Getting to other counties may seem like a it of impossible for my husband and I at this time but I realized we can feel like we are in a European home without the efforts of going out of the country because of Europa Mansionette Inn which is just a few minutes drive away from where we are living.
This weekend, we didn't spend the night at home, instead, we went for a staycation at this European styled home in Mandaue City. And this blog is all about how we did nothing in the said home for 24 hours, well technically we only spent lesser, the story as to why is included in the first part of this blog. So read on.
HOW I LEARNED ABOUT EUROPA MANSIONETTE INN
In search for some good deals online, two months ago, I had been browsing the web with anything that I could find to spend some money on, just kidding! I was just hoping I could get good deals and so I was in Metrodeal.com, the same site which has sale going on for photobooks and I bumped into the Cebu category and this pretty accommodation showed up eventually.
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Priced at Php 700 only for a night stay good for two, I thought that is one pretty nice deal! I believed James and I could have a pretty good time for a staycation so I googled about the place since it was my first time to really encounter such deal in Cebu.
Aside from online booking sites, I couldn't find any blog reviews on the first search page, it was only at page 5 when I figured out there was one recent review made just on June of this year where three of these people had spent three nights in the said house and this lad who was the author of the blog couldn't say anything bad about the inn so I didn't finish her blog review anymore but decided to buy the deal as fast as I can. I used PayPal though and that was two months ago.
Right after receiving my payment confirmation and the voucher, I went ahead and contacted the inn for a reservation. I then choose the 16th of December since the promo is up until the 31st of December 2017. Astonishingly, the management returned within 24 hours and confirmed the reservation! It would require a printed copy of the voucher and my valid government ID.
DECEMBER 16 CAME
Holidays are really busy, majority of the people in Cebu would visit malls and other places so they could buy their friends and even foes Christmas gifts. My husband and I are of no exception. We have this annual time spent for our cousins in law where we will be treating them out in the City and buy things that they would like to have for Christmas!
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Unfortunately, our schedules were a bit of messed up because they arrived late in Cebu. We treated them lunch, bought their wish lists and we were all happy after that day. It was already six in the evening while our check in time was supposed to be at 2pm. Anyways, I was glad the rain stopped because there was also a storm in Cebu at that time. We had dinner at home at almost seven and went to Europa Mansionette Inn fifteen minutes before eight.
We eventually arrived at the inn fifteen minutes after eight. Since it was already evening, my first impression was that it looked like a haunted house! We both laughed at that thought, knocked on the metal gates. The front desk lady opened the gates for us, showed us the parking area and welcomed us inside.
EUROPA MANSIONETTE INN
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Chimes sounded a joyous melody to my ears when I opened the brown wooded French country double door with glass. This is one of my favorite door designs and I was feeling like I was in my dream house at that moment although at the back of my head, the thought of it being a haunted house was still in a steady state.
I handed the printed metrodeal voucher to the front desk officer, the lady called up her boss to verify the booking. James and I seated at the comfy couch in their lobby. My eyes has been entertained by the number of things which I can see from this spot.
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On my right were figures of winged horses hung on the walls, wooden tiles, I realized I was stepping on these beautiful ones which are again a favorite of mine, in front of me was a vase, a table centerpiece which has faces on it in each side, looked creepy but beautiful. The table was covered with lots of magazines which were intended to keep the visitors busy while awaiting their rooms.
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On my left is yet another interesting find, structures of some almost naked woman embraced by a man, reminded me of some goddess. There was a wooden chair too and at its back is a pillar inspired by Corinthian column style. Then a female in a praying form stands at the distant, I was assuming her to be from Thailand or India.
After a few minutes, we were confirmed and she showed us our room which was at the house attic, small was just enough for us. More review about our room later on.
FIRST FLOOR : Dining Area
Included in our deal was a free breakfast. We unfortunately woke up at eight in the morning, this is now my usual body clock and although I dislike it because I like to wake up earlier, I had no choice but to compensate the hours that I was up late.
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In search for breakfast, I had to go down on wooden staircase, gone past the second floor and went to the first floor to find the staffs. They said breakfast will be served in five minutes, I want my husband to get out of bed already so I asked the staff to prepare it in the dining area instead of serving it in our room.
While awaiting for breakfast, James and I took out our cameras and started photographing everything we find interesting but the case was that everything was really interesting!
Our breakfast was also European, made of sunny side up egg, four slices of sausages, four slices of toasted bread, pieces of french fries and a banana plus a cup of instant coffee for me while James asked for juice instead. Water can be served as requested by the way.
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Back to filming and photography after munching our breakfast and since there were few guests only, we had no issues with photobombers in taking photographs. We found interesting spots at the bar area with this huge Violoncello and an interesting ceiling design! It was just a bid of a disappointment that they didn't turn on the lights at this spot.
SECOND FLOOR: Guest rooms and Sala
Level two was less interesting than the first level but still it is an instagram-worthy spot for those who loves taking photos!
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A tiled staircase showed us to this level, on the left is a glass door almost covered by hanging heavy curtains, those of which were very common in castles and mansions. The door was open so we got to the veranda and it showed us the garden below and a hanging chandelier which could see was a heavy one, it was swinging as the wind blows There's a single chair and as I looked down, I realized there were Koi fishes in the fountain!
Inside, yet another chandelier with several candle containers. This is considered as the living room. It has awesome chairs with marble pieces pinned into it, I tried sitting down in those chairs but I feel like I was going to fall so I moved to the bigger sofa. Styled with shiny and silky cloth covers, it has a huge centerpiece vase full of plastic flowers and a wooden ceiling fan! The walls of course has lively wall paper designs, different in every sides, most of these have the Florentine Fleur de lis wall stencils of different colors and goes from simpler ones to a more complicated styles. Then paintings were hung as well to these walls! I was not sure if those were real paintings and I didn't take time to figure it out.
Both sides have hallways going to different rooms.
THIRD FLOOR: Attic rooms and Balcony.
The inn has 26 rooms by the way, we were given the 26th room. I did mention it was a small one, but glad that it has its own comfort room. Although, the shower area was super small that I ended up sitting while taking a shower! The water was good, they have hot and cold shower by the way which I like and grateful of. I really like taking warm showers and it was just perfect for the weather!
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The bed was comfortable although the pillow was not that much. There's a television provided and cable connection too! WIFI was okay but connection was not that fast. It took me the whole night to upload a single video for a blog I was supposed to submit that night, I ended up delaying it to the next day.
Lampshades however were cool. They can be adjusted to our preferred spot! And they provided toilettries which were all good.
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Then we were both glad we could get to the balcony but was a bit disappointed it has a lot of clothes in it that we ended up not taking any photo of that spot. The hallway towards the balcony was cute though, there were flower and branch design at the ceiling.
VERANDA AND GARDEN
Outside of the house, there's a garden. It has a fountain centerpiece. There were tables and chairs, made of metal plates but what I was interested were the tall gray colored pillars. Four of these has the Corinthian column type too!
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There's a garden as welll and it was pretty obvious that the owner is fond of bonsai plants! The area however was converted into a parking spot so it was a bit of a challenge moving around. Guests will have to be extra careful not to pumped into any fragile item both inside and outside of the house.
OVERALL
Since it was a staycation, we didn't do anything here but just watch TV, took photos and videos and sleep!
The storm had moved out of the country so we had a better day in the morning. I was only a bit concerned with the knowledge of the staffs about the house. I was hoping they could provide me with more information on who the past and current owners of the house but they declined to give us more details except that the front desk officer said the owner also lives inside and are Filipinos!
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But I understand they are just keeping the identities of their masters.
Note that this is a bit far from the malls and certain spots in Cebu so if one has to stay here during their vacation, they'll need to rent a motorcycle or a car or perhaps embrace uber, grab and taxis!
That's it for today guys, I hope you had enjoyed this review!
Blog entry written and published by Jean Beltran-Figues, A Pinas traveler and photography hobbyist, find more travel blogs in my blog section, click here.
