Sol Y Viento: A Secret Haven in Pansol, Calamba, Laguna

Okay, I admit that the title seems to be an overstatement, but, being a resident of San Pedro, Laguna who frequents public and private resorts in this town of Calamba with my family, this is a secret haven for us already. We never thought that such a place exist in Pansol.

Located on top of a hill, Sol Y Viento Hotel and Resort was discovered by my sister Anna, who wanted to celebrate my Tatay Lito’s birthday in a resort. Our search went from as far as Cavinti, Laguna and Quezon Province. But most of us wanted to go somewhere near so we chose to look for a new place to go in Pansol.

We woke up at 7am so w e can swim freely before we check out.

For almost 12k (less the senior citizen discount we availed because of my Tatay, who turned 62 years old, by the way), we were able to enjoy the amenities of a hotel resort – a team room that can accommodate 8 adults (+2 kids), welcome drinks (our choice – beer, fruit punch, brewed coffee, and soda) plus 8 bottles of mineral water, buffet breakfast (a feast… all yummy!), and of course, the use of pools (with different temperatures – from slightly cold, slightly warm, and warm to hot. Kids (Denise and Lucas) loved the cold water, so they stayed there most of the time. We, adults, preferred slightly warm, so we swam there. Come night time, to fight the cold breeze, we tried the pool that has the hottest water and we successfully dipped our feet on it. Yes, we could not stand plunging our whole body. We were just contented scooping some water with our hands and throwing it at our bodies.

The place was kind of crowded; it’s summer time so it’s expected. But, we were able to swim freely because Sol Y Viento has four pools – two of which are huge enough to accommodate many people. But still, we thought the hotel resort should now consider adding more pools, particularly when they are accepting day tours.    

We paid for an overnight stay so we got the chance to eat at their bar restaurant – the Porto Bar. The food was awesome. There was an acoustic band performing, making our night more relaxing... 

And making Tatay's night memorable. 

We secretly asked the band to surprise him with a birthday song and a restaurant staff to bring in the cake that we brought all the way from Conti's Westgate. He was surprised, but we were also surprised - when the female singer asked his name, he said, "Rudy Fernandez". So, she kept on addressing him as "Tatay Rudy" - we could not hide our smile whenever she did that. Anna gave in to the request of the singer to jam with them, but she ended up singing alone.

Except for the noise we heard from the occupants in the upper floor, our sleep was okay. The room was big enough for all of us. There were two shower areas with cold and hot water, the aircon seemed new that it worked well, and the TV has Cignal cable. The Internet connection on the fourth floor, where we stayed, was weak, though. I worked at the lobby to be able to send articles to the client. Come morning, though, I was able to connect to Skype so I was able to talk to Noel, my husband.

Are we to come back here? Yes, of course, given the chance – but not during summer. We wanted to have the place all by ourselves or share it with a few people to make our stay more relaxing. But overall, we had fun and the cost was all worth it. Ask Anna and she’d say yes.