Casa Astillero in Calatagan

Last April 5, our team went to Calatagan for our much awaited team outing or what we call our "Anarchy Day". We left Manila at 11AM and arrived at Mahogany Market at 1PM. We stopped by to have our lunch and to buy our food for dinner. We left Tagaytay at 2:30PM and at exactly 4PM, we're already in Casa Astillero.

When we arrived, Sir Romy approached us and I gave him the details of our reservation. He immediately escorted us to the places available for tent pitching. We chose the vacant spot in between the kubo and the a/c rooms.

I was so disappointed to see that the place was crowded. I never expected that much people even though it's weekend since I thought they're only accepting reservations to control the number of guests. There are tents and videokes everywhere and the place is small that it looks like a chaos.

We immediately pitched our tents and unpacked our stuffs on the table provided to us. I believed I paid for a table under the tree but all the tables under the tree were occupied already so they just placed a table right outside our tents. I also paid for a grilling station with mini kitchen but instead got a portable griller. I told Sir Romy that the portable griller is cheaper but he said they just cost the same. Then when I checked out the grilling station, it's free to use for guests. I also asked where we can charge our cellphones, he just said we can use any power outlet. But how can that be possible if all the tables where the power outlets were placed are occupied? Talk about chaos and disappointment.

A few minutes later, my office mate Ron and his wife arrived. They're from Cavite so they thought it would be more convenient to just ride a bus going to Calatagan directly from their place but their fare cost more than when you'll be coming from Pasay. They paid 400 for the fare to Calatagan Market then 150 for the tricycle to Casa Astillero. Not really what I've been expecting.

So, since everyone's at the resort already, the girls started to prepare for dinner. I cooked Calamares while the others prepared the ensalada. The boys grilled the Liempo and Bangus. I forgot to buy water for drinking luckily, just right outside the resort, there are stores selling purified water (P30/5 liters), softdrinks (P70/1.5L), and ice but they always run out of stock.

After cooking, Some of us took a nap. When i woke up it was already past 9 but the videokes are still on full volume so I did not hesitate to sleep anymore. After we're done eating, we asked the caretaker to prepare our bonfire then we went off to the beach for our drinking session. 

The next morning, there were vendors roaming the area selling fresh seafoods at cheap price. I also noticed a guy in a motorbike selling hot pandesals. I checked out the beach. Still at low tide. The sun's up and the view of the beach from afar is superb but the water is so shallow that even at 100m away from the shore, it's still at knee level. 

Beach during low tide

It spoiled our day so we just prepared our Brunch and after we ate, everyone's off to the shower room. There's a long queue over the ladies' shower room and there are only two shower rooms so I think the management should work on having additional shower rooms to accommodate the increasing number of guests.

Our travel back to Manila only took 3 hours. Well, that's the fastest we can go since the road from Tagaytay to Calatagan is narrow.

To summarize, the place clean and well-maintained but the management needs to improve on their service. They should put limit to the number of guests and they should assign a table or cottage number to the guests so that guests arriving in the late afternoon will still get a good and decent spot. The resort is recommended only during off-peak season because the place is nice but was spoiled by the heavy crowd and disorganized management.