Baler’s been showing up on my social media newsfeed quite a lot these past few weeks and I was reminded that I never did get to make a post about the place me and my friends stayed at when we went there early last year.

So here goes, I hope this helps the people out there who’re scouring for places to stay in Baler because believe me, I know how much of a bitch it is to book rooms there for the weekend.  Forgive me for the dark pictures – most of these were taken at around half past five in the morning (right around the time when we arrived in Baler).  Photo credits tO FS, who, despite the ungodly hour was sane enough to take decent pictures.

After literally going through all of the list of hotels that lakwatsero.com listed down on his Baler Travel Guide post, I was getting pretty desperate because none of the frakkin resorts bothered to reply to my text inquiries.  I sent my inquiries about a month before the trip but wouldn’t you know it, most of the hotels were already fully booked.

Thankfully after Bay’s Inn – one of the more famous hotels on Sabang beach so there was really no chance in hell that we could’ve gotten a room there – turned us down, they kindly gave us the number of their sister resort, Casitas Bed and Breakfast.  I wouldn’t say that transacting with them was completely pain free – it took them a few hours to reply to my SMS – but within a day we had two rooms booked.

Like any millennial who’s heavily reliant on the Internet, I tried to Google as much information as I could about Casitas but it was fairly new back then and posts about it was pitifully few.  In fact, the only decent post I could find was from The Travel Archives and it was posted mid 2013.  You could say that we flew in sort of blindly.

Casitas Bed and Breakfast isn’t located on the beach strip; it’s about a five-minute walk to the beach strip but because it was co-owned by Bay’s Inn, the free breakfast that comes with the room is served in the Bay’s Inn restaurant.  We stayed there from Saturday to Monday and found that the buffet spread is only served during weekends; plated breakfast fare during the weekdays when the crowd isn’t as plentiful.

The “rooms” were nipa huts that had bamboo floors (really helpful in keeping the sand out).  The space is a bit cramped but amenities were complete – there’s a bed (I think it’s a single but you can definitely squeeze two people in there), a bedside table, air conditioning, and a flat screen television mounted on the wall.  I would’ve liked to have a closet somewhere but I guess the veranda that all huts come equipped is as good a place as any to hang your wet stuff in.

I particularly liked the bathroom because the one in our room was immaculately clean when we checked in.  There was no trace of sand anywhere.

There’s also a mini-garden of sorts at the end of the lot where people can hang out in.  This little touch makes me appreciate the amount of thought that was put into building the place; the nipa huts were all lined neatly and the garden was right at the end of the ‘alleyway’.

There’s also a bar right up front but I’m not sure if it’s there to serve drinks or food because when we were there we mainly used it as a reception area of sorts where we checked in.

All in all our stay in Casitas Bed and Breakfast was great and I would highly recommend staying there if you’re in Baler. They’ve also upgraded to a website that I believe allows online reservations so hopefully booking rooms there now can be done in a snap.  It’s one of the more affordable places, service is great and the rooms are immaculately clean.