtungan” (one player will sing a famous song then the next player will continue with another song using the last word that the first player sang) just to pass the time because it was still early. At 12 midnight, we were all getting ready to sleep.
Day 2 at La Luz Beach Resort
We woke up early on Sunday to be able to kayak, snorkel and swim, since we were so lazy on our first day.
I got all my gears ready — waterproof camera, snorkel and mask, booties and life jacket. I was ready for adventure. I was excited to try the kayak. We were already in the dining hall at 7 AM but food was still under preparation. We ate breakfast — omelet, longganisa, and fish. There’s also cereals and loaf bread and butter. After eating, we inquired for Kayak but the wave’s kinda strong so it wasn’t advisable to kayak. Too bad. We just headed to the rocks and snorkeled. There are some fishes and corals at shore, but they are not as pretty as I expected, since it’s a marine sanctuary. Maybe if we go a little bit farther, we’ll see more colorful marine life. But it’s wavy and the tide was rising high quite fast so we abandoned the adventure and bought fruit shakes and bummed in the beach lounges and the cabana. Then dipped in the water every now and then. We checked in past 12 noon and drove our way back to Manila.
We had lunch at Pizza Hut, Petron Mamplasan, Laguna and was at home at around 5:30 PM.
The only few glitches in the resort service would be that I think they should serve their breakfast earlier, like in most hotels, breakfast starts at 6AM for the morning people, and that dinner will last until later, like 9PM (dinner is served at 7-8 PM only), since snack is until late afternoon. The facilities are all good, there are trashcans and ashtrays everywhere. There’s hot and cold shower, linens are clean and the curtains of the cabanas are clean too. Only glitch was that our door would not close unless we lock it once.
All in all, it was a lovely trip and a lovely stay at La Luz Beach Resort. I will definitely go back and make sure to avail the marine sanctuary and kayak!
Photos by Amrei Dizon.
Related Post:
Correct Directions to La Luz Beach Resort, Laiya Batangas
