Place: Splash Island Spa and Resort at Binan, Laguna

We celebrated my Dad's 56th birthday at Splash Island Spa and Resort (I didn't know that they have a spa but their website says so).

We (meaning I was the one who's coercing everybody to agree) were originally planing to go to Calaguas, Camarines Norte's beautiful beaches, and even a trip up north to Baguio, for my Dad's birthday last March 27. But because of some unforeseen events, we settled on a much nearer and cheaper getaway. I got the whole family eight 50% off Splash Island vouchers from Twangoo which is a good deal because the resort, conveniently located in Binan, Laguna, is just 1 jeep ride and 1 tricycle ride away from our house (dalawang tumbling lang, hehe).

But even if we live a close proximity to the resort, none of us have actually gone there and have heard only what other people say about its water slides, which are the resort's main attractions. So I skimmed through the web for reviews and found a blog entry where the author expressed her disappointment with her Splash Island experience. It dampened my excitement a bit but I hoped for the best and decided not to set my expectations too high.



The Resort's Attractions

Splash Island claims to be the first (and the only?) water theme park in the country. The place is huge--7 hectares big and has 6,000 guest capacity. It does have a theme-park feel to it and unlike the usual resorts in Laguna (notably in Pansol, Calamba and Los Banos), where there are only swimming pools, there are lots of other things that you can do inside. There's zip line (P150), wall climbing (P50), Zorb, basketball hoops and I think I saw a place where you can have henna tattoo. According to the website, there's also a spa and paintball area but I didn't notice them.

But as I've said, the main attractions are the water slides. Sadly, the big and higher ones--Rio Montanosa, Dos Supremos, King Pilipit --are not operational. We only got to try the Big Bam Boo and Tausug Trails.  The website lists down a number of attractions, but it looks like 2-3 slides are located in the same area so it doesn't seem a lot when you're already there.

Then there's also the Agos Grandes, which refers the to mechanically generated waves in their largest swimming pool. Actually, this is the only pool where you can enjoy swimming in and where the inflatables are. It has variable depths, from ankle to 7 feet deep. The other pools are just "catch-basin" for the slides but you can also swim in there when the slides are closed.

If you want to lazily drift around, there's Balsa River where the gently flowing water will tour you around the slide areas. The water is about 3 feet deep and runs sluggishly, which I found to be too slow and quite boring.

For the kiddos who want more action, there's Water Wahoo, an ankle-deep pool with a big water fountain slide in the middle and Curl of the Orient, a low water slide where they can enjoy their own twists and tumbles, kiddie-style. There's also the out-of-the-water slide, Boon Docks, but I reckon kids enjoy the water slides more because I didn't see a single child in this area.


One important thing to note is most of these attractions are not open the whole day so it's best to know the park schedule. Good thing, the resort is peppered with banners like these informing everybody of the park schedule and a map for easy navigation:

The Food

They have a food court called Fiesta sa Pulo that offers non-fancy fares like grilled, sizzling, Mongolian and traditional Filipino dishes along with different coolers like ice cream, Halo-halo, fruit shakes and various cold drinks. Others food stalls include Shakeys Pizza, Chinese and Hawaiian food, goto, chips and snacks, and cotton candy. You can also find a lot of hotdog stands scattered around the resort.

But frankly, there is nothing to rave about the food. For lunch, we ordered 2 bilao, each costs P400 and includes 3-5 viands, 4 cups of rice and 4 sets of styrophor plates and plastic utensils. 1 bilao is good for 4-5 persons. The taste was mediocre at best, two viands--grilled pork chop and Tilapia--were unpalatable. The pork chop was not grilled thoroughly and the Tilapia tasted weird that it was left untouched after a few bites. The only thing we enjoyed were the semi-ripe (manibalang) mangoes with bagoong dip.

During snack time, we decided to go safe and ordered a Shakey's pizza. For bottled juice drinks, we paid P25 each and P35 for sodas in can.


The Resort's Facilities (Cottages, Lockers, Parking Space and Public Transportation)

The first thing that we did when we stepped inside the resort was to look for cottages. If you're on a budget, you can choose the free table cottages that are provided for guests. But if you prefer a little privacy, they also offer Cabanas and Bahay Kubo style cottages for rent. Unfortunately, because it was Saturday and we got there less than 2 hours before noon, all the paid cottages are already occupied so we settled for one of the monoblock tables and rented two lockers where we kept our valuables during our stay in the resort.

To avail a paid cottage, you have to go around and find a vacant one. If you find one, you can occupy it right away and just wait for one of the resort's personnel to come and collect your payment. This process, I think is counterproductive because, as I mentioned earlier, the resort is big and the cottages are not exactly near each other.

With their current procedure, we spend our first 45 minutes going back and forth to look for vacant cottages (we found some but we're told that those are no longer available), to the customer service area (near the entrance of the resort) to ask some help in locating unoccupied cottages (because we thought they would at least know), to the public cottages area to pick a table, to the locker area (near the entrance of the resort) to rent lockers and back to our table finally.

It would've been better, if one personnel will manage the cottage rental and will tell us if there are still vacant and assign one to us. Otherwise, just tell us that there's none and advise to us rent lockers, if we want, and choose among the monoblock table cottages instead. More organized, yes?

Locker rental is P300 and we got two vertical ones, measuring about 9 x 24 x 9 inches (this is just an estimate). The horizontal ones have the same dimensions except the it's longer horizontally than taller.

There are also enough restrooms and shower areas and they are clean, well maintained and with running water. Parking is also not a problem, and even public transportation (tricycle) is accessible, just ask the resort's guard to call one for you. But be prepared to spend more than the usual tricycle fare because this is a "special" route.

The Verdict

If you're a beach bum or someone who enjoys swimming a lot, you might not have a grand time in this resort. Based on what I've seen and experienced, I think Splash Island was designed with kids in mind, and obviously they--the kids and kids-at-heart--are the ones who will enjoy the most. The resort's attractions would have been enough to keep adults from getting bored, but with 3 main slides not working, the other two offered but limited fun.

Although there are other things to do like the zipline, wall climbing and Zorb, these activities are not free. At P500 regular high-season entrance fee, one can't help but compare this with a nearby theme park, Enchanted Kingdom, which has the same day pass rate. But EK offers a lot more rides and attractions for P500.

The foods inside Splash Island--considering their tastes and serving sizes--are also relatively expensive. And like what I noted earlier, the management could do better by organizing the cottage rental instead of leaving it up to the guests to find vacant cottages on their own.

Overall, we had fun but only because we loved watching my 2-year old nephew laughed his heart out as the waves splashed on his body, as the water sprinklers tickled him and as he bravely jumped from the inflatable to my mom's arms waiting underneath the water. Bottomline, we had fun watching him have a blast and not really because we were wowed by the resort's facilities.

We got our tickets at 50% off and for P250, we felt that Splash Island was good enough. But if we paid P500, I'd definitely feel shortchanged.

Place: Rockpoint Hotsprings Resort - Hotel and Spa at Calamba, Laguna

We were at Rockpoint Hotsprings Resort - Hotel and Spa Calamba last August to celebrate my husband's birthday. Weeks before that, I was torn between 3 resorts: Rockpoint Calamba, Valentino Resort and Spa in Batangas and Sanctuario de San Pablo in San Pablo City, Laguna.

Our main goal was to have a nice and much needed R&R, so I wanted a place with an in-house spa, an indoor pool or jacuzzi, and somewhere that's easily accessible by public transportation because we don't have a car. It would be a plus if the place has a scenic view to boot.

In the end, I decided against Valentino Resort because we didn't want to travel very far. It came down to Sanctuario de San Pablo and Rockpoint Hotel. I chose the latter because it's nearer, relatively cheaper and they had an on-going Rainy Days Promo that month.

I called up their office, and the person who answered was very polite and helpful. That was a good sign, I thought. She accepted my reservation even without a downpayment because it was Friday afternoon and the bank where I need to deposit the money to was already closed. The booking was for the following Monday.

I was excited because in their website, the place looked promising, even though I had read a few negative feedback about the resort. The Rainy Days Promo seemed like a sweet deal, too. For P3,915.00 we would get:

1. Overnight stay at the Executive Room (w/ indoor jacuzzi)
2. Breakfast and Dinner for 2
3. Aromatherapy massage for 2

So Monday came and we arrived in Calamba two hours earlier. Going there by public transport was easy. We board a jeep en route to Crossing-Calamba. Our original plan was to alight at the Crossing Terminal. But because it was still early, we decided to go to Walter Mart first and have our lunch there. When it was only 45 minutes before 2 PM, our check-in time, and because we're already bored in Walter Mart (there's not much to see or do there), we hailed a tricycle. The tricycle driver already knew where Rockpoint Hotel is and asked for an P80 fare.

The trike ride took some 10 minutes. When I first saw the resort, my first thought was it looks small. Inside the lobby/reception area, we were greeted warmly by the guard and the front desk staff. We're still early but it was ok, said the receptionist. She called for someone to check if our room is ready. While we were waiting, she processed the bills and gave us our meal and spa stubs.

After a few more minutes, our room boy came. I forgot his name, but I didn't forget that he was very courteous. He ushered us to our room, taught us how to operate the jacuzzi, and told us that if we need any help, we could just call the front desk.

On the way to our room, we passed by the pool area and he said that there's another pool just behind the wall. The swimming pool didn't look inviting. It wasn't dirty or anything, it just looked plain and common. If you've been to Pansol too many times, you'll know what I mean. I saw an outdoor jacuzzi tucked in the far corner of the pool but I forgot to ask if it's functioning. I didn't go close so I couldn't tell how big it is. All I could see was it was made of ordinary bathroom tiles, but I couldn't tell if the tiles were clean or not.
Maybe because I knew that we have our very own jacuzzi inside our room, that's why I didn't bother to check out the other jacuzzi.

Now, our room:

The room was spacious, that's the first impression. But it didn't look as beautiful as the one posted on their website. It looked the same, but it didn't have that classy feel to it. The picture in their site was cleverly taken to make it appear like a 3 or 4-star hotel room.

It was clean, but not spotless clean. If you're particular about black tile grouts, you'll find some on the floor tiles. But it's not filthy dirty or 'kadiri' dirty. To be honest, I wasn't bothered by it. The room was still clean by my standards.

As I've said, the room looked like the one on their website, except for the bed linen of course. Inside, there's the 21-inch colored TV with clear cable channels, there's a mini-table and 2 nice-looking chairs (not monoblock chairs), another nice-looking dresser with mirror, two bedside tables with pretty lampshades on both, a personal refrigerator, an aircon and electric fan. All the lights were ok, none was busted. The aircon was working very well and kept the room cold so we didn't find any use for the electric fan. But the interior of refrigerator was rusty and looked dirty. We didn't bring any refreshments anyway so it stayed shut the whole time we were there.

There was also a small jug of water that they provided for us. At first, I was hesitant to drink the water but I got thirsty and tried it anyway. It didn't taste like tap water, or anything funny, weird or unclean so it was okay to drink.

I almost forgot the queen size bed. The mattress was ok, not springy.The pillows were ok, too, plump and soft. I love the design of the comforter but when I slipped underneath it, it was a bit itchy. My husband felt the same way so we just lay on top of the comforter the whole time and used half of it as blanket when we slept.

And then there's the bathroom. It was very roomy and clean. I even thought the tiles in the bathroom were cleaner than the floor tiles of the room. The toilet bowl was clean, too. There was sufficient supply of water and the water didn't smell of chlorine. There was also an exhaust fan and ample lighting. They also gave us two sets of towels (2 bath towels and 2 smaller towels), which smelled clean but was a little harsh and stiff (maybe they didn't use fabric softeners.)

Now the jacuzzi. It was big enough for two people, was clean except for some white stains, which the room boy explained was caused by the sulfur content of the hotsprings water. It didn't look dirty and it wasn't really bothersome. At first, we thought the jacuzzi wasn't working, but we found out how to operate it eventually (the room boy already told us how but we still fumbled with fixtures, went silly and had lots of fun).

We really had a very relaxing time in the jacuzzi. The warm water squirting out from the jets massaged every aching part of our body. I forgot to bring some bubble soak so I just improvised. I threw in my Cyleina Tomato soap. There wasn't much bubbles, but it's better than just plain water. We're told not to operate the jacuzzi for more than an hour because the motor might overheat. So we just had an hour of jacuzzi in the afternoon and another hour the following morning.

Right after our first jacuzzi session, I was already sleepy. But we decided to use our massage stubs because the spa will be closed the next day (they are close every Tuesday according to the "manual/menu" that we found in the room). The Kalipayan Nature Spa, their in-house spa, is located in the lower ground of the resort. The interior was very homey and Filipiniana-inspired. The furniture and decors are made from wood, rattan, sawali and bamboo. It felt like a traditional bahay-kubo (nipa hut) inside. And the staff were very friendly, too. It seemed the staff and personnel in Rockpoint Hotel Calamba are all friendly and courteous.

I gave our stub for 2 aromatherapy massage. We were told to wait for a few minutes as they need to prepare the couple's room. Inside the couple's room, we did the usual -- undress and lie down on the massage beds. When we're ready, they lighted scented candles (or was it scented oils) and started the massage. The massage was great. I felt even more relaxed and heady and sleepy. My husband said it was ok, but too light for his preference. (He prefers hard and bone-breaking type of messages.)

After the massage, we headed to the cafeteria to claim our free dinner. The cafeteria is just beside the lobby and looks like a school canteen, in a nostalgic, trip-down-memory-lane way. We presented our meal stub for 2 set meals, but ordered an additional viand just in case their serving is small. I thought the prices were reasonable except for the drinks, which were like double or triple the original price. But that's usual among in-house restos and cafes.

I would've just asked for our food to be delivered in our room had I known that there's a group of six or eight who ordered ahead of us and that it would take an hour before our meals will be served because of this. Good thing, there's a TV in the cafeteria where we watch the fateful bus-hostage drama unfolds. When the food of the earlier group were served, the cafeteria was filled with a very delicious aroma that made me hungry. And we just pretended to watch the TV as the group heartily ate their dinner.

An hour later, our food was finally served piping hot in big, round clay plates. And I could tell you, it was worth the wait. First, their serving size is big. I ordered the fish fillet set meal and my husband picked the beef-something set meal. We also ordered chopsuey. The fish fillet was the best I've tasted. It was crunchy and coated with breadcrumbs on the outside, and flaky-soft and tasty on the inside. The mayo-pickled-something dip that came with it was perfect, too. It complemented the fillet fish very well. My husband's beef dish came with tender and equally tasty beef strips. But we both agreed that my fish fillet was better. The chopsuey was also flavorful and was more than enough for both of us. It just didn't look and taste like chopsuey, more like sauteed vegetables in soy sauce, but it tasted good. We went back to our room smelling like we spent time in the kitchen and cooked the food ourselves (the aroma was that strong and lingered on our clothes) but feeling so full and bloated.

The next morning, I was excited for our breakfast and ordered them early. We had tapsilog and daing na bangus. They weren't as filling as the dinner we had the night before, but still tasted good. And before we checked out at noon, we ordered our lunch (this time, we paid for it because the promo did not include lunch.) We ordered fish fillet again and pork sisig, and both were tasty and delicious as expected.

We checked-out 1 PM and walked our way to the national road. It wasn't very far anyway. Then we just took a jeepney (way cheaper than a tricycle ride) to get to the Crossing Terminal. At the terminal, we took another jeep on the way to San Pedro.

The Verdict

Two thumbs up for the food and the jacuzzi. These are the highlights of our stay at the resort. Plus point also on the massage but it would've been better if they have a sauna in there, too. The room was ok, but as I've said, if you were expecting for a 4-star hotel-class type of room, you'll be disappointed. I couldn't comment on the pool, except that it wasn't enticing, because we didn't took a dip. My husband didn't want to swim because we'll just feel tired afterward. We would rather relax in the jacuzzi. Thumbs up also for the staff and personnel and the service that they rendered us.

But the resort itself was a bit boring for me. I didn't took pictures because there wasn't a lot to take pictures of. If you're a family or a group who's looking for fun and activities or who wants a resort that's close to nature with a scenic view to unwind, I won't recommend this. But if you're a couple, like us who wants some "cuddling" moments and R&R in a room with a jacuzzi, then you might want to check out this resort.

Overall, we had a pleasant experience during our stay in Rockpoint Hotsprings Resort - Hotel and Spa in Calamba. We were looking to have a much needed time-out from our work and relaxed our aching muscles, and we found it there.