It’s our second year on celebrating April’s birthday on the beach. Last year we went to Lemery, Batangas at Villa Flora Beach Resort. This time we went to Matabungkay Beach at Lian, Batangas and stayed at the Bella Beach Resort for the weekend.

We have given the resort 5 stars at their Facebook page and highly recommended it. Here’s how to get to the Bella Beach Resort

DLTB Bus Terminal – Bus Ride: Nasugbu/Lian bound	P157/ea
From Lian – Jeep: Matabungkay bound	P21/ea
From Ligtasin Corner – Tricyle: Bella Beach	P20/4 persons

Take a bus from DLTB Bus Terminal at Buendia (Gil Puyat) that are Nasugbu/Lian bound. It’s about 3-4 hours of bus ride, depending on traffic. The drop off is at 7-11, the bus ticket guy will let you know if you are already at Lian. If you still need to buy something at the public market, there are tricycles from 7-11 that will take you there. Anywho, if you are all set to go the beach, ride a Jeepney that’s Matabungkay-bound. Tell the jeepney driver to drop you off at Ligtasin. Ligtasin is sort of like a barangay, a village or a purok. There are signage of some of the beaches that you can find there so you’ll never get pass it.

From Ligtasin, ride a tricycle and ask to drop you off at Bella Beach Resort. And that’s it! The tricycle is charged P20/head but if you are riding just for three, the fee will be somewhat divided to P80.

Here’s another note, half of our group drove to Bella Beach from Alabang. You may take the road to Tagaytay and follow the directions to Matabungkay beach. Once you enter Ligtasin proper, there’s a checkpoint that will ask you where you will go and just tell them that you have reservation at Bella Beach. We were once asked for an entrance fee (P10/head) when we went out and bought food. But that’s just about it.

We had an overnight stay at the resort. There were few families enjoying the pool when we checked in. We were then told that some reservations were cancelled so there would be few people at the resort, well it was good for us! lol

The rooms we took were 4 nipa huts. One room is good for 2 persons but 3 can manage to squeeze in. ^_^

Apart from fan and and air-conditioned rooms, the resort also has their own pool, a fair parking space, their own bar and restaurant, a billiards table, separate toilet and shower rooms for men and women, a small playground for kids and a setup net for volleyball. Another thing to note is that the resort is child and pet friendly too.

Here’s a virtual trip of the resort I’ve recorded from my phone.

We enjoyed the beach while waiting for the guys to come back from the market. Sunset and sunrise are always my favorite when I’m on the beach. Here’s the view of Matabungkay Beach on a great afternoon.

We tried and checked out the raft, it has tables and chairs and a grilling station as well. I believe this has an additional charge if your group wants to use it.

At the same time that we were enjoying the sunset, there were people setting up sound system by the beach. We were then told that there’s a band playing during Saturdays. We surely scored on our reservations this time! Hooray!

Night time came and the band started playing while we were enjoying the pool. We had our dinner at one of the cottages and enjoyed the live band. Here’s one of the videos of the band:

Of course, we have to have someone jam with the band! Here’s our baby Taylor Swift singing Love Story with the DMG Trio Band:

The band played three sets before they packed up around 11PM. The pool closes at 12am so we set up a table near our nipa huts to finish our drinks and let the boys enjoyed the pool. Though we weren’t advise, we tried and kept the noise down as much as we can since we were the only ones who stayed up late that night.

We also noticed that the other group had their bonfire by the beach. Now I’m not sure how much is the additional cost for the bonfire, but you can send them a message and ask about it.

The morning after, there are huge family group checking in at the resort. I checked out the beach front and the shoreline was very far from what we have seen yesterday.

While waiting for the boys prepare for breakfast, we noticed how all the staff were cleaning the place out. One’s cleaning the beach, the other cleaning the toilet and shower area and the other is cleaning the pool.

We thought that we are short of food so we ordered sinigang and asked the staff to cook corned beef, tuna and egg as well. It was a feast!

Once we finished eating breakfast, the group went out to enjoyed the low tide and walk as far as they could. I on the other hand laid at the beach front and enjoyed the shade of the trees. Love! ^ 3^

They still enjoyed the pool when they came back. It’s around 11am that we started to shower and pack our things up. Here’s a photo of us with Miss Bella, the owner of the resort.

Outside, there’s a tricycle waiting at the next corner. Same drop off at the corner of Ligtasin and then a jeepney ride back to 7-11. There are buses that pass by the highway, Pasay-bound, Cubao-bound, LRT-Buendia bound and Dasmarñas-bound.

My overall rating for the resort is 5/5. The staffs are really accommodating and all smiles which I always look for. The resort is very clean, they have trash cans at important areas that some resort don’t usually have. The rooms are strategically built against the sun so it doesn’t get so hot in the morning or noon.

As for the beach, the shoreline is really far off. The water doesn’t get knee deep right away unlike most of the beach that I’ve been to. Though it doesn’t matter to me since there’s a pool at the resort, but if you want to swim at the beach, you will do a lot of walking if you want to go to the deeper parts.

That’s just about it! If you want to book your reservation and ask for more questions, feel free to contact the Bella Beach Resort at the following links below. The contact details that they have are updated and very accessible

• Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bella-Beach-Resort/175505492481435
• Official Site - http://www.bellabeach.com.ph/
• Contact Number: +63 917 563 4691
• Email Address: bellabeachresort@yahoo.com

More photos and videos here:

• http://kristalynhazel.tumblr.com/tagged/bellabeachresort
• Videos here!
• Google Photos

Please keep in mind that even though there are staff keeping the place as clean as possible, it’s also best to clean up after ourselves.

Thank you for reading all the way through!

**The photos used at this post are taken with my Sony Xperia Z2, with the following applications used: Adobe Photoshop.