Travel Footprints

After a rigorous bike ride, checking in at the Hotel Vida in Clark, Pampanga was one of the best decisions for our weekend trip because we love everything about the place!

Hotel Vida, managed by Fuego Hotels, is probably one of the newest hotels in this block and it sure looks and feels new. It was a little disappointing that the only available rooms were two single beds instead of the double bed we requested when we booked our room. The concierge explained that the limited rooms with double beds were occupied by an airline crew. Anyhow, the deluxe room we got was nice. Its design is Contemporary Zen-inspired with a patio and a view of the surrounding vegetation by the side of the hotel.

I like that everything in the room is personalized for Hotel Vida (bath towels, pillow case, etc.) with a superb attention to details. Containers of their bathroom toiletries are all biodegradable. They also put a Ladies Set in the bathroom which includes some napkins and hair clip for swimming.

The food offered in the room service and the breakfast at SALT Coffee Shop were absolutely yummy. We were totally relaxed in our stay and we spent most of Sunday morning unwinding by the pool area.

There’s a MALT Bar by the entrance of the hotel compound for drinks and some cool, eclectic music to cap the night. One-hour massage is also available as an in-room service or at the Ylang Ylang Spa.

Our weekends typically involve mountain biking and the plan was to hit Sta. Rosa trails this Saturday. The trails of Sta. Rosa in Laguna is a popular biking destination in the south of the metro. This is where the last part of the movie ‘I’ve Fallen for You’ – starred by Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson – was shot.

I was not in the mood to go biking, i was either going to stay home or still try to tag along with Hubby on the road trip to Sta. Rosa. I chose the latter but didn’t exactly know what i was going to do while they go biking. Although Paseo de Sta. Rosa (the meeting point of bikers before the trail) had a lot of outlet stores so the prospect of shopping was appealing.

But after seeing the bikers off, it was still too early for shopping in Paseo – outlet stores of Speedo, Nike, Levi’s and Adidas are still closed. Even the Kodak store (i wanted to have some pictures developed) and National Bookstore (i wanted to buy CDs so i can burn the photos i want to print) are also closed. So then, i decided to go up to Tagaytay which was a mere 30 minutes drive away, stopping by the fruit stalls along the way. In Tagaytay, I went straight to the recently-opened Robinson’s Supermarket for some grocery-shopping. Across the road from the supermarket, Josephine’s offers free wifi but i opted to hang out at Starbucks for a view of Taal Volcano and to watch a movie on my laptop. Besides, it’s the most tambay-friendly place I know.

Close to lunch time, Hubby texted they were on their way back to Sta. Rosa via Coffee and Upak trail (these are terms bikers use which i don’t even think the locals would understand). That was my cue to go back down myself. So i packed my things, dropped by Rowena’s for some pastries and drove towards Paseo.

Lunch at Paseo was a no-brainer. We always have lunch at Kanin Club for yummy Filipino dishes after bike rides. Well, Hubby already ate at the biker pit stop we fondly call Aling Pina before heading down. It’s not exactly a pit stop because you have to go out of the trail and into a highway and bike up towards Tagaytay, but crazy as it sounds, we do this. The store-with-no-name-but-we-call-Aling-Pina, in fact, has grown from a small shack to a mid-sized food place complete with bamboo bike racks catering to bikers over the years we’ve been going here.

Back at Paseo, our Kanin Club lunch was great as always and we went around to see what’s interesting in the stores. To wrap up our trip, we went for a massage at 360 spa located at the back of Paseo. Road trip to Sta. Rosa on a Saturday morning without an itinerary wasn’t such a bad idea after all.