Eastern Hawaii Hotel in Cagayan

Night 2: Eastern Hawaii Casino and Resort

Eastern Hawaii Leisure Co. in the CEZA complex in Sta. Ana is another option for those looking for a relaxing place to stay while visiting Cagayan.

Like Sun City, the hotel mainly caters to Chinese tourists who play in the casinos. Despite our brief stay, we found the service quite good and staff very friendly.

Aside from being given welcome drinks when we checked in, we were told that the hotel offers a free 15-minute massage to all guests. So after a nap in the cozy double sharing room assigned to us, I went to the spa room to check it out and found several other media people already getting pampered there. The spot head and back massage was so relaxing, that by the time the 15 minutes was up, I was ready to pay to get the full one-hour massage. Good marketing strategy.

According to Eastern Hawaii’s FO supervisor Carl Dulay in a previous post I wrote, their room rates vary per building. Rooms come with usual hotel amenities including Cable TV, In-House telephone, transportation service, room service, laundry and 24/7 housekeeping services, as well as a first aid service. They have a gym and driving range as well.

We got to stay in the VIP Building, which has a range of twin sized and king sized air-conditioned rooms with hot and cold showers. Wifi is available upon request, though we were able to log in for a couple of hours. According to Dulay, rooms are priced at Php 2,000.00 per night.  They also offer a Mediterranean-accented room with a Master’s bedroom and single room, as well as kitchenette, mini-bar, dining area and sala for Php 4,000.00/night. I also noticed a parlor and small convenience store inside the premises that sold junk food, soda and other snacks including Chinese brands.

On the second night of our Lakbay Norte tour, dinner was served in the beachside pavilion/convention area across the road from the hotel, overlooking a very inviting infinity pool. While most of us slept, others in the group like Izah, Ida, Nina and Ken braved the rain to take a swim in the afternoon. Because of the weather, we didn’t have a chance to try out other water activities offered in the resort like jet skis, banana boats and speed boats. 🙁

I regret that I wasn’t able to take any photos of the dinner prepared for us. We were all famished so every time a dish of liempo, barbecue, tuna belly, sisig, and grilled prawns was brought out, everyone would reach and grab a serving. Because of the delicious food (I can’t stop thinking of the buttery grilled prawns as I write this) we were the last table still eating when everyone else was finished.

Breakfast the next day was served at the cheerful Chinese-themed restaurant with a hearty buffet servings and ala carte siomai and dimsum plates.

Clad in our summer get-up, we boarded the freezing bus in the rain and headed off to our next destination.

Next up: On the Road to Ilocos Norte: Buguey and Claveria