Evercrest Hotel, Nasugbu Batangas

The hotel's architecture is reminiscent of Baguio Terraces Hotel, the one which went down with the earthquake. It did not have as many floors, however. Built some 15 years ago, it must have been five-star then because the room sizes are adequate (we got a Junior Suite for P4500/night with breakfast for 2; additional persons P200 per). The suite had a receiving area, a view of the golf course in the veranda , a dining table, a refrigerator, a toilet with a bathtub, a separate shower area, a hair dryer, etc. BUT the walls had rust (?) stains, the TV's reception was bad even after they replaced it, the aircon in the room refused to cool well (it was set at time delay, the engineering man said). We weren't given towels until we asked, we weren't given enough soap and toiletries. We occupied one of only three rooms that had guests last night.

One of the restaurants is for Koreans only (and we're in the PHilippines, take note, or is Batanagas Korea Jr.?) The clubhouse where breakfast and other meals are served has no ramp and there's no one who helps until you ask) and we were told breakfast would be buffet so we hied off to the place despite the steps this morning. But when we got there, the waiter said it was a choice between Filipino, American or continental breakfast which we could have ordered room service and which we eventually did. Luckily, before we negotiated the second set of steps to the resto area, we saw no buffet, asked and were told we had been misinformed by the man who had brought the menu to our room. Oh boy.

I didn't tip the engineer who came to fix (but didn't succeed enough) the TV because it was our right to have a functioning TV set, right? He wasn't doing us a favor. Neither did I tip the housekeeping lady who brought in the towels which were due us. My rationale: if I did, they might see this as a money-making activity.

Yesterday when we lunched, we ordered caldereta, salpicao and binagoongang baboy. The caldereta could have been softer, the salpicao was all right, the binagoongang baboy was misnamed. It should have been called curried pork. I couldn't taste the bagoong.

Breakfast: the ham used was not ham per se but its cheaper version: spiced ham. The omelette looked okay, the tapa was tops (the waiter had recommended it), while the longganisa looked dehydrated. The hot chocolate had solid particles (I suspect tablea was used but not completely dissolved).

Would I go back to Evercrest? Possibly, but if there are better alternatives, I might pass up the chance. Oh yes, it has a sister hotel/resort: Chateau Royale. This one has cottages that are attached to each other. My son wanted to check in there, my husband thought the cottages were way too small. Besides, Chateau Royale didn't offer a view of the golf course. Rather than nature, it had buildings, playgrounds, more buildings. But my son said it was more disabled friendly as there were ramps everywhere. You see, one of the buildings in the grounds is designated for retirees.

I think the two resorts/hotels are owned by the Gotesco Group. Not bad really, but could be better.