Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Seda Hotel Centrio

Seda Hotel Centrio
Cagayan de Oro City
(CDO and Bukidnon Series 1)

Stay

My family arrived at about 9 PM in Cagayan de Oro
after an afternoon flight from Naga City
and about two hour stop over in Manila.



A pre- arranged hotel van rental, which we would
be using throughout our stay in the city picked us up-




...from the airport off the brand new Seda Hotel
right at the heart of this  progressive city.



It was everybody’s first time in Cagayan de Oro
and we were pleased by the sight of the beautiful
Centrio, where Seda Hotel was located




This would be our home for the next five days.
The hotel had a very modern lobby
located at the fourth floor of the building.








The lobby offered two Apple Mac computers
with really fast Wi Fi connections to hotel guests.




The front desk staff was friendly,
 efficient and helpful.



Checking in was a breeze 
and we were in our room in a jiffy.






It was a Premier Room, the biggest
and apparently the best they have.


It has a huge king sized bed that would fit
the four of us (two adults and two kids),


…a flat screen TV with Media panel
with HDMI, USB and A/V connectivity,


…a study,


…a lounge chair, and we were a bit disappointed
that unlike what most hotels this standard-
a room this big did not have a comfy sofa.


But that’s a minor flaw though.

It a had a kitchenette equipped with a microwave
coffeemaker, a refrigerator and a mini bar.




It had a gorgeous bathroom,




…luxurious shower,


…and decent supply of toiletries.


Being a businessman hotel, it had three
telephones, the first one at the bedside-


…second on the study,


…and the third on the toilet.


It also offered extra amenites
in the huge closet.





The 7th floor room also offers a commanding
 view of the city and its environs.













All in all the room was spacious, comfortable
well designed and beautiful.

Stray

Seda Hotel Centrio is connected to an upscale
Ayala Mall called Centrio and there is no need
to brave the summer heat when you want to shop.


Centrio is hip and beautifully designed
with wide a large variety of shops.




…and and fabulous dining choices  centrally located
at the Al Fresco area of the mall.




Play

The Seda Centrio has
 a beautiful swimming pool.








A 5 feet deep adult pool,


...and a smaller round kiddie pool.


The kids had a good time swimming
the the Seda pool






which is located just beside
the well equipped gym.





Feast:

Breakfast Buffet
at Misto All Day Dining

Misto, is an all day dining restaurant
located at the hotel lobby
where they serve the breakfast buffet.






The restaurant  offers good selection
of local and international cuisine.





The good thing with Misto-
they change some of the fares
on the  menu every day.







Our room is supposed to have an access  
at the Club Lounge at the top floor
but unfortunately, it was still
under construction.










Room Service.

Seda Hotel’s room service
 is catered by Misto-










….and the have a wide selection of delicious
Vegebale Meat and  Seafood dishes.








They are surprisingly very affordable.


Recommendations;

I would definitely recommend this hotel to family
traveling with young children as it is beautiful,
tidy and very, very affordable.

It is connected to an upscale mall
so dining and shopping is a breeze.


The mall  also offers various leisure activities
 to the kids to keep them busy and entertained .




The food is good and
 the breakfast buffet is fine.



There are several minor flaws in the hotel though
but we really didn’t mind as the staff were friendly ,
helpful and even apologetic for any minor inconvenience.

As early as 5 AM the sunlight penetrates  
the transparent room shades on the windows 
so it's difficult to sleep late in the room.


The Premiere Room is spacious and well designed
but the space was not maximized.

They have a huge kitchenette but no area for dining.

 

In room dining is served on a tray,
and you will have to eat either on the bed
or on the study table.


No sofa to lounge or laze despite the extra space in room-
just a chair whose cushion falls off while you sit.
The kids had fun playing chair cushion boarding though.


They have a rather very slow
 free internet in room connection.

You have to pay about 200 pesos per hour
to get a faster connection.


Otherwise, Seda Centrio is a wonderful,
 comfortable, reasonably priced and
inexpensive  hotel with excellent service.




The hotel is owned  and operated by Ayala Group -
a company known to cater the well-heeled and  affluent.


 Fancy that- they know how to pamper
the ordinary and lowly guests like us as well.


Watch out for my Blogs on
Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon Series


Cagayan de Oro
(CDO and Bukidnon Series 1)

Scenic Roadtrip:
 CDO to Dahilayan Bukidnon.
(CDO and Bukidnon Series 2)

(CDO and Bukidnon Series 3)

Baguio in Memoriam
(CDO and Bukidnon Series 4)

(CDO and Bukidnon Series 5)

Extreme Adventure  of a Lifetime
(CDO and Bukidnon Series 6)

(CDO and Bukidnon Series 7)

(CDO and Bukidnon Series 8)


(CDO and Bukidnon Series 9)



18 comments:

  1. After reading your blog, I couldn't help myself. My endorphin is rising to the nth level. Thank you for visiting Cagayan de Oro. I am glad that you and your family had a great time here. Balik-balik Sir! =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for visiting my blog Michael Ray.

      You excitement is justifiable- you came from an underrated but exciting region.

      CDO and Bukidnon are the most scenic and exciting places we've visited in the PI. The Department of Tourism should take a closer second look in your region.

      Our trip to Misamis and Bukidnon reminded me of Colorado. A booming city center that is Denver and rustic mountain destinations on Pike's peak and Mt. Evans nearby.

      We, specially the kids, enjoyed our visit tremendously.

      Delete
  2. Seda no matter how you label it as a budget hotel, would only suit the budget of the rich and well heeled.

    I'm an avid follower of this blog, but the kind of hotels that this lifestyle blog has been featuring are far from ordinary. The type of vacations you have been having are for the well heeled.

    Berlin, Paris, LA, Prague, Amsterdam are some of the numerous destinations featured here in the past are for the moneyed and rich.

    Seda for ordinary Pinoys?

    Fancy that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really?

      That's interesting to note that you consider me rich and high heeled just because I stayed in Seda Hotel. I wish I really am rich. You see, there are people who save a lot of money for the future- maybe to take them to their graves, well we save money to travel and enjoy while we are still young and able to ambulate.

      Having a young family is also the best time to travel as the kids still get the student discounts on pane fare, a get to sleep in hotels for free.

      It would also be very difficult to pull them out from school once they get to college.

      You see, it's a big world out there and there are just too many places to visit and too little time and money.

      We travel with whatever little money we could save. I wouldn't be able to do the same when I get very old and arthritic.

      The kids would also be having families of their own and would be living their own lives.

      Meanwhile, enjoy your youth and theirs- travel and enjoy life together.

      Delete
  3. Bravo, well said...I wish someone could it tell it to me the way you could when I was younger...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Time is fleeting.

      I even pulled out the kids from school, put them on home schooling so they could travel anytime.

      Delete
  4. I was in the office, drained from all the deadlines when I chanced upon this very beautiful article about Bukidnon and Cagayan de Oro. What caught my fancy was the amazing rise of Cagayan de Oro, which suffered immensely from Sendong. Construction activities are bustling (and tall buildings to boot!. Wow! And Bukidnon is drop-dead gorgeous! It's like you're instantly transported to a rural area in the US. Very charming! I can't wait to bring my family there. Bravo to you who shared this beautiful blog!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Salamat. Salamat for the kind words. I'm happy that you enjoyed by blog.

      Delete
  5. You come to CDO to feature Nationwide franchised Restos/cuisine? I bet your dining as well as your accommodations were free...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so wrong blue ocean.

      My family travel on our own, and we spend for our travels.

      The hotels, restos or anything featured in this blog are based on personal experiences on places we stayed, places visited and dined and we paid with our own money.

      My family has been traveling for so long, my kids had been going in and out of the country since they were 2 years old and was just 10 months ago I decided to start blogging about our travels.

      The reason why I feature a lot of nationwide franchised restos is that as a family traveling with small kids- we are very selective with the restaurants that we eat. These popular restos would be a very practical choice for anyone traveling as they have a good track of record on having better sanitary standards.

      I'm not saying that local restos have poorer standard but it always advantageous to play safe. It is dangerous to tread on something not familiar.

      Try to read my blog in South Road Adventure where we had to painfully choose the unexciting Jollibee in favor of a popular seaside restaurants in Gumaca. We are being cautious.

      Also to read my Sangay to Tiwi Pilgrim Road- we had to drive back to another off path town of Goa when we could not find a decent place to dine in small towns of Sangay and Tigaon.

      Also try to read my Vietnam Series, despite having fabulous restaurants in the country - we feasted on nothing but hotel food and theme park restaurants.

      Remember this blog is about family travel and everything that goes with it. This is not a blog on how to find and look for great restos offering exotic and local cuisines.

      I also blog some recipe sharing here about easy to cook or even instant dishes at home, with photos of the products and their brands meant to teach but not to advertise. I was not paid for these as well.

      I even paid an extra night at Seda Centrio when we spent overnight at Dahilyan as we did not check out despite the front desk's suggestion to check out and just leave our luggage for safekeeping, and check in again when we return. That would be very impractical and inconvenient thing to do when you have the whole family with you do just to save few thousand pesos.

      But if you will notice we are more adventurous to eat on local restaurants in Europe and in US. I'll refer you to me Berlin, Prague and Amsterdam blogs.

      Try to read my very first blog about Guimaras and Iloilo and all restaurants that I featured there are all locally owned as our hotel was just located across of a fabulous Lifestyle Center . It was filled with a lots of reputable Iloilo based restaurants so we had a lot of choices.

      You'll see that we are gastronomically adventurous after all.

      Again, I would like to emphasize that's we we're not paid by those that I feature for this blog.

      Sa dami namin- lugi sila.

      Thanks for visiting my blog.

      Delete
    2. Thanks Ramon for clarifying the matter. No offense meant. It's just frustrating to see that it's getting rampant these days for some bloggers to get paid for featuring companies and products. This is why I'm always skeptical when bloggers rate restos/hotels etc. because their judgement might be clouded with bias because they're getting freebies.

      Of course these is not true to all bloggers and yours is I guess the rule rather than the exception. Thanks for your sincere feature of our City/Region. More Power and enjoy your future great travels.


      Delete
    3. It's okay blue ocean

      I travel and blog about it.

      I don't blog to travel and I also don't travel to blog.

      I'm not being paid for this- as blogging is just a past time. I have not been paid by anyone to promote any place I visit.

      I'm an endocrinologist by profession who travels with my family for R & R.

      Delete
  6. Hi! I just happen to come across your blog as I was googling seda centrio. Then, after reading your blog about seda centrio, I got hooked and decided to read your other blogs. We're a family of four (2 kids) and it's really my dream to be able to travel frequently with my family. The cost of your travels is not really cheap however, I do like what you said about saving to travel.

    I've observed that you have no blogs yet about the beaches of Surigao. Surigao is an awesome place, nice beach, scenic spots...etc. I'm not from Surigao ( from CDO actually) but I guess your kids will enjoy Sohoton Cove, Enchanted River, going island hopping, and many more "nature" activities.

    Guess I'll now be visiting your blogs from time to time. Congrats for the well written blogs. Other than the infos I get, I enjoy reading your blogs. You sure know how to write. Thumbs up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you very much.

      I'm happy that you enjoyed my blogs. Indeed, I 've been hearing and reading a lot about the beauty of Surigao. We have not had any beach/ island vacations except for the not so isolated beaches on Sentosa in Singapore, Tumon Bay in Guam and Misibis in Albay.

      I have already blogged about Tumon and Fiesta Hotel in Guam while Siloso Beach, and Misibis Bay are on my draft and I would be posting very soon.

      I have been to Boracay when I was still single but I haven't been back in more that 15 years.

      Boracay, Caramoan and Surigao are on my must visit list. I'm still weaning out the wife from her fear from riding a boat after being traumatized by a rather bumpy ride during a cruise we took at the Sydney Harbor in the past.

      Again thank you for your wonderful suggestions and for enjoying my blogs.

      Delete
  7. Wow... your detailed blog truly a glimpse of what we can enjoy and expect in a particular place...thanks a lot, I Love dining out, food and exploring places...your blog is like my personal tourist guide, totally agree...habang kaya pang magbiyahe kasama ang pamilya, exploring, enjoying a very good vacation with our loved ones...coz some good things definitely never last for a long time, life is too short and a lot of uncertain situations comes at a very unexpected time...all what we will have are good memories! We grow old, we die, our kids will live on their own...build their own families...habang may time at kaya isama ang pamilya gawin na!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Lyn.

      I'm happy that we share the same views about traveling, and thank you for reading my blog.

      I am at present writing a series about Anaheim, California and I hope that you read it too as it is a very ideal destination to families traveling with children.

      i have blogged about it in the past and named it as the best family vacation destination abroad. You may find the link by clicking at the Best section of this blog.

      Again thank you for the kind words.

      Delete
  8. I hope the staff at Seda Cagayan de Oro was able to read your this blog. Maybe they can give other customers a better service. Godbless on your travels. Comeback to Cagayan de Oro soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Ana for visiting and reading my blog. We enjoyed CDO tremendously and we will definitely return in the near future.

      Delete