Amara Residences in Nasugbu Batangas

My family and I stayed at Amara Residences in Nasugbu, Batangas at the end of this October during our kids’ very first school break since our move to Manila, Philippines. We have never ever traveled during the fall break, but my husband wanted to do something this time. It is wonderful! Right? I know. However, I was like “why now?” because I was not mentally prepared to dedicate a ton of my time to research and find a lodging after having spent months and months for planning the big international move that happened this summer. I, however, reluctantly accepted the duty to find our perfect getaway destination that is driving distance from Manila.

I wanted to write this post especially for the newbies to the Philippines because I found it quite complicated to figure out the system of lodging and access to beaches. Why? Here are what I found out.

Facts About Lodging & Beaches in the Philippines

1. All the beautiful beaches are privately owned (as far as I researched), which means that you can’t access them unless you have a permit. (You can’t just drive to the gate and ask the guards to let you in.)

2. If you want to access those beaches, you have to stay at a hotel or accommodation including airbnb (some of the gated communities don’t allow airbnb) that will give you a permit to get into the gated community and the access to the beaches inside the premises. If you know anyone who lives or owns a property there, they can help you, but most foreigners don’t have that connection.

3. It was very difficult to figure out how far the certain beaches were from the specific lodging option I was trying to book. It was because some of them are condominium units rented out as a hotel rooms.

4. Some of the photos of beaches you find on the google search were named wrong. Thus, you don’t always get the accurate image of the beaches.

5. Just like many other hotels in Asia, many hotels in the Philippines wouldn’t let a family of 5 to stay in one room. Our oldest being 13 made it harder. Most hotels consider 12 and above an adult. It was challenging to find a hotel where all of us can stay in one room.

6. Seasoned travelers I spoke to seem to prefer and recommend Airbnb over hotels in the Philippines, but we are so new to the country, I didn’t have the guts to try one. I preferred having a receptionist who would be available to help us.

The Reasons We Stayed at Amara Residences

We made a decision to get away less than a month away. It was pretty late in the game. On top of that, it was the week many people travel out of Manila. Therefore, the lodging options left for us were slim picking. Club Punta Fuego did not have any availability by the time I contacted. I initially booked a room at a big hotel that is very popular among Manila expats. However, I ended up cancelling it.

Here are the reasons why I decided to stay at Amara Residences.

1. It was reasonable for a family of 5.

2. Amara Residences is actually a condo, but it functions like a hotel under a care of Club Punta Fuego. Thus, all 5 of us could stay in a spacious unit with 2 rooms.

3. Our expat friend who has a very good taste and lived in Manila for 5 years told me that there were 3 places she would go back. One of them was Amara Residences. (Sadly she recently left to relocate back to her home.)

3. Amara Residences is part of the Club Punta Fuego where you can access the club’s beautiful beaches. It takes about 15 minutes by car to go to Club Punta Fuego from Amara Residences and you will need a car as there is no shuttle bus service.

4. It was 2.5-hour car ride from Manila and no boat ride was required to get there.

5. The beaches looked calm, less crowded and very nice.

6. My blog guru, Amber of A Momma Abroad, wrote that “Punta Fuego is better than any other beach we might visit” in her blog post When Girlfriends Visit: Itinerary. Amara Residences was as close as it got to Club Punta Fuego for us. *Club Punta Fuego gets booked fast.

Why don’t I take you on a photo tour of Amara Residences? I hope these will give you a good idea.

What I Loved About Amara Residences

1. Location

Amara Residences was close to the Nasugbu town center and its good restaurants. It is always nice to have more dining options other than just hotel restaurants. If you drive from Club Punta Fuego to these two restaurants below, it will probably take about 20 to 25 minutes. (It takes long just because the roads are windy and dark at night. It’s not that far.) It only took us 10 minutes to the same restaurants from Amara Residences.

Kainan sa Dalampasigan – Filipino Restaurant

La Locanda – Italian Restaurant

2. Beach Options & Access to Club Punta Fuego

Lodging at Amara Residences comes with an access to the Club Punta Fuego and its beautiful private beaches.

Club Punta Fuego (15 minute drive from Amara Residences)

Long Beach at Club Punta Fuego

Natipuan Cove & Pool at Terrazas de Punta Fuego (5 minutes on foot from Amara Residences)

A quiet private beach at Terrazas de Punta Fuego is walking distance from Amara Residences and accessible for the hotel guests.

3. Spacious unit with many beds

We had 2 bedrooms, a living room and a dining room with a big balcony. One of the bedrooms had two queen size beds. It worked out great for our children.

4. Tranquility & Cleanliness

It was very quiet and clean. We hardly ran into other hotel guests or heard them in the building.

5. Sunset

The sunset view from our hotel room was breathtaking!

What You Should Know About This Option

1. You will need a car when you are there.

There is not much happening at Amara Residences other than Natipuan Cove, the pool at Terrazas and its restaurant. You might want to take advantage of Club Punta Fuego. In order for you to go to there from the Amara Residences, you will have to drive about 15 minutes. If you stay at Club Punta Fuego, once you get there, you don’t need a car at all for the duration of your stay.

2. Breakfast at Club Punta Fuego & Terrazas

You have options to eat at Club Punta Fuego or at the restaurant in the Terrazas, the gated community where the Amara Residences is located. Club Punta Fuego offers Filipino breakfast as well as western breakfast. The restaurant at Terrazas offers Filipino breakfast only. You can walk for 5 minutes to the restaurant at Terrazas or drive for 1 minute to get. It is located on the bottom of a steep hill where Natipuan Cove is.

Photo: Breakfast at Club Punta Fuego

3. Dinner Options

The restaurant at the Terrazas (5-minute walk and on the bottom of the hill from Amara Residences) is open all day. Their dinner order closes at 5:30 p.m.

We went to Club Punta Fuego for dinner one night. On the second night, we went to La Locanda, an Italian restaurant, in the town center. Please scroll up to see 1. Location for the restaurant options nearby.

4. Access to Natipuan Cove from Amara Residences

Natipuan Cove is the closest walking distance beach from Amara Residences. Since Amara Residences sits on top of a hill, it requires to hike down to the beach. There are about 98 steps to go down. (Yes, we counted!) Coming from Japan, it wasn’t an issue, but I can see some people may not find it fun. If you are with a little one or elderly people, you might want to drive down this hill.

5. No WiFi in Each Unit

There is no WiFi in the unit at Amara Residences. You can access a free WiFi at a few locations inside the Amara Residences. The main lobby had the best WiFi reception. Club Punta Fuego offers a free WiFi in each room.

We brought our small games and spent time together playing games. It was great! We also brought our books.

*I will add more posts on individual places and link this post with them eventually so that you can get more information. Please stay tuned!

Tips For Driving

1. Leave Your Home Early
Our stay at Amara Residences was from Sunday to Tuesday. Since we were leaving on Sunday, we didn’t leave our home until 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. Fortunately the drive was smooth and we did not hit any major traffic. I don’t know if it is like that every Sunday. It was advised to leave around 6:00 a.m. for any other days.

2. Maybe A Barf Bag?
The roads get windy when you approach Mount Palay and Palay National Park. I was worried about my youngest son as he gets car sick. It was not too bad and luckily he was okay. If you are worried about your child getting car sick, I will carry one plastic bag as a barf bag just in case.

3. Driving for Expats
We have a driver. Normally we don’t go behind the wheel in Manila. However, for this trip, we figured it would make the most sense to drive ourselves. Thus, my husband drove us to Nasugbu, Batangas and I took charge of navigation. Driving down to Nasugbu on Sunday made it easier on us. Driving back on Tuesday in the morning was not bad, either.

Comparison of Batangas With Porto Gallera

If you are looking for beautiful beaches or diving spots, Porto Galera seems like the idyllic destination from Manila. It will be well worth the effort to go there for a getaway, I’m sure. I almost booked a hotel in Porto Galera, but then I backed out. One of the reasons for it was because we could only go away for 3 days due to my husband’s work schedule. I deemed that you needed 4 days to go to Porto Galera.

Another reason to not decide on Porto Galera this time for us (for me especially) was a boat ride. The hotel I was looking into offered a private boat, but I learned that we would have to pay 6,000 Pisos (about USD 112) for a one way private boat ride for all of us. It will be 12,000 pisos (US$220) additional to the lodging. I found it expensive. You have an option for a public boat which would be much more economical. I thought about it for a moment, but we did not go for this option.

For us Amara Residences was really great because it was an easy, short and beautiful drive from Manila without any boat ride.

AMARA RESIDENCES

Amara Residences, Nasugbu, Batangas

Phone: +63-02-8438700 / +63-02-5844405
Website: https://www.amararesidences.com/
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Disclaimer

We paid for everything. I am not affiliated with Amara Residences or Club Punta Fuego in any capacity. If you have any questions relating to our stay, I’m happy to answer. However, if you have any questions for your travel planning or concerning the hotel itself, please contact the hotel directly. The phone numbers and their information are all provided above. Thank you!