Review: Pundaquit Luxury Resort, Zambales

After a long-endured debate on whether or not I could handle a 3-hour trip, a baby-in-womb, a one-year hiatus from traveling and four trip reschedules later (courtesy of the unpredictable Zambales weather, thank you very much), Jigs and I finally set foot on Pundaquit, Zambales for a babymoon, or that one last travel a couple embarks on before their baby is born.

Mainly a fishing village, Pundaquit basically serves as a jump-off point to other islands in the area and several distant coves this side of the South China Sea. Capones and Camara Islands, both of which are visible from shore, shelter the town from strong winds and waves.

Because there aren’t that many activities to explore in Pundaquit itself (except for swimming and surfing, which are best done from November until May), most visitors hire boats from Pundaquit beach and go straight to one of the said coves for an overnight camping instead of staying in a hotel.

But since I am almost five months pregnant, we needed to stick to the safer option of spending the night in one of Pundaquit’s numerous beachfront hotels, Pundaquit Luxury Resort. The hotel was the most budget-friendly among all the beachfront hotels/ lodges in the area (P1,600 for a beachfront airconditioned room with bathroom, cable TV and breakfast for two).

The rooms were pretty simple and quite small (Especially the bathroom.Ugh. Could barely fit myself in there.). The resort pool was a nice addition though, and the staff were very accommodating and took the extra mile in everything they did. Joy, the one in charge of the hotel, in an effort to save us gas and effort, was always very gracious to always text us a day ahead of schedule if the weather and the coast out in Zambales wasn’t suitable for island hopping.