Makiling Highlands Resort — Hotel in Calamba

Makiling Highlands Resort used to be not only a resort for travelers and local Filipinos, but a neighborhood community pool. I will tell you more about the changes later.

Makiling Highlands Resort has a huge cool mountain water pool. I mean, olympic size!There is also one much smaller, shallow hot spring pool next to it. Shaded picnic tables surrounding the pools. If you want to stay overnight you can rent quaint small bungalows.

One thing I would like them to improve on is how is their pool sanitation. According to management the large pool is emptied and refilled once every Thursday. Since it is not chlorinated, you swim at your own risk. I avoided swimming on the busy weekends and holidays. I waited until to the pool was cleaned to swim.

I should say I used to swim there. That is until management changed there fee policy. The fee used to be 50 PHP for entrance and swim ($1.00 USD). Now the fee is not only 75 PHP but you are REQUIRED to the rent a picnic table for $650 PHP. In total it is 725 PHP or the equivalent of $14.18 USD! The price hike is no problem if you want to rent a bungalow overnight or just swim and picnic all day with your family. For a swimmer like me, it’s a no go.

I talked to the management and requested a agreement to swim there on a regular monthly basis, but was denied. I live nearby and am considered a local not a tourist. I was sorely disappointed. But not just for me, for the neighborhood families and children. They are no longer able to swim when the weather is scorching hot. I don’t know what the management was thinking, but you can guess..

There is one public pool in the area, but it is not close-by, not chlorinated and and usually crowded.

Thanks for reading my review!

Post script:

I did find a lovely hot mountain spring pool resort nearby. The fee is very reasonable and affordable. The best thing of all, they empty clean and refill the pool every single morning at 4 AM!...

Actually, i don't believe on the other reviews about MHR, but now after what i experience in this resort, i definitely not to go back here again. The pool was so cold and dirty they just put chemicals and filtered it whout adding hot water. That's why i choose laguna bec. of its hot spring. And don't give us a stupid answer na .malaki ang pool nyo Kaya lumalamig ang tubig obviously na hindi nyo nilalagay ng hotspring water gun 2 big pools buti na yang baby pool nilalagyan ng hot spring water at Kahit Papano medyo nakapagrelax ako. The 2 big pools are dirty and full of Chemicals and not a spring water.||||Room 1804 in villa quite small andthe bedS are 2 small single bed joined together to become a big bed and the CR was clean. But I cannot sleep in this room every hour I always wake up dont Know why. We spent 3 days and 2 nights here. My family Always have an out of town But that was the first time that my 4 year old son asked us to go home because he was scared in our room, he said there is something wrong , it was so dark.And my kid was so lame on the days we spent here , hindi sya masyadong masigla ||sa lugar na yun. And my husband have also nightmares about a lady in that place. ||||The personnels are accomodating and friendly. The cottages and grills are clean.||My only advice to you is not to spent an overnight stay in Mkiling Highlands Resort and bring all the things yu needed like charcoal , ice etc. The prices inside are so expensive compared outside||You can walk from the road going inside to MHR but the road is a little bit elevated.Just wpalk slowly.||Tahimik at maganda yun lugar pero....hindi rin ako nakarelax...malamig yun pool pero buti na lang my kiddie warm pool.... but i will not go back...

The ambiance of Makiling Highlands can be highly appreciated at sunset and sunrise. As a couple, we enjoyed one of the pools that was being replaced with fresh hot spring water. We waded in the pool that was 40 degrees Celsius. It was so relaxing. Our room was at the top of the slope, so it was quite exhausting to take the steps. Any way, it was worth every step because we considered it as a good exercise.

I would have given it 5 stars, if only the staff didn't make it difficult for us to enter the resort by asking us to give a printed voucher of our online booking. We had to go down the hill and look for a computer shop to print the voucher. It was a hassle. They should have their own printer or they should consider online bookings via smart app and email confirmation. There wasn't even a note about providing a printed voucher when our booking was confirmed online. We expected a faster service because we booked a month ago, but the staff was offering us a non-aircon room because the aircon rooms were not available. We made an advanced booking, so one of the aircon rooms should be reserved only for us. I had to emphasize this to the staff before they realized my point. They also insisted to provide another printed voucher because I should have printed the email confirming our booking instead of the one from the Travelbook.ph app. My husband and I became furious before they finally considered the voucher and gave us the key...