Team Building: Casanjo Garden and Resort

 

First I would like to stress the things that the team enjoys when spending company outing within the Metro:

 

1. Hang-out without travelling that far.
2. Overflowing drinks. Since there is no need to pay huge for transportation.
3. Going home at 1am (anytime you wish haha).
4. Budget friendly.

 

 

Last week’s event made me realize how favorable it was to know and be well educated of the places where we can hang out without travelling that far; specially if you consider a private pool party with your family that has a little baby or with tight schedule and would prefer not to travel far.

 

Most of the time team buildings are usually held on private resorts in Pansol which is considered to be one of the most accessible place from Metro Manila. It is where private resort are everywhere and where famous hot springs are found. But Pansol is a 2-hour drive away from the metro. If you think that it is not that close, you might want to consider checking Casanjo Garden and Resort in Green Park Village Cainta Rizal. Casanjo Garden and Resort is a family owned resort inside a village which is near to prime business locations like Ortigas Business Center and Eastwood City Libis. Our team went there on the first week of June with an advance booking for the entire team’s overnight stay.

 

 

Casanjo Resort has three swimming pools; one is at the upper deck where we stayed. It has a Jacuzi (though its not working at that time) and two cute manmade waterfalls. The upper deck also have some rooms which I didn't have the time to ask how many. They have three Comfort rooms and a grilling corner and a slide to the pool on the ground level.

 

 

The pool on the ground level is bigger and on the adjacent side is the kiddie pool. With all the fairness to Casanjo, the pool water is clear except for a couple of insects floating and leaves from plants which I think is quite inevitable. My only concern is that the side pumps have really high pressures, good thing we noticed it earlier as one of our teammates got sucked in by it.

 

 

For the entire stay – I guess the team enjoyed the place and the overflowing drinks they brought using the money they saved from the usual van rental budgets. I guess this place was actually okay. Not so good but at least not bad at all considering the location. I give them three stars out of five. :)

 

 

NOTE: For reservations, I would suggest that you ask for a written quotation or summary of service to avoid any confusions. Our first couple of hours in this resort were a bit chaotic. First, is that I arrived at 5PM which is our check-in time but was informed that the place that we rented was still occupied and will not be available until 6pm. Secondly, the reservation we made was for the entire upper deck cottage but was later informed that we are going to share it with another group. According to them the upper deck has a total capacity of 45 persons which is quite ridiculous since it will totally overcrowd the place. But anyways, for some reason no one came the entire night so we had the place to ourselves or maybe they made an alternate arrangement to the other group who were supposed to share the same "cottage" that we rented.

 

Anyway, I enjoyed the night though I went home at 1am ahead of the rest of the team since I was already so sleepy and our reservation does not include a room to sleep in. This is the main advantage of the location, a place where you can decide to leave any time you want, at least for emergency purposes.

 

 

Casanjo Commuters Guide:

 

We took a cab going to the place. From Rosario, passing Manggahan to Marikina, right turn to Magsaysay Street, then another right at Felix/Imelda Ave. Take a U-turn on the nearest u-turn slot along Felix/Imelda Ave. Straight ahead to Greenpark Gate 5 near Mini Stop. Going inside there are directions posted to guide you. Then there's a lot of left and right turn ahead, after a few minutes we're in the area and ended up paying additional 50.00 on the taxi fare. I suggest that you debark from the taxi on Greenpark's gate 5 as there are tricycles aligned which only charge 10.00/pax – they will be much cheaper and more convenient since they know the easiest route.

 

Going home is no worries. Impressively despite that it's already 1am when we decided to leave, there are still tricycles right in front of the resort's gate. We paid 20 pesos per pax going out and got off at Mini Stop, there are taxi waiting which cost us 80.00 going back to Rosario Pasig.

 

Please see the map below. Or check their Facebook Page:https://www.facebook.com/pages/Casanjo/

 

Click to view image full size.