Pandoraspace

The Hotel Venezia

Boktor and I were not expecting to be billeted in a fancy hotel.  Lucky for us, our hotel in Legazpi, the Hotel Venezia, surpassed our expectations.

Hotel Venezia is a three-minute ride away from the airport. Surprisingly, I never saw or heard any planes flying overhead. I was told that this is because the planes fly from the opposite direction of the hotel.  The hotel is located inside a quiet and well secured subdivision away from the busy streets of Legazpi. I was able to walk around the area without fear of being run over by cars or bothered by other pedestrians.

When Boktor and I got to the hotel, we checked-in and went directly to our rooms to unload our things. When I stepped inside my room, I immediately noticed that the room had already been cooled for me. I also saw that it was very clean and the layout was simple and made good use of the space. My room had a king-sized bed with white crisp clean sheet and huge fluffy pillows, an LDC TV, a desk, a coffee table, a comfortable arm chair and a closet. When I opened the closet to put my bag in, I was surprised to note that I was provided with a cotton robe (the one with the small square pattern), room slippers and a laundry bag. I was also pleased when I saw that there was a safe, a well-stocked mini-bar (I just like seeing that there are things to eat in the min-bar but I am not one to binge on mini-bar food) and a bathroom that had complete amenities like cotton buds, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, lotion, hair dryer, comb and shower cap.  My room had a veranda, and when I stepped out, I realized that my view was Mt. Mayon. Sadly, it was cloudy so I could only see parts of it.

After we checked-in, the next time I saw my room was right before I went to bed.  When I entered my room, I noticed that the bed was turned down, the robe laid out on the bed, the slippers placed on the floor beside my bed and the bathroom was tidied-up.  There was also a plate of macaroons on the coffee table. Boktor tells me (and I did not notice this since I did not watch TV that night) that the remote controls of the air-conditioner and television were moved from the TV stand to the bedside table for the guest’s easy access.  Such attention to a guest’s needs impressed me.

The hotel has a restaurant on the first floor called San Marco, which serves al carte continental food and traditional Filipino food like Bicol Express and Laing.  For dinner, we ate Filipino-style where all the food is laid out on the center and the table and shared by everyone.  We had boneless crispy pata (pork thigh boiled and deep fried after), parmesan encrusted red-snapper, steak with mushrooms and crispy fried chicken.   In the morning, a buffet breakfast was laid out. I had the spicy longganisa (Filipino sausage), garlic fried rice and sunny-side up egg.  I also had a small ube  (purple yam) ensaimada (pastry with butter, cheese, sugar and yam jam).  The food was very good.

I was impressed.  So was Boktor.  When we compared notes later, Boktor told me that his jaw dropped when he saw how clean the place was and how complete the amenities were.  This statement coming from Boktor who is no stranger to luxury accommodations surely says something about how great this place is. If you want to know more about Hotel Venezia, click on this.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 at 12:08 am and is filed under Palate Pleasers, The Adventures of Boktor and Pandora in Legazpi, Albay. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.