It's more fun in: Laiya, Batangas

Every year we've made it a family rule that we should go to the beach.  The nearest beach area that we always go to when we're trying to stay within a budget is Laiya, Batangas.  A quick Google search would show you all the resorts in that area so I won't go into much detail.  There's a resort for every budget so do your research beforehand.  Also, if you're planning on going during Holy Week, reserve your spot 2 months in advance.  Better to be safe than sorry because resorts get full quickly ahead of the Holy Week.  I learned the hard way.  Do note that most of these resorts in Laiya are all on one stretch of the beach.  So it's OK to find an affordable resort because it's all on the same beach.

One of the places we went to a few years ago was the Kabayan Beach Resort.  I chose this resort because it had affordable rates and they still had a room free when I called them up.  Lucky for us they did because we only decided to go there about a month before Holy Week.  The room we got was a bit more expensive than the usual rooms we try to book.  We got ourselves a 1 bedroom, with private bathroom, aircon, and kitchen because we wanted to cook our own food.  That's always been part of the fun in going to Batangas.  The damage as I remembered it was around P4,000 ($100).  This was about 3 years ago and I'm too lazy to go and check out their website right now for the latest prices.  You can do it yourself by going to:  http://kabayanresort.com.ph/

I also liked the fact that I could deposit the down payment of about 30% into their bank account and pay the rest off when we get there to check in.  They also have a large barkada room good for like 12-18 people if I remember right.  That was very affordable because you could divide the cost between everybody and it'll be like P300 per person.  This room has bunk beds but they're comfy enough especially after a day at the beach.

From Manila it takes about 3-4 hours by car to get to the resort.  It's a nice and fun ride considering that the roads going to Laiya are now paved unlike a few years ago.  It was a pretty bumpy ride back then.  There's no need to cook your own food since they have plenty of restaurants there but hey, we like to rough it.  There's plenty of stuff to do when you get to the beach.  You can play volleyball, badminton, the usual water sports, and other things.  But we opted to be lazy and just lounge around the beach and get a tan.  Pictures are worth a thousand words so enjoy!  Besides, I'm quite lazy today to write.  I also don't remember a lot of the details since this was a few years ago.  That's how long it's taken me to write this blog!  Man, I gotta put some time away to write on this thing.  Next adventures, Subic, Illocos Norte, Palawan, and Bantayan Island.  Yes, I've been pretty busy.