Oldwoods by the Sea Nature Resort — Hotel in Luzon

I literally just got home from this hotel. Spent NYE here.||Booked 2 rooms (Silag and Sineguelas) months in advance and then decided a day before our arrival to change our booking to a room that will fit all 6 of us and they gladly gave us Bitaog. However at first they were going to charge us the same total as my original booking which was more than the cost of the new room. This was fixed within the hour though and they extended a discount too which I appreciated.||Upon arrival, I realized the published photos online are only 70% true. The shabby chic rooms that seemed impeccably clean with beautiful natural lighting their website and booking sites suggested was rather shabby and dingy. Getting to Bitaog required a lot of going up and down steep stairs and we had 3 kids with us (ages 2-6) so my dad decided to speak with front desk and ask that we get our original rooms instead. They agreed and we just paid the additional cost—even extended a discount. Honestly they have been very helpful and willingly assisted in every aspect of our stay which is awesome. Sadly, it takes more than a good set of staff to please customers and deliver expectations.||To summarize the stay, let me just put the pros and cons of staying in this resort:||Pros:|- The pools are exactly as it appears in the photos (clean, beautiful and well maintained) except for the size—smaller than published pictures.||- The pool guy went above and beyond assisting us by not only inflating our floaties, he also took the initiative to fix the hole in one of them. He was even the one who told us about the hole.||- When they see my kids running away from me (traveled without the nannies who took the holiday off), the female staff would watch them and play with them at the playground. ||- Everyone takes the initiative to carry bags/things for you no matter how light or heavy.||- The fun activities they planned for NYE celebrations were wonderful: Dinner from 7pm-midnight with free flowing beer and juices (PHP890/adult and half the price for children ages 5 and up while kids 4 and below ate for free), a bonfire from 8:30PM til the midnight fireworks show and a cartoon movie marathon for the kids in the pocket garden.||- When I wondered how come they only have 3 entrees and rice for their breakfast spread (a far cry from the breakfast spreads I’m used to partaking in other resorts and hotels), they did not charge me for the rice porridge I ordered ala carte for my kids. They always seem to try to appease an irritated guest. (My apologies for being vocal about my disappointment—I was just shocked!)||- The view is spectacular. Definitely calming.|||CONS:||- Food at the restaurant was a hit or miss. Pasta was good and cooked al dente; the seafood was grilled to perfection; the dried bangus for breakfast was probably the best I’ve had (the vinegar too!) but the ultimately sweet kare-kare and the breakfast sausage was just weird to me. The champorado also has a weird kerosene-like after taste.||- The beach is only good for photo ops and it takes 395 steep steps down since the resort of perched up on a mountain. Also, it is better to go during high tide so the rocks are covered by the water. See my uploaded photos for reference.||- The playground needs an upgrade: the nail on the wooden play house is protruding and the little house has cracked everywhere—a potential child risk. Do not wait for a scorned parent of an injured child to handle this, ma’ams and sirs.||- there is zero cellphone and internet signal. This could be a plus if you’re running away from someone or want to be completely undisturbed.||- Heaters in all rooms we went to were faulty. 2 showers did not have working heaters and the one in Silag worked after they fixed it albeit inconsistently—most of the time it became so hot after 10 secs that you can make coffee while you take a bath, sometimes it doesn’t work at all).||- Bathroom in Sineguelas only has light in the shower area and it’s the warm kind. Plus the only mirror is the one in the darkened area of the bathroom. ||- Sineguelas room also has no intercom. And the intercom in the adjoining room (Silag) is broken so we have to walk to the front desk for our concerns every few minutes. Clearly we needed a lot of assistance given the rundown condition of the rooms.||- The towel problem. This is hilarious because of all the resorts we have stayed in, this is the only resort who gives us the excuse of not being able to provide new towels because they’re not dry yet. They suggested at first that we use the pool/beach towels they gave for taking a bath. That is so unsanitary. I had to explain that our chlorine soaked pool towels cannot possibly be used for proper bath purposes.||This lengthy review seems like a novel already so to summarize my experience, I will say that there is a lot of potential here but fine detailing is needed to reach a certain level of hospitality the price caliber of...

Our family of 7A/5K booked 2 Family Superior Rooms at this resort. The price of the rooms were a bit pricey but because the reviews were "Very Good", we tried to spend our family bonding there. Coming from Tarlac City, the drive to Oldwoods took about 4 hours. I used Google Maps to navigate, although the place was easy to locate due to the adequate signage. The receptionist and staff were all very pleasant and helpful. Our rooms were located on the 2nd floor, near the covered court and swimming pool. The rooms were quite small with 2 double beds, side tables, and 2 chairs. The rooms were adequately air-conditioned (split-type) with 2 additional wall fans. It has a 32-inch flat screen TV with cable channels, a personal ref and a safety deposit box. The towels and linens were quite old, but fresh. There is no hot and cold shower, but the water flowing out of the shower was very warm. We were given free basic toiletries. Near our building was a large covered court with a basketball court, a ping-pong table, and a badminton court. The balls and rackets can be borrowed free of charge, although the available shuttle cocks were severely worn out. Also near our building are the swimming pools - 2 kiddie pools and 1 adult (5ft) pool, which was quite small, discolored but clean, and which our kids loved. The temperature of the water in the pools were quite hot (like that of a hot-springs pool). It was scorchingly hot that day and I would have preferred a cool swimming pool. There is no life guard on duty and no pool towels were available. Beside the swimming pools are 2 small kiddie playgrounds with white sand. We went to see the nearby beach - a 395-step steep, downhill climb. The steps were concreted, with handrails. The white sand beach is perfect for taking pictures and playing on the sand only, but not for swimming since it was very rocky and too shallow for swimming. Not suitable for couch-potatoes, PWDs, and people with medical condition. The resort offers island hopping tours which was quite excessive for the activity it offers.. The island hopping only includes going to 3 beaches just to swim, and no other activities such as snorkeling, fish feeding, etc. at Php 3,300/boat/5 persons I think is lavish. At night, there are a lot of mosquitoes and bugs all around, which was perhaps normal for a forested area (bring an insect repellant). We had our dinner at the resort restaurant as we had no choice since it is the only restaurant for many miles around. The price of the food is quite steep, but perhaps reasonable for a far-away location. The quality of the food is acceptable though. After dinner, our kids saw a free movie at their open-air movie house. There was free popcorn but a bit bland-tasting (no salt?). Our accommodation came with free set breakfast in the morning, which was OK. The brewed coffee was very good. I would say that all the people at this resort are very friendly and accommodating. The resort is aptly named Oldwoods because the buildings and most furnishings are made of...

Oldwoods by the sea: →Very disappointing. →Not worth the travel. →Very deceiving. Rooms do not appear as it was in the brochure or pictures. →Alot of hidden charges. →Almost paid twice because they don't keep record of your booking and your payment...we had to verify on our own with our company and show the deposit slips...and yet the manager who made the mistake did not even bother to apologize for the lapses on their part. All he can say is he would verify but he actually doesn't. (He was informed at noon and when we followed up if he had already verified it he answered "I would verify it at 10pm tonight because anyway your checkout will be tomorrow"... what the heck? When will we know that everything is in place and finally relax without any hazzle? It's as if he plans to verify once we check out... and if we did play safe, he would say that the excess money will be put on very expensive food or refund which he claims to be long before you can get your money back...we can't seem to trust him anymore "Delaying tactics!")... what is there to verify if you already showed a copy of deposit slips and transaction numbers done and deposited to their account. He can't even decide? Very lousy. →Food? Expensive. 2,013php/person full board meals (not even buffet, non refillable, taste just ok but not worth it.) drinks: SML/PILSEN in can = 104php Buko juice=120php Regular in can soda (sprite/coke/royal)= 80php 350ml of bottled water=40php →Bring lots of cash with you. They don't accept debit/credit cards. Next bank will be at the next town approx. 30km from the resort. →No cellular signal, no internet and no cable... there's a tv but only with old dvd movies. I can live without internet or cable but atleast have a cellular signal... what if there was an emergency that happened to us or to our loveones how will they contact us. →no other recreation at the resort except for some board games so we got bored. It was raining and the trail to the beach is slippery so we had no choice. →My experience in your resort was not even close to stress free and relaxing. It was my 1st time to encounter a very lousy management. I did expect alot because of the reviews and especially that the booking was expensive...if only I knew we should have went to far better resorts. → We wanted to cancel our reservation but they had lots of excuses. They said they would look for their cancellation policy and will get back to us but the manager never did. →The staff were very respectful but not oriented. → I will never recommend this resort to anyone. → You should know the value of customer service and treat your...