How far in advance do you plan your vacations? For us Castillos – well, actually just me and mama – we start our preparations for at least half a year. For Christmas 2024, we booked our staycation as far as June!

B.U.T. for some reason, that Subic trip didn’t happen. The main thing was that the house we booked on Agoda CANCELLED on the last minute. BUMMER! Good thing we managed to get refunded, the process of which I will share in a separate post. And also, God definitely had bigger plans for us because we went on to have the best staycation our family has had so far.

Hello, The Casablanca!

How to Find It

We found The Casablanca via AirBNB.

Getting There

The Casablanca is found at Samal, Bataan – around a three-hour drive from San Jose City. You can easily find it via Google Maps, although you might think you’re getting lost because it’s hidden behind a non-Catholic church.

AirBNB will give you the exact address after finalizing your booking.

Features

The Casablanca is a two-storey, all-air conditioned white house that can fit over 16 guests. The design is minimalist yet still very homey.

It has:

• Swimming pool (max. 5 feet)
• Comfy living room
• TVs – Unfortunately, the TV in the living room is practically useless. It turns on but there were no programs or apps. I wish we brought an HDMI cable so we could watch using our laptop. This is the only downside.
• Two huge bedrooms – We loved that there was a bedroom on the ground floor for the seniors.
• Fridge
• Flatware
• Spacious bathrooms
• Outdoor kitchen (with LPG, stove, pans, and utensils)
• Board games and books

What We Think

Firstly, The Casablanca is beautiful. The house itself is modern and white. (To be honest, it looks like our house, but way bigger. The similarities made us, especially Sprout, feel really at home.) The garden is well-kept, too.

Next, the privacy. The gate and fences were high and no one can see us from the outside. The fences was also covered with green nets, so outsiders can’t watch you. The windows, though huge, were tinted, so you can’t be seen from the outside.

Lastly, there are the people. The host, Marvin, is pleasant, responsive, and easy to talk to. Ms. Minda, who welcomed us, was very friendly and nice. There was another man – who opened the gate for us and looked after the pool before daybreak – who was quiet, but was respectful of our privacy.

All-in-all, my family enjoyed our staycation at The Casablanca. The house was lovely that the kids didn’t even think of going somewhere else. They enjoyed just jumping on the firetruck bed and swimming. Thankfully so, because there’s not a lot to see in Samal itself.

Will we come back? Well, we do hope so!