STARLIGHT, NUSTAR BRIGHT

How do you out-luxe a 5-star luxury hotel? For Nustar Resort & Casino Cebu, which celebrates its third anniversary all this month, you start by opening the grand Nustar Hotel with 233 rooms situated on its sprawling 22-acre property (that's adjacent to the 5-star Fili hotel which opened May 2022, and the Grand Summit hotel set to open end of 2027).

- SCOTT GARCEAU

How do you out-luxe a 5-star luxury hotel? For Nustar Resort & Casino Cebu, which celebrates its third anniversary all this month, you start by opening the grand Nustar Hotel with 233 rooms situated on its sprawling 22-acre property (that's adjacent to the 5-star Fili hotel which opened May 2022, and the Grand Summit hotel set to open end of 2027).

Then you include private yacht service, which had us climbing aboard the resort's 22-meter Crucero for a sunset cruise sponsored by Tiffany & Co.

Oh, yes. Then you add private butler service. Private butlers have become an almost essential addition to luxury hotel offerings, and Nustar has a squadron of them (mine was Owen) specially trained by world-class Hellbron Hospitality to provide seamless and intuitive service — whether it's bringing up some special cocktails, pressing a jacket or pants, setting up dining reservations, offering transport services, or fulfilling most any whim (within reason) you can imagine while staying at Nustar.

That's not even the end. Nustar Resort Cebu general manager Roel Constantino teases that the three Nustar Villas topping the 26-level hotel (which were already occupied during the soft opening) include a private sea-facing pool, a garden balcony, and butler service that is "enhanced."

Wait. Does that mean even the butlers...have butlers?

We don't know yet. But it's just one of the ways that Nustar Hotel, the first ultra-luxury hotel in Cebu, and the property of Nustar Resort & Casino Cebu — a pioneer leisure destination in Visayas and Mindanao that's fully Filipino, owned and operated by the Universal Hotels and Resorts, Inc. (UHRI), a subsidiary of JG Summit Holdings, Inc. — is pushing the boundaries of service and recreational luxury.

LUXE LIFE