Tale of Our Free Day Tour with Lunch and Dinner at Bellevue Resort Panglao Bohol

On Tuesday, my husband logged into his Slack account and found some of his Swedish comrades active at nine in the morning and one had even messaged him about something. So out of curiosity, he joked that it was unusual for this guy to be up early at 9 AM Manila Time.

The comrade said they are in Bohol for a week of gathering but because they are of a different team, my husband was not aware of it so he asked if he could come as well and just hang out with them. The comrade was so accommodating he delivered the message to the management and said it was fine and they'll arrange our lunch and dinner at Bellevue Resort in Panglao plus said he can bring me and Matti.

And so, this is a tale of our free day tour at The Bellevue Resort, Panglao Bohol!

Coming from Guindulman, we traveled for two hours and a half to Panglao. We actually stopped by Island City Mall in Tagbilaran to buy some dried mangoes because that's their favorite. My husband thought they were just ten or fewer so he bought only a few. We also got a Calamay and some peanut brittle and peanut kisses too!

Upon arrival, we were welcomed by the staff as how they usually do, and asked if we have a reservation. We told them we will just have lunch at the restaurant with some of the guests and when we mentioned Arcanys-Tiqque, they were already aware and let us through. They showed us where the restaurant is but my husband already saw Philip, the comrade to whom he talked about this.

While they were talking in the lobby, I decided to go around and check out the things which can be seen in the lobby.

This is their main lobby where guests can check in with the front desk. It's nice that the guests have seats to sit on as well as the staff, it's like having an appointment with some manager or being interviewed for a job! But I appreciate that they made it that way compared to standing up!

While facing the front desk, on the left is their souvenir shop. They also have the Bellevue Resort Map at the entrance. They offer the same typical souvenir items for the guests to bring home at the end of their stay.

There are seats and tables also available on the pathway leading to the front desk. In the photo below, you'll see my husband sitting on a comfortable seat with his Swedish counterpart next to him. Matti here was just exploring the koi fishes on the resort's pond!

On the other side, we found their restaurant named Lamian. This word is a Bisaya term for delicious. I guess this restaurant offers a buffet however, it was not in service when we were there. The door on the right leads to the comfort room.

They sell fish food for only Php 20, this wasn't bad because I have tried buying a pack of food fish in some other resorts and restaurants and all of them were sold at PHP 25-30. I bought one of course and decided to let Matti feed the fishes!

The ponds were divided into five sections. Two of them were at the main entrance and the fish there were just Tilapias. Then on the bigger ponds next to the lobby, they got koi fish there and which were already very familiar to people.

These kois would follow guests if they would notice someone coming near the pond. They have their mouths already opened as if anticipating a feed! I can see how eager these koi fish were! My little one was really glad each time he sees the fish fighting over one food!

It was funny because my little one even placed the feeds on the Sugka boat. I persuaded this little one to move further so we can explore the resort. We reached the end of the pond. It has nice to see a set up by the garden and we could see a glimpse of the sea too!

We went to the poolside, and we found a few ones who braved the shining son at 11 AM. Most of them were foreigners though so I understood why. As for us, we won't be swimming here this early. So we went to the next spot where there was a Bellevue sign.

But first, I took a photo of the resort's building. I understand this was the only building for their accommodations. We have no access to any room right now though but we hope that in the future, we can check in soon.

I took a photo of Matti, there were some guests also taking photos of themselves with the resort at the back with the help of a staff.

After the staff took a photo of the other guests, he turned to us and offered his service to take a photo of us instead. I was glad to give him the phone and he took this photo of me and my little one!

We were about to go farther when my husband called us because it was almost time for lunch. I thought we were having lunch at the Marea restaurant but this will be held instead at the Pavilion which was outside the resort.

Anyhow, here's a view of the Marea restaurant's entrance. And below shows Matti walking past the Lamian restaurant too. I wonder why no one was dining here though, guests were all at the Marea instead.

So we walked towards the Pavilion. My husband carried Matti while I was following them. Many other guests were walking in the same direction and I guess they were from Arcanys-Tiqque as well.

When we reached the location. The door was opened for us, the guard even asked me if we were part of the group. I was glad my husband looked back and told the guard I am part of them. I was super surprised because when we went in, there were so many people inside, there were tables, laptops all over the tables, there were many foreigners and then it hit us, this is a whole team building event for Tiqque. My husband thought that they were just ten people here!

While waiting for the lunch to be served, my husband introduced me to this guy named David. I remember my husband has been telling me about this guy before when they were still on the same team. This was his coach, his colleague who would always advise him and help him when he was still starting with the old team.

I am so glad to meet him in person and he even gave us a pack of chocolates! Matti's holding the chocolates in the photos above.

After a little chitchat, he has to go as lunch was already served. We went to the dining area just next to this function hall and I wasn't able to take photos because I was just very shy as no one was taking photos at all with their phones. But I remember the food available was fish ceviche, carbonara, lechon kawali, stir-fried vegetables, and some desserts.

After lunch, they had their daily meeting, and everyone was asked to go to the beach for some group photos. It was good timing as Matti wanted to go to the beach already. Here are some of the photos of the beach:

The beach was nice here although there were seagrasses being carried to shore. The staff had assigned people to sweep them which was good. The beach was also wide enough for a beach volleyball court. There are many beach lounges and chairs and umbrellas too. There was a storm coming though and it was evident on the photo above, you can see it was almost near the resort that the staff were closing the umbrellas to avoid the wind to break them.

And so everyone was asked to stay on sand for the group photo. My husband took the photo above. And here's Matti just watching them as they were posing for that photo opportunity! As you can see, there are really lots of them! Some of them were not able to join this though because they were still in their rooms.

They went back to work at the Pavilion while Matti and I were left here for the little one to enjoy the beach. It was still raining though, so we decided to stay at the lobby, they have this blind spot areas so I breastfed Matti there, he seemed to be sleepy but after awhile, he stood up and went to the fishes again.

I thought about the play area, I remember checking out Bellevue's page and it mentioned an entertainment area and so I asked one staff who was mopping the floor and he was so nice to even show us the place, and even carried my bag.

The entertainment area was underground near the beach. There was this billiard table in front of the bar and there was a stairway down to the underground. The staff even opened the door for us and I was really grateful for the nice customer service!

This is what welcomed us! No one was there and so Matti immediately placed his slippers on the shelf and ran to the toys!

This play area is complete with a slide and a ball pit, seasaw, tents, table with blocks, shelves and a television! They also have huge stuffed toys to sleep on! I even sat there while watching Matti play. Unfortunately, there's no cellular signal for Smart here although checked in guests can still get connected via their internet connection which is available all throughout the resort.

I guess Matti played for more than two hours here. So it was already around 30 minutes past three in the afternoon when he asked to go to the beach. He also asked for milk while we were there and I breastfed him before going out. He was already changed to his swimming outfit so he was literally ready to play with the sand. He knew that we bought a bucket with some molds, a rake, and a shovel so he was really excited.

But before going out, I checked the other entertainment corners:

It was time to go to the beach! Thankfully, it wasn't too hot but I decided ot go to the area where there's a tree so we can get shade!

There were a lot of staff cleaning up the shoreline. I figured these were actually on the job trainees. They were asked to use a rake to clean up the shore while someone drove that vehicle to collect the grasses. I found out as well that he dumped it just right on the neighbor's area.

While Matti was just playing with the sand, I saw some other staff preparing a romantic set up by the beach. They got a table, a bulb sign with the word LOVE on it, some floral decoration, and romantic lights around!

While it was set up really nicely, it rained after they were done with the setup but I guess the dinner date was successful since it didn't rain that nigh, only in the afternoon.

It was five in the afternoon when my husband finished his work and was at the beach. He played with Matti who wanted to really go into the water. I can't go with him because I had my monthly period, he was happy when he saw his father!

It was a little gloomy but the other side showed a dramatic scene with the sun's rays just shining the mountains. Our camera's zoom lens can't go further to capture it but this was enough to show you. It was even dramatic when the golden hour came.

More guests started coming over to the beach, I think they were all done with that day's work so they came to the beach to relax and watch the sunset. There were also other guests who went to this area in the water.

Some other guests played volleyball, the Tiqque team played frisbee too and others were just enjoying the beach waters while some others were just at the pool looking down at the beach and the beautiful golden hour!

We ended our day with this view below:

We got ourselves changed because dinner will be served soon. Earlier that day, I mentioned about a garden setup and I really thought that there's a wedding or a debut happening that day but it turned out that it was the Tiqque company's dinner.

Let me show you some of the shots we took :

Some of the early birds waiting for others to arrive. It was already past seven in the evening when they started calling out and telling others to start getting their food from the buffet!

I was really feeling shy because of course I am not part of the company but I was really grateful that they welcomed me so warmly. As we were looking for a table, the company head even requested that we sit next to them! Oh my goodness! We had no way of saying no of course so we sat next to David and Joakim.

The food was good, I got myself some really nice looking chop suey, and there was pasta again, grilled pork, chicken, and desserts too as well as fruits, watermelon, and pineapple. Again, I wasn't able to take photos because I was shy. There's a free-flowing of drinks too at the back. They love beer so there were lots of them and a variety of options too.

So we spent the entire time talking, there were a few of other team members at that table but they left to check out the bar. These four stayed with us and we spent more than two hours just talking about everything and anything from the culture here and the many differences between the European bosses and the previous job experiences I had.

We had a good live band playing as well at the Marea restaurant. When it was 9:30 PM and one staff approached us about them closing soon, David, the guy seated next to James here in the above photo said he might go to bed already, we decided that it was time for us to go home too.

The plate left here was mine, I was not able to truly eat my food because I kept on talking and talking, I was also conscious of every food I take. Teehee!

But I was really grateful for that day, I am glad for the experience, the day tour there at Bellevue Resort and of course meeting the people whom my husband had worked and is working with now. It's a pleasure to really meet them in person and even talk to them like we are friends! Thanks to David specifically who was super accommodating and interested in our country and life. We greatly appreciate that he asked my husband if he was still happy with the work, to which my husband said, definitely! It was a day worth remembering!