Archive for December, 2009

Posted on December 14, 2009 - by Vic

Discovering Boracay’s new luxury Resort – The Discovery Shore

This piece was originally published published in the now defunct Pilmap Travel & Liesure magazine.

While waiting for Discovery Shore’s front –office staff to escort me to my luncheon appointment with Angela delas Alas, the resort’s operation manager, I guided myself and my photographer Karlo to the waiting bar lounge with its Budji Layug designed chairs and tables at the resort’s Sands restaurant, laid out invitingly around a sleek Miami style lobby lounge overlooking the vast “puka” inspired shoreline of the resort hotel.

The grand tour of the 88 luxurious room property resort I was shown was an even more of a honey trap with its amenities including a king-sized bed, a balcony overlooking the blue sea, I-pod dock and CD/DVD component player system with flat screen TV monitor, double-sinked bathroom with rain shower and amenities from Essences of Rustan’s Department Store. A welcome addition was a Jacuzzi plunge pool. It was the ideal cocoon guaranteed to ensure serious honeymooning or just plain vegging-out especially for island “partyphiles” who’s been going through several chill out parties and what have you gatherings from dawn till day in the island.

If I was an in-house guest, I could have survived throughout my stay on room service but it would have been a waste not to venture out and at least try to develop some appreciation for the seaside topography that makes Discovery Shores so unforgettable.

And you thought you knew water. You don’t – not until you’ve stood above the white, talcum fine beach, crystalline waters at the Discovery shores, thrown your arms open, and inhaled, full-force, capping it off with a triumphant thump on the chest. This is air: spiked with the humid tang of saltwater, and a strong hint of the sea.

The opening of Discovery Shores more than a month ago turned the sleepy island of Boracay into a bona fide luxury destination. Located on the best beach of the archipelago, Discovery Shores has now become a popular destination for Europeans, Koreans and Japanese, rivaling even Cebu further to the south. But you’d never know it from your balcony at the Discovery Shores.

Set between the Tablas strait and the mountains of Antique(?), hidden in an absurdly lush coconut grove, the resort could be the secret lain of a Bond nemesis. If it is, he has exceptionally good taste. The style includes deep, rich granite floors, so glossy you could dive into them; tile roofed pavilions framed by tropical plants and foliages; carefully arranged art from Java and Borneo; altar-like beds shrouded in impossibly white linens, spot-lit to perfection. A freshly plucked tropical fruits of bananas, mangoes, and the like waits on your nightstand.

The Discovery Shores features 88 luxurious guest rooms, consisting of studios of one and two bedrooms, 24 hour room service, 32 inch LCD monitors with cable TV, 100% oversized towels, down pillows, in-room safe, mini-bar, refrigerated bar, tea/coffee maker among the many amenities.

You could get your money’s worth here just breathing in and swimming out, but for those who are more restless; The Discovery Shores has numerous indulgences. Walk down a stairway to the beach, you’ll find just the right amount of playthings: a few catamaran sailboat, a windsurfer, nothing noisy. Borrow a kayak and follow the boatman to a trail along the shores, then play spot-the-hotel – it’s almost invisible from the water. Just up on the mezzanine of the resort, the Mandala Spa will soon open to give treatments in a separate pavilion.

Food is the downfall of many a destination resort: few things are more frustrating than being stuck in paradise with nothing to eat. The Discovery Shore is a rare exception. Simple dishes and snacks are done with flair – find me a better beachside lunch than Discovery Shore’s seared Norwegian Salmon, Fillet Mignon or Rib-Eye Steak. And while complexity doesn’t often translate to the tropics, the chef has a sure hand with more creative dishes.

No need for management to post a dress code: The Discovery Shore’s well-heeled clientele wouldn’t dream of wearing faded jeans and flip-flops to dinner. Guests tend to keep to themselves, so even when the resort is busy – and it usually is – you feel like one of only a few dozen inhabitants. No waiting for beach chairs, no queues for the catamarans. Where is everyone: I wondered one late afternoon, sipping brewed coffee by a deserted pool.

Perhaps they’d taken cue from the aetas who use to roam the island.