When 2015 kicked in, I didn’t think that it would be the year when I would get to visit Baguio city twice again. But, as I’ve said before, my father is a huge fan of the place and he was very excited to take my new nephew up there for a visit.

He made the booking through Agoda around September and originally we were supposed to stay in Azalea Hotel in Leonard Wood. We had stayed there for a weekend the year before and the experience was nice enough to warrant a repeat.

Unfortunately, a few weeks before our trip in December, somebody from Azalea called us up to say that the rooms we were supposed to stay in was being renovated. Bummer, but they made arrangements for us to stay in another hotel – The Forest Lodge at Camp John Hay. They couldn’t get us an apartment like the one we reserved with them and they gave us vouchers for the brunch so we had to drive up to Azalea to claim our free meal.

Jonathan, the attendant from Azalea who assisted us was very nice though. He stayed in touch all through out our trip and was waiting at The Forest Lodge when we got there to check us in.

While it seemed like we got the shorter end of the stick, that wasn’t the case because while Azalea was really, really nice, The Forest Lodge was just gorgeous. Their lobby was so festively decorated that we had more than a few postcard-worthy family photos in there.

We stayed in separate rooms – Jonathan was nice enough to make sure that we all stayed in one floor. I roomed with the parents while my brother, sister-in-law and nephew stayed in the other room with a veranda.

Probably the greatest thing about The Forest Lodge Hotel is its location. Since it was situated right smack in Camp John Hay, we could literally just stroll down to the shops and the restaurants.

Also, the hotel was right next to The Manor, so not only did we get a few more postcard worthy photos in their lobby, we also got to try their set meal for dinner.

The next night we went out to The Baguio Country Club and celebrated my nephew’s sixth month there. He didn’t get enough sleep that day so there was a lot of crying, lol. Not even the cake got him to stop.

Another plus of The Forest Lodge? It was a stone’s throw from the Convergys office. I got the chance to meet up with C who was a work mate of mine in Alabang and also a fellow foodie. Luckily she had the night off so we got to hang out at the Chocolate de Batirol restaurant and just catch up. We eventually walked back to the hotel and hang out at the lobby. Apparently they had musical bands performing during weekend evenings.

All in all our stay in The Forest Lodge was excellent. The only negative experience I had was the noisy teenagers down in the parking lot that stayed up way too late, but then again I think that that’s a problem with all non-air-conditioned hotels. Noise travels, after all and we had the same experience at the Baguio Country Club when we stayed there a few years back.

I definitely would want to stay again at this hotel.