AFTER an extreme adventure in Cagayan de Oro (CDO), such as white water rafting in Cagayan de Oro River and mountain- and river-trekking at Mapawa Nature Park, nothing beats coming home to an upscale hotel that offers all the modern comforts and comveniences that urbanites crave for – like having a nice warm bath and shower to wash away all the mud and dirt and sticky feeling and then snuggling into a soft and comfortable bed and dozing off in a cool, air-conditioned environment. Sheer pleasure! Perfect winding down from action-packed adventures!
That’s exactly how I felt during our recent three-day media trip to Cagayan de Oro, where we, on the first day, went straight from the airport to Cagayan de Oro River to battle the rapids and, on the second day, spent some five hours or so trekking through the mountainous and forested trails of Mapawa Nature Park then traversing the river on foot, water sliding down two waterfalls, jumping down a third waterfall and then calling it a day after rappelling down the fourth. On both days, when the action was over and my energy level had dropped, I looked forward to going home to Seda Centrio, a four-star urban lifestyle hotel which is one of the three Seda properties owned and managed by AyalaLand Hotels and Resorts Corp.
Seda Centrio is strategically located within the Centrio Mall right in the heart of Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental. It can be found along Corrales Avenue in CDO’s emerging business center by the coast of Northern Mindanao, and since it rises smack in the middle of the Centrio Mall, it shares a roof with a hundred or so restaurants, retail stores and other commercial establishments. So any time you need something from the mall, you just take the elevator down, find what you are looking for, and come right back up to your hotel room.
Opened in December 2012, Seda Centrio is CDO’s most modern hotel, designed by well-known Filipino architect Conrad Onglao and offering world-class facilities that cater to business and leisure travelers alike. The lobby and reception area are spacious and relaxing, with geometric-inspired sofa sets giving guests plenty of space to relax. The lobby seems to flow seamlessly into an e-lounge, which is equipped with a bank of computers that guests can use at their convenience. This especially comes in handy for guests who are not travelling with their laptops but need to check their e-mails and keep business communication lines open.
Also adjacent to the lobby and the e-lounge is Misto Café, Seda’s signature all-day dining restaurant, which serves an incredible buffet breakfast in the morning but also maintains an impressive a la carte menu. On the day that our group checked in at the hotel after a fun but exhausting white water rafting adventure, we were greeted with a refreshing glass of Misto Iced Tea, which quenched our thirst and gave us a bit of sugar rush for an energy jolt.
Then it was time to go up to our rooms. Tired and in dire need of a shower and bath, everyone disappeared from the lobby and filled the lifts.
Seda Centrio has 150 guest rooms, all equipped with state-of-the-art features and amenities, such as a 40-inch LED HDTV with cable, a media panel with HDMI, USB and A/V connectivity, phone with iPod dock and FM stereo features, mini-bar with coffee and tea making facilities, in-room safe in the closet, an iron and ironing board, an executive writing desk, and, most important of all, complimentary wireless or wired Internet access. Free WiFi is a big plus these days, and Seda Centrio offers it.
Also important in a hotel room is a nice and comfortable bed (or beds, depending on the type of room booked).
“We took pains finding out what guests really need in a hotel room. We paid attention to details, such as the media panel, which allows guests to plug directly to the wall and hook up to the TV to view their photos, for example. We also took great pains finding the right beds that will be super comfortable to our guests,” explains Lorenzo Tang, general manager of Seda Centrio in Cagayan de Oro.
And it’s true. While my husband Raff and I travel a lot and are used to staying in hotels, we both find it difficult to achieve sound sleep on the first night. But at Seda Centrio, we both dozed off immediately after hitting the bed that night. But not before washing up after the white water rafting adventure and then meeting the rest of the media group at the lobby early evening to attend a cooking demo of native CDO delicacies at the Monster Kitchen in nearby Gaston Park, where Chef Albert Chiu showed us how to make Sinuglaw, CDO’s version of sinugba and kinilaw in one dish, and Binake, a famous local delicacy made of corn, and then have dinner at Thai Me Up, a Thai specialty restaurant located in Centrio Mall.
Waking up early the next morning for our Mapawa adventure, we had a good breakfast at Misto Café, which had a good buffet spread. Raff and I had a hot cup of coffee, after which we started our meal with fresh fruits. We had lovely watermelon, papaya and pineapple. Next we assembled our own breakfast platters. Mine had garlic rice, fried fish fillets, scrambled eggs and French beans with shrimps. The usual breakfast fares were there for the taking – bacon, Hungarian sausage, even chicken adobo – but we always went for the fish. I had mine with a glass of guava juice from the beverage bar, which also offered fresh milk, dalandan juice and orange juice. The dessert spread looked inviting, with single-serve Chocolate Panna Cotta and Ube Halaya with Langka in shot glasses.
After a whole day of eco-trekking at Mapawa Nature Park on our second day in CDO, I again looked forward to coming home to Seda Centrio. Wet from the watersliding adventure that we had, I had a good shower and a short rest period before going down to the Sinamay Function Room at the lobby level for a press conference, which had Al Legaspi, chief operating officer of AyalaLand Hotels and Resort Corp.; Andrea Mastellone, Seda group general manager; and Lorenzo Tang, Seda Centrio GM; answering questions from our group of Manila-based journalists as well as local journalists.
There, during the press conference, Legaspi, Mastellone and Tang gave everyone a good idea of the plans of the Seda hotel brand, which is now composed of three hotels – Seda Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Seda Abreeza in Davao City and Seda Centrio in Cagayan de Oro. A fourth Seda property shall rise in Nuvali, Laguna, by 2014.
“We build Seda hotels wherever Ayala Land has masterplans for mixed-use development. The Seda model, which is in the niche market of four-star luxury hotels, is a hotel with 150 to 200 rooms. We are planning to establish a new model, the Seda Suites, as well as a value line, which we have no name for as of the moment. But expect us to put up six more Seda hotels in the next two to three years,” explains Legaspi.
Mastellone adds: “Seda will offer the convenience and security of a high-energy, central location on top of innate Filipino hospitality combined with global best practices.”
After the press conference came the Seda Poolside Party, where a live band provided entertainment and food, presented in a buffet cocktail setup, was overflowing. The party, which had prominent CDO residents and business people in attendance, lasted the whole night.
After another good buffet breakfast of Egg Drop Soup, Daing na Bangus with Fried Rice and Scrambled Eggs, and Chocolate Muffin the next morning, our group headed for Laguindingan Airport, the new airport in CDO, which was only on its second day of operations that day (June 16,2013), for our flight back to Manila. We got in via the old Lumbia Airport, which stopped operations on June 15, 2013, and took the backseat to the new Laguindingan Airport.
Sitting back to rest in the plane, I looked back to the last three days spent in Cagayan de Oro and told myself, “This has been the most action-packed trip of my writing career – ever!”
(Seda Centrio is located at C.M. Recto cor. Corrales Ave., Cagayan de Oro City, with telephone number (638 3238888.)
