Chillin' @ Loreland

If  you’re in Metro Manila and looking for a place to stay over the weekend, with swimming pools, delicious food, and a wonderful massage service, there’s one place I can highly recommend which is just around two hours from the cities of Manila and Makati: Loreland Farm Resort in Antipolo, Rizal.

I had first gone to Loreland sometime in the early 2000s. It was the go-to place of the non-profit I had worked for, and we always went there for our rest and recreation activities. I loved their swimming pools; they were clean and of varied depths. I remember it was in Loreland that I learned how to swim, quite ironic given that I was born and raised in a coastal town!

Loreland has five swimming pools, all well-maintained and of varying depths. There’s one perfect for kids, and others for adults. I loved the pool with a yacht-shaped building across it; it was 7ft at its deepest, and not a lot of people go there.

When I went there on Sunday morning, I was the only swimmer aside from an approximately 65-year-old lola who, despite the printed warnings around the pool, kept on diving into the water. I told her I didn’t know how to dive; she only smiled and showed me again and again how it was done.

When lola left, I would have been happy continuing to swim longer, except that a group of men decided to sit by the pool with their drinks. I felt too self-conscious as I had worn a swimsuit and immediately left. #fail

f you don’t like being in this scenario, I highly suggest you swim in the infinity pool in Luljetta’s Hanging Gardens and Spa instead. It’s not part of the public area, and in fact, you have to pay separately to go there. But the privacy and the view makes it all worthwhile!

The place is perfect for get-together not to mention the ambiance and the great view since it is situated on a cliff, thus it is called as The Hanging Gardens. The Zen Lounge was decorated with tables designed after a ship steering wheel, piece of clothes shipped from Mindanao and other ornaments that were proudly made by our kababayans.

A hot bowl of soup, a plate of vegetable salad with vinaigrette sauce and a serving of Tuna pesto is equal to one satisfied palate. There are also plans of them going organic which is a good thing for health conscious individuals. After the dinner, we took the time to introduce ourselves which surprisingly we haven’t done before. Stories and laughter’s were shared and after it was the moment that our restless bodies have been waiting for… <drum roll please> the-oh-so-good-body-massage.

I was amazed at how big Loreland was - 8 hectares of land divided into 4 phases or areas. And it wasn't a farm resort. It was more of like Hidden Valley with less nature. But I was also surprised how much nature could be found in this resort. I was expecting more concrete and all, but Loreland has designed the resort in such as way that they blend.

Loreland is your typical Filipino family resort. It has more than 10 swimming pools, a conference hall, a chapel, an events venue, hundreds of cottages and huts, a spa and a hotel building. It doesn't have a lot of rooms, since most of the visitors are here for day tours. People flock here to cook, eat and swim in rented cabanas and nipa huts.

Again, there are more than 10 pools, each having their own character. Some are made for kids, like the one above, complete with a slide.

Overall, I was really surprised with Loreland Farm Resort. I knew expected to like a typical Filipino resort because of all my past bad experiences. Loreland was a cut above the rest, a true escape from the city. Who needs to go to Los Banos or to Tagaytay even when Loreland is just 30 minutes away from Ortigas? I must say, I will definitely come back. I just hope there are not a lot of people when I do.