WOWBatangas.com Your Source of Great News and Stories from the Province of Batangas, Philippines
Related Articles
Every quarter, the WOWBatangas Team tries to find time for team-building activities and leisure. We asked Ms. Nini Casapao, Tourism Officer of Mabini, Batangas to help us find a good resort in the Mabini Area, knowing that Mabini has more than a few resorts that operate all year round without sacrificing quality of service. She suggested Sea’s Spring Resort, and a quick look at their website got the whole team excited.
How To Get There
We left Lipa City as two groups on a Saturday morning and took two different routes :
1) from Star Tollway to Batangas City Exit- > Diversion Road -> San Pascual, Batangas -> Bauan -> Mabini, Batangas
2) from Lipa -> San Jose -> Cuenca -> Alitagtag -> Bauan -> Mabini, Batangas
From experience, you really can’t predict which will be the faster route on a given day because of traffic. The Batangas City exit seems to be the logical choice for those who are coming from Manila. The travel time is about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours from Star Tollway.
Upon reaching the Mabini Tourism Triangle, you have a choice of going right to Anilao or left to the town proper. The town proper route is 7 kms shorter but the road is steeper. For newer cars, the town proper route is easily negotiable (and scenic) and we suggest you take it.
Sea’s Spring Resort
We arrived promptly at lunch time at Sea’s Spring. It was a sunny November day, and although the sun was high in the sky, the cool sea breeze prevailed and we immediately felt at home and relaxed. The lobby of the resort is very spacious, and the whole team was greeted with friendly frontdesk staff. We were also welcomed by Ms. Maureen Manzanilla, the Resort Manager, who is a fellow Batangueño and resident of Mabini, Batangas. Most of the staff are from the area, and this fact greatly impressed the team because Sea’s Spring has in a way “fulfilled” its promise to provide livelihood to the locals.
The Resort took 4 years to build and was opened in 2009. Since then it has introduced a lot of improvements and satisfied many visitors. It is Korean-owned, and a great number of their guests are Koreans. The resort looks like any other resort in the Mabini Area– offering Scuba Diving, Island Hopping, and Pool Resort Amenities, except it is NOT you regular resort. The reason why people flock to Sea’s Spring is because of its natural hot spring.
Hot Spring
“Wait. Hot Spring in Anilao? Did we hear that right?” We had the same reaction when we first heard it, but YES, Sea’s Spring has a natural hot spring as one of its features. Apparently the resort is located in a geothermally-heated area, which causes ground water to be heated, boiled and turned into steam. A quick dive from the sea shore gives you the view of bubbles/air escaping from the ground/sand, which is pleasantly warm to the touch. This is probably why the area is called Brgy. Mainit, and not just because of the weather. This geographic feature greatly appealed to the Korean Owners that now the resort guests are able to enjoy it fully through the Hot Spring Pools.
We tried the pools of course and the water temperature ranged from 39C to 42C. It was really hot at first, but soon you’ll find it relaxing and therapeutic. One of the pools even has jets intended to massage certain parts of the body. Some team members tried the Sauna and stayed for 10 minutes inside until it got too hot for them.
Food
The menu at Sea’s Spring Resort is a mouth-watering mix of Filipino and Korean food. Most noteworthy to the team were the Korean Beef we had for our first lunch, and the sweet sauce crab that we had for dinner! Those two are absolutely must-trys!
Their breakfast buffet, which is already included with you get an overnight stay, is varied and sumptuous. I’m sure the kids would love their food. You may also choose to bring your own food but the Resort will charge you a corresponding corkage fee.
Accommodation
The rooms were well equipped with Hotel amenities like Cable TV, refrigerator, air-con, water heater and so on. They were noticeably spacious, and the view outside to the sea was just AMAZING, as Eena, one of our team members describe it. We didn’t spend much time in our rooms though, because most of the fun to be had is outside.
Activities
At Sea’s Spring, they have:
Sea Water Swimming Pool
Slides
Volleyball
Billiards
Aqua Basketball
Hot Spring Pools
Sauna
Island Hopping Packages – P1500 per person
Sunset Trekking to Mt. Gulugod Baboy
We got the chance to finally trek to the top of Mt. Gulugod Baboy with the help of a Sea’s Spring guide. We’ll be doing a separate article for that to showcase more photos.
SCUBA Diving
A first for our team was the SCUBA diving experience. Sea’s Spring has a well-equipped Dive Shop and an excellent NAUI Instructor in the person of Mike An. With Ms. Maureen herself, a Dive Master Candidate, introducing us to diving, the team got all excited gearing up for our shore-entry dive. It’s not everyday that you get to wear diving suits and so we took our time and took a lot of pictures. I thought we looked awesome, like the cast of Power Rangers or Fantastic Four wearing those suits. We listened to Ms Maureen like kids waiting to finally play outside. We were excited, that was given, but we were also scared of the thought that we will be breathing from tanks underwater for more than 20 minutes! It was indeed a nervewracking experience, and some of us had trouble equalizing the pressure. The belt and tanks were also uncomfortable. But after we got the hang of it and have been underwater for sometime, the feeling was just marvelous! It was like floating in the sky and being in another world. We saw different species of fishes and corals. Yes, we dove for no more than 10 meters with Kuyas Roland and Jerome but we felt safe and it was certainly the highlight of our trip. Surely we will find time to do this again!
Rates and Contact Details
Twin Bedroom – P4000
Couple/King Bedroom – P4000
Triple Bedroom – P4500
Dormitory – from P8000
with free breakfast for 2 persons
additional P1000 per head
Day Trip : 500 per head/adults and 300 for kids
CEL NO. : (0917)564 8085
TEL NO. : (02)881 1766
E-mail : seaspringph@yahoo.com
Website : http://seasspringresort.com/
The Resort can host up to 300 overnight-staying guests and many more during daytrips and summer months. It is perfect for the family and barkada wanting to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, as well as companies and businesses holding team-building activities. Divers will find a sanctuary here. The edge of course of Sea’s Spring is its hot spring pools, and it will one of the main reasons why you will want to come back. Our team definitely will.
WOWBatangas Team
Photographers : Edison Manalo, Ryan Tibayan
Writers and Assistants : Eena Morada, Zen Morada and Rheny Manalo
Guest Members : Dante Inciong and Patricia Robles
Team Lead : JR Cantos
