Going back to Baguio City is one of my dreams, and I just discovered the perfect place to stay where you can experience the cold weather and the fog as you stand over 1,500 meters above sea level and see the great view of the Benguet mountains and a 3 min walk to the most visited place and attraction in Baguio, all of these can be experience if you stayed in this newly built Mines View Park Hotel, it is not just an ordinary hotel, its one of a kind set up will make you feel and be close to the real Baguio. Check out my feature below
Mines View Park Hotel is already 1 year old, and was built last 2009. This hotel is not originally a hotel in the first place, it is an old ancestral house that was renovated and constructed as a hotel. The main admin area with the lobby, function room and restaurant area are the original house structure of the old house, Mr. Dick Balajadia told this to us and they are very lucky that the place was offered to them, Mr. Dick Balajadia and his friend bought it and decided to remodel it and construct a small 5 floor building at the back of the house to make it as a hotel.
The structure is nice and it didn't made them destroy or remodel the entire place, because the front of the old ancestral house is a landmark going to Mines View Park, Me and my sister just remembered this during our last visit in the 90's and I know that pointed house infront of the road going to the park, and this new generation, it is now converted into a nice hotel and a rest house for travelers, vacationers, family and corporate outings. They have 29 rooms, 1 function hall that can accommodate 100 to 150 guests, board or conference room for 20 people, the attic room with 10 beds, gym, spa, restaurant, cafe and playground for kids.
Mines View Park Hotel
1 Apostol St. corner Outlook Drive
Mines View Park, Baguio City
Baguio: (6374) 424-1088
Manila office: (632) 372 3984 to 89 loc. 133
info@minesviewparkhotel.com
www.minesviewparkhotel.com
Map via Google Maps to pin point the location of Mines View Park Hotel, its a few min walk going to Mines View Park and a 10 min. drive going to Good Sheperd, and 20 min ride going to the main city. I took a cab from SM Baguio going to Mines View Park Hotel and I paid only P60 for the taxi fare. I'm very glad that taxi drivers in Baguio are very honest, they don't even ask you for an additional fare, they will just simply ask the taxi fee that registers on their meter.
Here's my photo and smiled after seeing the Wifi logo, yes! that's right the whole area is a wifi hotspot for guests. The wifi at the cafe and restaurant can connect directly, I think the speed of their wifi internet is at around 2mbps. There are also wifi signal inside the hotel rooms, but other areas has low signals, but they do provide a signal with password, so better ask the admin for the password of the wifi signal.
Half Moon Asian Cafe is located inside Mines View Park Hotel, the cafe also has a branch in Tomas Morato, Q.C. me and my friends met there before going to Baguio, and here we are in their Baguio cafe version most popular meal here is their Benguet coffee and the Bibingcrepe - a combination of Bibingka and crepe.
Al fresco dining set up for the cafe and this is also a part for the Zenz restaurant, you dont need air conditioning in Baguio, you are sitting on top of the mountain and the air con is free! you might be needing a lot of jacket and socks, because the cold breeze is very unpredictable, well that in terms of how strong the cold breeze is, and I haven't mentioned yet the cold fog from the mountains.
The 5 floor hotel building, this is located at the back of the ancestral house aka Mines View Park Hotel admin and resto area. All white and the color gives a comfy feel and it suits to the color of the sky and cold breeze.
Side view of the hotel building of Mines View Park Hotel, below it are the parking space for your van or car, they have security guard 24/7 and they can close the gate at the drive way, the garage is really nice and they have more parking space below and at the back of the admin area.
Here's the lobby and the Zenz restaurant, they just inserted the couch in the middle during day time for the guest, and at night this area is converted into a nice Zenz Restaurant.
Going straight through the lobby and restaurant is the function room, it can house 100-150 guest. This function room can be used in many ways,for meetings, programs, and also an added dining area for special occassions like birthday, weddings and etc.
Here we are, me and the bloggers are starting to have a mini tour with the hotel manager.We roamed around the hotel and learn more about their services and facilities that guest can use when they are checked in here.
Here's the conference room that I'm talking about earlier, they have a LCD tv, dvd player, white board and the conference table. They have this painting hanged on the wall, painted by one of the known painter in Baguio City.
Going up is their salon and beauty area for men and women, and on the other side is the single sauna area, I really like this set up, you're going to stand or sit inside and control the sauna steam.
The spa and massage area, they have two massage beds inside, they close it whenever one gender is using it, you can't use it if another gender wants to go in. And on the right is the sofa and chairs I saw in the lobby.
Here's the lobby or hallway from my room, and on other pic is the map of our floor, I check and look for the fire exit and also saw that we have 7 rooms in one floor.
Here's a great view from one of the terraces area on the 2nd floor, we were suppose to do our yoga there, but we transferred to the function room as it rained hard that afternoon. You'll see on this photo the oldest tree in the road, they didn't cut it down and they let it stay as it is, and it is one of the nature and landmark going to this place. That's the tree on the left side, with no leaves.
Here's my room, I share the room with our blogger friend Jeman, I chose the bed near the door. And on the other pic is the desk with mirror, I stay there to use my laptop and surf the internet. The room has no aircon, but here in Baguio, you don't need aircon! The cold breeze enters the room even the window is closed.
LCD tv with cable channels and movies, and a sliding door going to your mini terrace, you can use the terrace in hanging your clothes,but I suggest not to hang their for too long, cold breeze is not helping in drying your clothes, dont leave your shoes too outside, the cold breeze can create morning dews and let your shoes go wet.
that's me taking a photo infront of a large mirror going to the bathroom. The bathroom is nice and neat, I'm glad that the water heater in the shower is working properly.
Night lamp and the phone in the middle of the two beds, admin people calls for wake up time and also serve as our reminder, and here's a photo of our cabinet, with a safe, and on the side is the mini refrigerator (no pic)
Here's the breathtaking fog invasion in Mines View Park Hotel, I was about to take a video of myself babbling about my stay here and the weather is fine and I like the sun, and minutes later, I saw this white cloudy that starts to envelope the whole mountain view and then a few min, the fog appears and it swallows everything, I see that my eyes are getting blurry and the fog reaches us too.
it was a great experience, in a fun and weird moment, they say that the fog is a normal thing and its the rarest for me, because here in Manila we got only smog hahhah.
zero visibility in just 3 minutes. wow!
The ancestral house got this fireplace and the hotel owners preserved it and the design is very nice, they burn wood here and add eucalyptus leaves for added aroma, the smoke also a good fighter for mosquitoes, but hmm I stayed here and never even got any mosquito bites, will they live in a cold place like in Baguio ?
the FOOD!!! my favorite activity ever whenever we have an out of town trips, I always save a lot of empty space in my stomach because eating hotel food is a great experience hehehe. Here we were treated in their Zenz Restaurant to try their specialty - Pork Sinigang with Strawberry, it is the weirdest, new and unique style of cooking sinigang, it tastes good! I'm going to feature more of this in my food blog - FoodPilipinas
Here's my food during our dinner, I love the grilled mania at night,bbq, chicken, tilapia, dried squid and super hot seafood soup for dinner, and also my ever favorite meal in every hotel - breakfast meal! - I ate garlic rice, chicken adobo, dried espada fish, scrambled eggs and corned beef. All of their hotel meal are in buffet for all hotel guests. I think you can even request what type of food you want for dinner or breakfast.
At dinner, we watched an Igorot dance during the cultural hours, and they are young people who are locals in this town, and wow! they have Facebooks. Ok, they are modern igorots of our time, I'm glad that their sing and dance are still being practice here, not even for hotel, but for other cultural event.
In one of our activity on our 1st day is that we learned on how to cook the bibingcrepe. Its so easy and I love bibingka super! and I have bibingka mix here at home and just learned that I need that stove thing to cook my own bibingka. They bibingcrepe was inspired from the Half Moon Asian Cafe.
Here's my bibingcrepe top with choco, cheese inside, and marshmallows on top.
Yoga session inside the function hall
And at night, its our show!, we did some videoke with our blogger friends, you can order beer or coffee or even eat your food here at the function hall.
The spice girls vs. backstreet boys.
Mines View Park Hotel is a perfect spot in Baguio, and in few walks away from Mines View Park. You can walk going there if you want to see the great view of the Benguet Mountains, or buy items and food in the market zone in the park, meet an igorot lady, you can even wear their costumes too and have a pic for only P10, that fee serves a donation for the senior igorot people in the park, they also have the famour pink horse and st. bernard dog in Mines View Park, all are available for photo op and meet up.
Omg, my stay in Mines View Park Hotel is awesome! Its the new buzz here in Manila, and we are spreading that there's a nice hotel and place at sits on the mountain, so quiet, no noise and air pollution, very accessible and also affordable.
room rates are :
Jr. Executive room - 1 bed for 2 capacity - P4,500
Single de luxe - 1 bed for 2 capacity - P2,800
Twin - 2 beds for 2 capacity- P2,800
Double - 2 double beds for 4 capacity - P4,500
Family - 3 double beds for 6 capacity- P5,500
Attic Room - 5 double beds for 10 capacity - P7,000
extra person with or without bed - P750
check in time : 2pm
check out : 12nn
here are photos from the pr materials
or visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/popazrael/sets/72157624963175441/
