Best of both worlds at Boracay Gardens

My wife and I did the math during a recent short, breezy flight to Boracay on Seair: we’ve been to this jewel of an island nine times already. So how do you keep reinventing the Boracay experience?

One way is to plunge yourself into a new environment, someplace that feels like you’re on Bora, right on the beach in fact, but also nestled away from the hustle and bustle in a private resort enclave.

That’s what Boracay Garden Resort is like. Built on a 1.6-hectare property in Station 2, the resort encompasses 201 rooms fronted by three swimming pools (one of them Olympic length) with enough amenities to make you forget that you’re in Boracay — if you really want to. But if you need a quick reminder, it’s a short covered-walkway stroll to the beachfront.

We arrived after Seair’s speedy 40-minute flight to Caticlan, and found ourselves entering the enclave within 20 minutes (transfers to and from Caticlan are included in the resort’s promo package). Still undergoing an ambitious renovation, Boracay Garden is a subsidiary of the Henann group, owner and operator of Boracay Regency Beach Resort and Spa, Regency Lagoon Resort and Henann Resort at Alona Beach Bohol. As you enter the palazzo-like pool area, you’ll see traces of the previous owners’ design (the resort was originally developed by Korean investors): there are white Greco-Roman statues cavorting in a bandshell next to the kiddie pool, which also sports dolphin statues. Walk on and there’s a spacious swimming area with poolside bar, a garden setting, a couple of bridges, and the Garden Café, where we took all of our meals for the two-night stay.

The Triple A-rated rooms at Boracay Garden are eye-catching with Victorian touches (“wooden” beds and cabinets, floral wallpaper), but perfectly modern in convenience and amenities: 21-inch flatscreen TV, WiFi access, safety deposit boxes and individual-controlled air conditioning. You may find yourself spending a lot of your weekend in this relaxing, luxurious setting. Or step out onto the patio (if you’re in a Premier Room with Pool Access) and take a dip right outside your room.

A dip in Bora’s crystal waters is a short stroll away from Boracay Gardens — and it’s nice to have your own beach umbrella and lounger, too.

The concierge at Boracay Gardens is more than helpful. They’re happy to book a massage for you at neighboring Kai spa, a karaoke session or even some kind of island extreme sport that you fancy. During our stay, we saw that the main plaza outside the Garden Café was being prepared for a 16-year-old’s debut that evening (conferences and family functions are a lot more fun when you invite people to Bora, we’ve noticed).

The rooms at Boracay Gardens retain some of the previous owners’ character, though now more “subtle” with contemporary renovations, according to resort manager Dindo Salazar. The resort’s architecture itself is eclectic, combining neo-colonial elements (like the cantilevered upper-room balconies) with neo-classical touches, conveying a sense of simple luxury and comfort.

Menu Happy Returns

Another reason to stay at Boracay Garden Resort is the food. While some Bora guests might be tempted to island-hop to scare up their grub, the Garden Café offers so many special meals this Christmas season, you might never leave. Chef Emel Moñuz, formerly with Gasthof, mixes regional dishes with European-themed feasts for the holidays. Their Yuletide Menu opens with the Christmas Eve Set Dinner (appetizer of beef tenderloin carpaccio with pommery mustard, orange and carrot soup, seared scallop salad with avocado and grapefruit segment in orange sauce, followed by duo entrée of grilled king prawn in caper sauce and traditional Italian osso bucco, followed by a dessert trio of Christmas fruitcake, tiramisu and chilled fresh strawberry.

Meanwhile, there’s a Christmas Eve Dinner Buffet that will knock your Pinoy socks off this season: a Filipino specialty sabaw (soup station), including beef bulalo with bone marrow, adobo pan de sal, stolen bread and monay; appetizers like shrimp, chicken and pork sisig, tokwa’t baboy, halabos na hipon, alimasag, tahong at talaba, and of course queso de bola; a special noodle station with the arroz valenciana, pancit palabok and sotanghon guisado. And don’t forget the glazed Christmas ham leg in pineapple sauce or roasted tom turkey with chestnut stuffing, giblet gravy and cranberry sauce at the carving station.

For those staying at Boracay Garden for the turnover to 2012, there’s a special New Year’s Eve Set Dinner that offers steamed scallops, salmon and prawn Calypso as appetizers; or try the quail with roasted fennel and orange, washed down with a festive glass of sparkling mimosa; enjoy the surf-and-turf entrées of grilled king prawns in hollandaise or prime beef tenderloin with sweet peppercorn, topped off with New Year Cookies, chocolate truffles and peppermint tea.

And the New Year’s Gala Dinner at Garden Café is even more special, celebrating International Specialty Cuisines — everything from lobster chowder with Pinot Noir wine foam, assorted German cold cuts and a variety of cheese (brie, cheddar, camembert, edam and gruyere) to nigiri sushi and sashimi; sample the southern fried chicken, London fish and chips or moriawase tempura at the Frying Station; followed by the Carving Station featuring Pinoy roasted calf leg, maple-brown sugar glazed Christmas ham and lechon de carajay with pinakurat sauce; go even more Asian with the lemongrass grilled salmon fillet in green Thai curry sauce, adobong sugpo sa aligue, chicken galantine, lengua estofado, kalbi tang (boiled Korean ox-tail) and buffalo baby back ribs.

(Believe it or not, we got to sample a lot of the above menus during our recent two-day stay. So enjoying the best Christmas and New Year’s menus that Bora has to offer is totally doable.)

Sitting at the 136-seat Garden Café for lunch (with its wooden interiors suggesting Bali), we also noticed many foreigners strolling the grounds this early in December. We learned from the restaurant’s staff that foreign guests tend to come in seasonal waves: Russians and Japanese prefer December; Koreans like it here in June and July; Filipinos tend to flock here during Holy Week. And of course New Year’s Eve has become a big, big deal on Boracay: the fireworks got off to an early start right on the beach outside Boracay Garden. We heard from staff that the resort is at full occupancy, which is encouraging news for this tourism-friendly destination.

Garden Of Eden

Boracay Garden is like the best of both worlds: it’s family- and kid-friendly, but nestled within its walls, you can also escape the noise usually associated with Station 2’s surrounding party scene. We watched countless couples — Koreans and Japanese, mostly — pausing amid its sun-drenched grounds to set up their tripods and take glamour shots. It really depends on how you want to spend your getaway.

At night, we booked a 60-minute well-being Swedish massage at next-door Kai, the Boracay Regency spa. A very ritualized spa, we hit relaxation mode as soon as the masseuses gently wiped and scrubbed our feet, wrapped us facedown on tables and softly tolled a gong bell to signal our massage session.

In the afternoon, we lazed around the awesome and inviting swimming pools (the pool area features stone tiles imported from Bali, Indonesia), relaxed in the plentiful Asian-inspired cabanas surrounding it, and sat at the poolside bar to enjoy our Margaritas and Tequila Sunrises in a perfectly relaxing getaway.

And the best part might be the rates: based on triple sharing, Boracay Garden Resort’s deluxe rooms start as low as P7,924 net per person. The package is inclusive of four days’ accommodation, with a daily buffet breakfast and dinner, and roundtrip transfers via Caticlan. The promo period runs from Dec. 25, 2011 to Jan. 2, 2012.

And with its frequent daily flights to Caticlan, Seair is one of the easiest, most reasonable ways to fly. Contact flyseair.com for the best daily rates.

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For inquiries, call Boracay Garden Resort’s Manila booking office at 353-1111 or e-mail manila@boracaygarden.com.ph.

To purchase tickets, visit www.FlySeair.com or call 849-0100. For packages, call Seair Leisure Escape Packages at 843-7308. Join Seair Facebook Fan Page for updates on promos and new routes.