Staycation Files : F1 Hotel Manila

It's really amazing how one learns to time manage most especially in moments when we clearly do not have that much allotted free time to spend. I guess this is the classic case of "so little time, so much to do." Such is always..and I repeat, always the case whenever we fly back home. No matter how much time or days we've allocated for a certain visit back to Manila, we always end up feeling like we should have stayed longer. I guess, that's because time spent at home with our families will never ever be "long enough".

So, I was pretty amazed that Paul and I have managed to sneak in a quick overnight staycation at F1 Hotel at Bonifacio Global City. I guess it's because this was specially prepared by my fellow blogger J and dear friend T whom I can never ever say no to. :) F1 Hotel is the first hotel in Bonifacio Global City and I do remember having lunch there not so long ago.

We're finally back at F1 Hotel, this time with my MIL and FIL as we invited them to join us for lunch at well. Luckily, service was so quick that we immediately got our room keys and up we went to our room -- the Fort Suite (Php. 12,000).



This is the biggest room in the entire hotel and it gives you a nice view of either the entire BGC area or in our case, EDSA. Look! I can see the very famous Bench "Love All Kinds of Love" billboard from our living room. I've been reading so much about it and it's just funny that it's the first thing I saw when I stepped inside our room. Despite all the intrigues, criticism and dubious plots attached to it, I still think it was really bold of Bench to do it and I applaud them for doing so.

Back to our room, notice that the floor has a wooden panel with no carpet. It was one of those things that I noticed when staying at hotels as I honestly prefer those with carpet giving it a more premium, cozy feel. Paul explained though that F1 is a business hotel given it's strategic location to most offices and normally business hotels has a more wooden, no-frills (read: no carpet), dark-colored furniture pieces feel to it. I guess he's right. Take a peek at our bedroom with that super comfy king size bed that guests will surely want to lie on for the rest of the evening.

The bathroom was a bit small given the size of this room but it comes with a bidet. For long-time readers of my blog, you know by now how important this little thing is to me. By having a bidet installed, that immediately added 100 points to my book! The shower area was spacious and I just love how clean and sparkly everything was.

Back at the living room, our room was also equipped with an electric kettle, hair dryer, coffee/tea and two bottles of water.

For the past years, whenever we would go on staycations, this simply means lounging around all day long with non-stop eating and sleeping done in regular cycles. It was simply buhay baboy, as we would call it, and this is the year that we agreed to stop that. So far, for most of our staycations this 2015, we would make it a point to visit the Fitness Center. I have to say that this is one place I never even bothered to visit in any of my staycations before thus I rarely include this in my hotel reviews. My sincere apologies...

This time though, the Fitness Center was one of the first things that I looked for after checking in and having lunch. Located at the mezzanine level above the 3rd floor, you can only take the 1st elevator to get there. Quite tricky as there are four elevators available so do read the signs carefully. The Fitness Center shares the same floor as the Spa so I quickly peeked inside to check it out. Look how pretty this couple's room is. Ohh... it has been years since Paul and I had a massage together.

Moving on to the Fitness Center, it's relatively small but I do appreciate how it's complete with three threadmills, two bikes and my favorite -- the elliptical machine. There are also a couple of weights for those who are keen to build some muscles. My only complain is that the hotel complimentary wi-fi connection doesn't reach the Fitness Center so no Spotify workout tunes for me. *sniffle*


I'm glad though that the fitness center overlooks the beautiful lap pool so I simply just people watched while burning calories away!

The lap pool is not the only pool in the hotel though. In fact there's three! So you've seen the lap pool above, here's another one. A pretty lounging pool for kids and they have one for adults too. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our swimsuits this trip so all we can do was to stare at it and sigh.

For guests who would need to attend to their business matters while staying at the hotel, you can also make use of the Business Center to hold a quick meeting or to have some quiet time as you catch up with your emails. No working for us though as we're on a vacation so no emails and definitely no meetings for us! :P

What I love most about F1 Hotel is its proximity to a wide-array of restaurants in BGC. For one thing, the whole Bonifacio Highstreet complex is a quick 5 minute walk from the hotel so that's where we ended up having dinner with my family that same day. Plus, it's still situated within Metro Manila so both families were able to drop by and hang out with us which makes it so cool.

F1 Hotel is definitely your go-to hotel for that quick weekend getaway within the city.

Check out F1 Hotel Manila at 32nd Street, Bonifacio Global City. Click here for room reservations.