Hotel Kimberly Tagaytay

I made reservations at Marcia Adams.

This was my only glimpse of sheep ever, anywhere.

Team-building is available for big groups.

OT is going to Tagaytay and a Nasugbu beach this weekend with her batch mates.  One of her batch mates has a place in Canyon Woods.

Cafe at K washroom was smelly when I went.

I suggested that she try Hotel Kimberly, as it is owned by a friend.

There is a promo rate of P 3,500 (including taxes) for a superior room next weekend.

This October, the room rate is P 4,500 plus
P 2,500 for the second night, and includes the following freebies:

Taal Lake pica-pica
mini bar
breakfast for 2

When I went there for a visit, I had a tour of the rooms courtesy of Al, the right hand man of the Executive Director.

My first comment was that the lobby felt even more relaxing than how it looked in the website.  It is also more spacious.

I went around by myself at first.  I took photos of some chickens.  When I looked at my photo, I saw a white thing in the background, and assumed that it was a chick.  When I checked out the white animal, it turned out to be sheep.  That's when I got stuck following them. :)

When I showed the photos of the pool to my friend, she asked me if you could play basketball in the pool, since there was a basket.  It was only then that I realized that the pool had a basket. :)

If I were to stay there, I can just imagine myself playing ping pong and another game which I can't name now, the one with moving men on sticks.

When I went to Lima Park Hotel early this year, I was yearning for a ping pong table, as I'm not actually a gym person (Hotel Kimberly also has a gym).


When I went to Taiwan decades ago, the hotel had only one ping pong table.  The guests lined up to play.

When Al showed me the balcony of one of the rooms, the sliding door fell.  Someone overheard Al's reprimand later.

On the Cafe washroom's smell, I was told that Hotel Kimberly had been having a hard time getting a plumber or contractor to fix it, as Tagaytay is far from Metro Manila.

I also pointed out that there was a chair in the path to the pool from the rooms.  A waiter was asked to move a chair.

I wish the path to the pool had more plants, like the rest of the lot.

All these are fixable, especially with Hotel Kimberly's friendly, eager-to-please employees.  What would be difficult to fix, in any building, is the architecture.  This is what I appreciated in Hotel Kimberly, and in Lima Park Hotel.

The stairs split the floor into two, so that the farthest room is not so far away from the main stairway.

The huts near the Balite Falls were not clean. 

And because of the path to the pool, there are two ways out of every corridor, making it firesafe, something you don't get in most restaurants (especially, say, Savory at Theater Mall) and condos, and even at Astoria Boracay, unless you count jumping into the pool, and climbing over the rails and dropping to the ground floor from the second floor, which I guess most people can do without getting hurt.

Although only the rooms--and I suppose, the function rooms, are air-conditioned, on September 23 when I went, it was comfortable from morning to lunch.

Our lunch was gising-gising (better than Metro Megamall), which I selected from the menu, a sweet Oreo shake that the waiter recommended, and sotanghon soup (standard) for a restless tummy, leftovers of the buffet of the DENR group that was there at the time.

Where have I seen pool basketball before?  Josie and the Pussycats?

 Incidentally, the wi-fi at Cafe at K is excellent.

When I went to Balai Isabel on November 2009, the internet access was through a pay lounge.

Lima Park has internet access which I didn't use because I didn't bring my laptop.

After lunch, we went to Balite Falls, which has a decent function area upstairs.  Guests need to bring their own food.

We also went to Marcia Adams, near Residence Inn.  I got to meet Marcia Adams' husband Neil Adams and their cat, who understands British English.  He said that the minimum per person is P 700.  Plus 10% service charge, that makes P 770.  I do not look forward to cancelling this reservation.

I'd like to take photos of Marcia Adams' Tuscany garden outside, too.

I got coffee from Cafe Amadeo, which I haven't tried yet.

Then we went to the famous Mahogany Market, which grossed us out because there were horns and beef on the floor.  We did not see any extraordinary fruit or any other foodstuff.

The driver said that it had been moved from the main road as it was causing traffic.

The market had enough parking, more than I had expected.

My friend said that her dad gets inexpensive 'Batangus' beef here.

We were back in Makati before 5.  Even though it was a Friday, I was still surprised at how short the travel time was.

Go straight to bed after partying all night long.

Anyway, back to Hotel Kimberly.  They have bridal packages, which my friend said would make it convenient for the guests to book there.

My friend says that there are two kinds of hotels that she would look at when staying in Tagaytay.  One is high-end, the likes of Taal Vista with the view,  and the no-frills MC Hotel at P 2,500 a night including breakfast, for sleeping over after a wedding instead of driving all the way back to Metro Manila.

At P 3,500 she finds Hotel Kimberly attractive.

At P 4,500, Hotel Kimberly might not be as attractive (excluding the October freebies) as Balai Isabel (P 5,500) with its giant pools and other sports facilities, mountain climbing tours, Taal Lake view, Church.

I guess it also depends on how near the hotel is to the other places that you are going to.