we recently flew to boracay, a first of what we hope will be a
series of journeys beginning this year. it was a birthday gift from mr young
and the kids, an upgrade from last year’s awesome ultimate spa experience.
since it’s been a while since our last trip as a family (and the first for our
little one), we were all extremely hyped up about it. somebody even created a
playlist for the escape to the island, which of course, included all my
favorite dance and chillout music.
a couple of months before the trip, we spent a considerable
amount of time trying to find the perfect accommodation for us. “perfect” means different things for different people but part of our definition was an affordable beachfront hotel, a clean and safe place.
we found our place at the southern end of station 1 at the white
beach sitting atop army navy. it’s close to good restaurants so finding a place
to dine in was no trouble. well, there’s army navy right under your room so
there was always delish taco to begin your afternoon with. you get a 10% discount at army navy if you're a guest at coco huts, by the way.
that’s what mr young
and i did exactly when the little one went for a nap and our eleven-year old
decided to hit the water one afternoon under the sweltering heat. we had to be
where we could easily run up to the room to check on attika and watch cole
while he’s swimming -— and that meant sitting at the beachfront with tacos and a
couple of beers for company. not bad for a couple who just wanted to sit together, hold
hands between sips and suck the good life in as long as we could.
and oh, if coffee from starbucks is part of your early morning
fancies, it’s only a few steps away from coco huts. there are also 24-hour
convenience stores next to the hotel (both sides actually) so you have everything that you need within
your reach -- from sachets of instant coffee to spirits.
i’ve noticed that one of the biggest considerations made by
people when booking hotels in boracay is its distance from d’mall. coco huts is
within comfortable distance from d’mall. by comfortable, i mean you can just go
anytime if you needed (surely it’s mostly 'wanted') anything from there, come back
and not feel like you just came from the marathon. there, the good news is out.
the family room
the place that we got was not really what you would call a room
since it had three floors and a loft. until now we still have no name for it
but one of the things that helped mr young decide instantly was the impressive
architecture and the brilliant use of space in the hotel. some beach hotels would squeeze in
beds in small spaces, throw in tacky wall decors that would make the already
limited spaces more suffocating. coco huts was the exact opposite of that with
a minimalist approach to design that made the spaces inside look and feel a lot bigger and cleaner. as
a matter of fact, for a beachfront unit, it was huge and could comfortably (and
hypothetically) accommodate around 13 people, but the management of course will allow a maximum of eight guests in the family room. in our case, there were four of us adults, an eleven-year old and two little people.
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| the first room photo courtesy of coco huts |
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| view of the room from the opposite side. that's our niece running away from me |
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| the second floor. otherwise known as my mother's favorite place in the world for a few days photo courtesy of coco huts |
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| the third floor. we put the beds together so it was comfortable for mr young, me and our little one between us photo courtesy of coco huts |
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| cole's loft |
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| photo courtesy of coco huts |
one of the best things about the coco huts experience was having
a spacious balcony overlooking the blue waters of the white beach. i never had
idle moments in boracay but parenting does change some of your beach routines.
you can’t go party at night because you don’t want to leave the kids “at
home”. so what we did was we brought the party home. no, it wasn’t the crazy
partying like what we all did when we were younger. we had friends over, a couple who own a business in boracay, and whom we haven’t seen for ages. we bought drinks from the convenience store and
enjoyed (and sometimes abhorred) the music from the party at the beachfront.
free music, cheap drinks and a very long night playing catch-up. sweet.
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| the balcony overlooking our piece of heaven photo courtesy of coco huts |
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| the cousin getting a tan |
we won't be needing this huge, beautiful space when we go back in june since it will only be the four of us. but if we ever come around with a couple of guests with us, you will surely find us here again. we went to boracay during the "high season", so the daily rate was a reasonable PhP 6,300.00 (USD 154) per day.
i sure hope you all have a great summer! you might also want to read middle march.
here are the numbers to call if you want to book: +63 36 288 2301 (landline), +63 932 885 0959 (mobile). you may also e-mail them at boracaycocohuts@yahoo.com
