Berjaya Makati Hotel Manila Staycation
We booked there a stay of 7 days overlapping the beginning of the Holy Week in the Philippines. The room was large and well-furnished, with a full-size bathroom and bathtub but the room is very dimly lit despite the three to four lamps (a central lamp would be much more useful to enlighten the room, as our room faced the opposing hotel). The staff is very kind and helpful, but everything has a price: using the business center, for instance costs 130 PHP, prints are also tariffed. If you don't need to print anything, then you have free wifi in the rooms (very useful). A newspaper is provided free of charge in the morning, but don't get your hopes hiked: it is a Filipino newspaper with not much in the matter of interesting news for foreigners. Would have been better to provide an int'l financial newspaper (but I'm being picky). Finally there is a pool in the hotel, but I haven't tried it, so I'm unable to give an opinion on that. Not a lot of taxi drivers know the Berjaya in Manila, so a useful way to guide them along is to tell them to go to Ayala Triangle, then to follow Makati Avenue in direction of hotel St. Giles (eventually they'll see the sign of Berjaya to the left - or point it out to them). Big issue in Manila: taxi drivers trying to avoid the use of the meter. The transportation service to the hotel from the airport is slightly overpriced (950 PHP); it is better to take your chance with one of the airport taxis (insist on the meter!), as the road costs about 150 PHP with a metered taxi. Food is interesting but I would rather recommend the cocktails at the bar: those are done with real fruits instead of juices as in Europe.#staycation