Monday, 22 September 2014

THE PENINSULA MAKATI MANILA: HOTEL REVIEW

Before I start writing the essential of this entry, I just want to say that:
I FREAKING LOVE MANILA!!!
I love this city for so many bloody reasons. I have mentioned on my previous post that Manila to me, is like 70% Singapore and 30% Jakarta. I love big cities, especially the downtown area and fortunate enough I stayed the whole time during my Manila days in Metro Manila, the downtown of Philippines!

This time I'm going to be blogging about the hotel that I stayed at while I was in Manila. I spent four days and three nights in Makati (Metro Manila) and the whole time I stayed at this gorgeous five star hotel: THE PENINSULA MANILA!
I gotta admit I always get excited whenever I want to and about to travel, especially when it's a sponsored trip with the itinerary and the name of the hotels I've never been before, I always Google everything and this one was no exception! The hotel looked incredible online and when I actually arrived and stepped my feet on the marble lobby, it was "GLAM" times 100!

There's something about the smell of the hotel that's (mostly) different from one another and I just loved it. Call me psycho or anything but if you're agree with this, raise your hands, if you don't, raise your standards! The lobby had this Victorian look with a touch of elegance and class, along with the ambiance, this flowery scent lingered all over the venue, since I arrived quite late, during the night, the lighting was dim but very heartwarming and... GRAND!

Okay, nuff yakking! PHOTOS!!!

left: side entrance for pedestrians, right: the fountain decoration. PS: took all the day pictures the following day for better pics quality.
The hotel entrance

I love you...

Check in was ultra smooth and easy, it took less than five minutes for me to be "escorted" to my room. I am a classic guy who appreciate simplicity (but with a little touch of class of course) and I just adore their simple-designed room with Amber, Maroon and Gold color applied to the interior. Again, the dim lighting increased the romantic and mellow (in a fashionably good way) ambiance. Nothing very unique and complicated about the room's design, it's just the proper size, proper design, proper everything to me.

The heartwarming welcome desserts and letter.
They had this medium sized bathroom that I was fond of, it's (again) very simple but chic and stylish. Inside the bathroom you're going to find a shower room, a toilet and a medium sized bathtub for one. They have very good warm water control, literally took less than 10 seconds to have the water heated but it took more than 15 minutes to enjoy my shower time.

Talking about the toilet, Pinoys here actually prefer using the phrase "Comfort Room" rather than WC or toilet itself.
They also had good range of bathroom amenities. I appreciated the extra effort for the packaging :).
They provide two large towels, two mini towels to rinse your hands and two bathrobes!
Cherry on top: Oscar De La Renta bath products! I was sold, they smelled so freaking good with this mixture of rose, Amber and Jasmine scent or whatever that was I don't really care it smelled just right!
I seriously love to smell nice and I've mentioned here in the blog so many times, I get hideously flamboyant when it comes to scent and only scent! Okay, serious question, where can I find these in Jakarta? Because I seriously am going to purchase the shower gel!

I appreciated their effort to put the speaker phone in the toilet but I am pretty sure I would never let people know I was bowling while telephoning </3.
Bed sweet bed! King sized bed with white linens and ultra comfort!

Bedside controls, oh I love this magic thing, especially when I was already on the most comfortable laying position and too lazy to get up and do the manual adjustments. Technology rocks and fattening.


Whenever I travel, I tend to wake up earlier minus the bad mood, but in Jakarta, it's a whole different story in contrary, but something you're left with no option especially in you have this itinerary that you should follow LOL!!! But I love waking up and knowing the fact that I was in Manila and the best part about waking up in a luxurious hotel? Luxurious breakfast in following!!! I super love hotel breakfasts it's sometimes one of the reasons to live and wake up early in the morning #majorLOL! Before we get to the breakie part, I'm going to tour you guys around their pool and garden area.

Aside from the long romantic walk to the fridge, I also enjoy the long romantic walk at the garden.
They had a medium sized pool, not ultra big but I guess it's big and comfy enough for a quick dip and rounds.



Proceeding to breakfast! The breakfast spot in Peninsula Manila is this restaurant called ESCOLTA!
Proceeding to the pre-breakfast, submitting your room number!
They're serving International and local Filipino cuisine, the range and variety of the food were decent and the options were quite interesting.
Fresh juices. They had the freshest yummiest Mango juice I've ever found in hotels!
All you can eat Sashimi, wasn't a huge fan of this one but I did love the salmon (didn't take pictures because so many people took it the display looked fugly).
Filipino sausage or known as Longaniza. This one contained pork!
Top shot Instaworthy mandatory shot! PS: they have amazing omelette!
Fluffy and tasty Chasiu Bao. YUM!
Sweet ending is another essentials and even better, guilty pleasures in buffet! Their Purple Yam (Ube) ice cream was fantastic!
Just when you think I was done with the lobby, oh no my friend you're wrong! I actually wanted to show you how the lobby looked during the night but it was quite dark and so many people walking around I couldn't seem to find where to take decent shots so I better show you guys how the lobby looked during the morning, along with the incredible morning light <3.
At certain times (heard if the hotel's occupancy reached 100%), Escolta expanded the breakfast to the lobby until 10 AM and I was fortunate enough to experience the breakfast in both conditions (indoor and semi-outdoor/lobby). I totally love having breakfast in the lobby, not only because of the better light, the set and the ambiance were also royal but in the same time humble and bonding, also as happy as I knew the fact that the occupancy of the hotel was high!

Fresh flowers supplied everyday!

The Omelette section, seriously, the best freaking Omelette I've had so far!
They had good variety of pastries and set beautifully in this stall.
Will I ever stop with the omelettes?

To be completely honest, me and Julia set this waffle for the sake of a pretty picture but since we're *ahem* true foodies and couldn't stand the look of the melting ice creams on top of the hot fragrant waffle, we decided to give this a try and yes it was freaking awesome. The waffle had this adorable and moist texture!


I am proud enough to declare that Escolta is one of the best hotel buffet restaurants I've ever been! The food was nice, the service was quick and professional and the staffs were just attentive, but as in overall I still love everything that Sana Sini offers (currently the top of my list!).

This was taken on the afternoon and I gotta be honest here. I've been to many hotels in Jakarta but I have never seen a hotel lobby this crowded and actually almost 100% of the tables were occupied. I looked around and literally observed tables per tables, they're not just sitting around, they're actually ordering.
Live music everyday all day!

Took a little stroll around the neighborhood to capture some unexpected moments. This was the shot of Peninsula Makati from a distance.
Missing the busy street of Metro Manila!
But actually you can see more pictures of my Philippine trip on the previous posts! Click HERE for my Puerto Princesa trip and click HERE for my 10 things to do in the Manila list.

Staying in Peninsula Makati is mandatory, it's surely one of the best hotels in Manila (aside from the 5-star status), it's just strategically located in Metro Manila, the downtown of Manila, near the shopping areas, literally 15 minutes walk to the famous Greenbelt area and decent view of the busy streets, well at least for me that kind of view is pleasant enough!

Among my stay, I didn't experience anything bad, the hospitality was nice, the service was also nice and quick (including when I ask for this and that to be delivered to my room) and I totally recommend you guys staying here while you're in Manila, mostly for their simplicity, and no, I did not get paid by the hotel to write this one, it's purely from my point of view as a guest.

Special thanks for Cebu Pacific Air for arranging this splendid trip, it's my first time going to Manila and yes it's memorable! THANKS!

The Philippines’ largest airline, Cebu Pacific Air flies from Jakarta to Manila four times weekly, and from Denpasar to Manila  twice weekly. Lowest year-round fares to to Manila start at USD 99. From the same Manila Airport Terminal 3, passengers can easily connect to 33 other destinations in the widest network in the Philippines.  For more details, visit www.cebupacificair.com or follow @CebuPacificAir on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The Peninsula Manila
1226 Makati City, Metro Manila
Philippines
+63 2887 2888
Pricing: $$$
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