Hi Hivers! Let me share to you my experience and honest review with the famous floating cottage in Cordova, Cebu 💧🛟
We had this booked for my grandfather’s 78th birthday last March 27. But his birthday is on the 30th which falls on a Wednesday so we decided to celebrate in advance. This grandfather is my mother’s father. I think this was also his idea? Or my cousin’s.. He wanted island hopping but they suggested that we try a different celebration so here it is 🥳 He also had a stroke a few years ago due to his heavy obsession with smoking cigarettes. He now uses a cane whenever he walks most especially if he’s outdoors but he can manage walking indoors 💪🏼👴🏼💙
There are actually a lot of floating cottages for rent in the area. The name of the one we rented is called “Tribu Doydi” which costs 5,000 pesos for the whole day from 9AM to 4PM 🕘🕓
Sadly this side of the family practices Filipino time. We weren’t able to arrive at 9AM 🙃 When we arrived it turns out we were at the wrong port! Initially we were told to travel to Cordova Roro Port since in going to the cottage we would still have to ride a small pump boat. Upon arriving it seemed liked we were on the right place because there were also pump boats getting their clients from the port and we can see other floating cottages that were rented out.
It took us 20-30 mins to wait and we kept calling the person in charge that we already arrived. When she finally picked up and talked, we found out we were at the wrong side all along. I don’t know who to blame for the misinformation but everybody got really cranky already 😂 I mean who wouldn’t right? Arriving late in a port (we had a hard time with the directions ), we had so much to bring we literally unloaded all our things already in the car but we loaded them back in, we waited for 20-30 mins in a busy crowd since the port is also for those going to another island across Cordova (Olanggo Island), we can’t contact the person in charge for the place plus no response via text message, we were hungry and it was hot. Lol it was frustrating really but moving on we transferred to the right port which is the Bantayan Port. 🛶🚶♀️🚶♂️🎒
The place was super packed with a lot of people. It was a Sunday and Filipinos love spending time in the beach on Sunday (or even Saturday).
There was an entrance fee of 20 pesos per head except for kids who are 6 years old below. We were an estimated to be 20 heads.
We then walked to the place where we will ride the pump boat and it was still full of people 🥲 the boat was small and can only fit around 4-5 persons. We had food and other supplies so those were being placed in just one boat. See picture below for reference! The person in black is my cousin 😂
We were able to pass by a few cottages and the place was much more crowded I’m really happy we did not rent in that area. 😶
We finally arrived in the cottage and it was already lunch time. I was surprised also with the cottage it was well prepared and it had a great style too! See picture below for the reference 😁
We ate lechon and cooked some seafood stew. We swam at the edges of the cottage and drank some whisky. I didn’t drink much due to a hangover the day before 😅 I just really wanted to float and relax. I was watching also my nieces and nephew swimming in this small pool. The water was clear and cold too perfect for the hot weather 🌤🕶
We talked with my cousins and other family members were sleeping because of the cool sea breeze.
We were able to extend the end time to 5pm and same drill we had to ride the bump boat. It wasn’t that crowded anymore and for some reason it was quite.. which I really liked 🍃🌊
My overall experience would be an 8.5 out of 10 due to miscommunication and the crowd. It was sort of difficult for us to get in and take off on the cottage. I’m saying this since we have seniors with us on our trip and the young ones also had trouble in unloading the things. We were just at the side of the cottage and I think it would be best if there was a proper path way to get in or get off hehe 😁
I recommend going on a weekday with friends or family 👍🏼
Thank you for coming this far! Hope you enjoyed my honest review 😊💗