Of all the places I’ve traveled to in the Philippines, the secluded small village of Buscalan in the mountains of Kalinga holds a special place in my heart because it’s where I got the best travel souvenir yet – tattoos from the legendary mambabatok (traditional tattoo artist) of the Butbut tribe herself, Apo Whang-Od. She is now 100 years old, and in her hand lies centuries of tradition.
With more rain and gloomy skies to be expected in the coming days and months, a trip up north with colder breeze and pine trees sound like the perfect escape. It’s actually been a while since Beep and I went on a trip, with the last one being a beach trip last May. Since it’s Beep’s birthday this coming August, we thought why not book a hotel in Baguio for some much-needed R&R and do some ukay-ukay (thrift store) shopping, which Beep is an expert in, believe it or not.
Last week, Beep and I booked a flight using the Traveloka App and got big savings because of all the neat tricks and features of the app that we’ve discovered. Aside from the flight booking feature, it also lets you book hotels. Since we we were so impressed, we used the app too to book a room in the Grand Sierra Pines Hotel in Baguio for the long weekend next month. And as expected, we got the best deal for the hotel too just as we did with the flights.
If you’re planning a trip or a staycation anytime soon, you should definitely book your hotel with Traveloka App. Here’s why:
If you’re one of those people who always find yourself on the lookout for seat sales and staying up until midnight to battle for the limited discounted plane seats, you know all too well that scoring cheap plane tickets take a lot of patience, fast typing skills, and of course, stable Internet connection.
We know your struggle. As budget travelers, we enjoy our trips more when we know that we didn’t have to shell out a ton of cash to fly to/from our destination. That’s why even if it means having sleepless nights, we battle it out online during seat sales to get those good deals.
We’ve blogged before about our tips and tricks to getting better airfare deals. While those tried and tested tips still help us bag awesome cheap flights, we wanted more ways to get bigger savings – and we’ve found an answer in Traveloka App.
You’d think that for a couple who loves to travel, we’d have a planned trip for the Holy Week. We didn’t. We intended to stay at home for the long weekend. But come Thursday night, I found myself packing my bag for a trip with no destination in mind because of Beep.
I was strongly against going on a trip without reservations, especially on a Holy Week! But Beep successfully talked me into it, promising that each of us in our group of 4 will only spend a small amount for a 3-day trip to who knows where.
When our group reached a stopover at NLEX, we were choosing between Baler or Bataan (and maybe Zambales). We decided to head to Bagac, Bataan after doing a quick Google search for beaches where we can camp without riding a boat. Compared to Baler or Zambales, Bataan isn’t as popular of a beach destination so we bet all our chips that there wouldn’t be as much tourists in Bataan as the other two.
We don’t really get to stay much in luxury hotels or resorts during our travels. We just don’t see the point of splurging on an expensive room that we just sleep in for a couple of hours because we spend most of our time outdoors exploring the beauty of Mother Nature. For us, Mother Nature IS the best luxury resort. As long as we have a roof over our heads, even if it’s just a tent that we pitched ourselves, then we’re fine.
However, when we do have extra cash to burn, we treat ourselves once in a while too, usually on special events where we don’t have any budget trip planned. We look for accommodations in the city where we can have a weekend of peace and quiet to take a breather from our busy corporate lives. One of our favorite city staycation destinations is the Cocoon Boutique Hotel in Quezon City.