How can I leave Cebu without going to its beaches? Oh well, I didn’t this time as right after 2 nights of sleep at Radisson Blu we packed our bags again and headed to Mactan, the host island of Cebu’s finest resorts. Thus, we began our truly R&R experience in the Phils, another 2 nights in Crimson Resort and Spa would suffice our love for the beach as we thought. But not really as we embarked to our Boracay adventure after this stint in Crimson. But as I already blogged about my Boracay story in my previous post here, this Cebu resort is my post of the week.
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| This coconut shell and frangipani flower greeted us every morning with suggested activities for the day. |
This is the 3rd resort in Mactan that I’ve stayed so far (Plantation Bay being the first and Hilton which is now Movenpick) and I always love to be in this part of Cebu. Crimson is not far from my previous experience with the other 2 resorts but my boys didn’t find it equally satisfactory. One most important factor for them is the internet connection, for the nth time I emphasized we are here to relax sans technology but boys will always be boys as they want to check their gaming status wherever in the world they go. As for my opinion, Crimson is designed to give a relaxing stay to its guests with its Asian contemporary ambiance yet modern facilities and friendly service. The rooms are mostly in villas and low-rise bungalows spread in little streets.
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| Azzure breakfast bar |
The resort has an infinity pool, white sandy beach, children’s playground, spa/wellness centre, gym and 4 restaurants. Yes 4, though we only got to eat in the 2 of them. For our first breakfast we had a buffet in Saffron which is not bad but crowded. The second breakfast was at Azzure and it was the best in there as we were the only ones partaking the nicely laid smorgasbord, thanks for the upgrade. Though Saffron served a nice lunch menu which we were happy about it.
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| Jace and his pasta and long garlic bread, maybe he's wondering how to eat it all :) |
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| Burger and chips at Saffron |
As for our other activities not involving food, can you believe that right after unpacking our things in the resort we headed back to Cebu city and shopped in Ayala Mall? One of my nieces said she came to the Phils to shop so shopping we did. As the saying goes 'You can take the girl out of shopping but you cannot take the shopping out of the girl', and that's what exactly happened that day :).
We launched our water activities on the second day as we headed straight into the blue and lounged in the beach area. Just like any other beach in the Phils the water is warm, sparkling and inviting. But the difference in this resort is the sun loungers are extra big and comfy, how can you not sit and watch the clouds drift by? And that’s what we exactly did, ahh only the girls I supposed. After 4 cameras and mobile phones involved for mostly the sunny part of the day, we were done with our photo session :) So here is the output on that day.
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| Twinning |
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| Cut! My director was fixing me :) |
At the later part of the day we tested the infinity pool which was really fun for the kids. My Cebu-based family came by and brought us dinner of lechon (roast pig, Cebu’s pride :)), puso (hanging rice, yes there is such food as this), pancit (noodles) and bibingka (rice cake). Two of my dear friends brought boxes of J.Co donuts (ahh so sweet of them), this is the only donut in the country where there’s always a long queue which buyers can’t wait to let go of their pesos and time just for these sweet holed dessert.
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| The kind of food best enjoyed when shared. |
On the last day before we jetted out of Cebu, I quickly strolled in the sand and had photos taken this time with the wider view of Mactan shore line.
Awesome pictures! What camera did you use, Mers? Too bad, MaryAnn and I were quite late in visiting. MaryAnn would have enjoyed taking photos at daytime since it's her first time there.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jen, the clearer ones are from Canon EOS M3 while the others are from ordinary Canon.
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