With a throbbing head and a brewing tonsilitis induced by a drinking spree + an all-nighter karaoke session, I impatiently paced around Mövenpick Hotel’s reception area. It was my birthday, and I was being a tad whiney because of my hangover. The front desk’s queues were more than five people deep and serving each guest was taking about five minutes. Fortunately, Mövenpick Hotel’s airy lobby is such an eye candy that it even selfie haters will likely do a sneakie snap.

I did (not that I’m a selfie hater).

If we were checking in on a different day, I reckon it would have been breezier. There was a conference going on somewhere in Cebu and tonnes of its attendees chose the hotel as their base. In the chaos of it all, the staff were calm and collected and managed to flash their genuine smiles — a trademark of Cebuano hospitality — throughout.

We were given our room later than expected. That can be quite annoying when you calculate in your head all the expenses incurred for a birthday getaway whilst riding the contemplation cube that is the elevator up to your floor… However, the annoyance soon evaporated in the humid air when we opened the door to our two-bedroom suite with ocean view.

As a family perpetually backpacking on a tight-ish budget, we’ve always searched for the best and cheap hotels in Philippines but for my birthday three years ago, we allowed ourselves to splurge and randomly found Mövenpick Hotel online. We booked the ocean view suite with two bedrooms because we were a group of four adults and one child. The 99 square-metre floor space (includes sitting area) provided plenty of room for all of us.

The decor’s tasteful and the color palette’s pleasing to the eyes. Mövenpick Hotel’s formerly the Hilton, and the rooms really seemed newly refurbished. The bathrooms, not so, but that’s not to say they’re not gorgeous (I’m a vintage lover, sorry). I loved the royal/cobalt(?) blue tiles! Some may find the beds rock-hard, but just right for me. Loved their pillows too.

We spent most of our afternoon whiling at the balcony. The view of the hotel grounds is stunning, the view of surrounds may not be so (to the left is a view of residential homes with tin roofs and an unkempt beach). But hey, we’re used to disaccords and incongruities. We didn’t mind the contrasts one bit.

When not people-watching from the balcony, we did so at the poolside. The pool was quite crowded that arvo, the atmosphere felt festive. Pumpin’ music from the Ibiza Beach Club (which we unfortunately didn’t get to experience because of our crazy night prior) could be heard.

In the evening, we didn’t dine in Mövenpick Hotel’s resident restaurant The Sails. Instead, we asked for room service. We tried the resto’s pizza and pasta which we all loved. And to my surprise, a birthday cake was delivered to our room as well. It actually had my name on it! By then I was really feelin’ the 5-star treatment.

We concluded me humble birthday celebration early with a few tipples. And because we were early to bed, we were also early to rise. Dragged our arses out of our cozy cocoons with much difficulty just so to avoid the late morn crowds on the beach. The sacrifice paid off. There was no one at the pool area and on the beach when we did our dip.

Beautiful wicker lounges are plenty. Good number of umbrellas for shade too. Because Luna had to go to a toilet while we were swimming, we realized that the restrooms are too far from the beach. A staff directed us to the ones in the hotel lobby. We left trails of seawater and sand here and there. Aside from this oversight, we didn’t find any other faults.

We left at check out time, and it took way quicker than the check in. The hotel’s blinging jeepney took us to Cebu’s city centre.

Overall, the hotel exceeded our expectations. We only wished we could extend our stay but one night was all we could afford at the time. And so we shall keep finding and booking the best deals on hotels to have more luxurious vacations like this with the whole family in future occasions.