Busuanga Bay Lodge — Hotel in Busuanga

We really enjoyed our stay at BBL. We were there for 2.5 weeks, and we spent most of that time scuba diving the nearby shipwrecks.

Highlights: Our room (a hilltop suite) was huge, comfortable, and air conditioned. It had a wonderful view of the bay too. If you are considering staying in one of the other rooms, like the waterfront kings or the bungalows, just be prepared to do a LOT of uphill walking: the resort is very sprawled out on a fairly steep hillside, with the restaurant at the very top of the hill. I would not have enjoyed walking up from the waterfront rooms three times a day just to get food. It also rained a lot, and doing that walking in the rain would be even worse. The dive shop (Pirate Divers Busuanga) was right on site. Going diving each morning was a breeze, and the wreck diving was amazing. Note that Coron's dives are more suited towards advanced divers. If you're a beginner, I'd suggest diving somewhere easier like a reef. There was wifi available in our room for a small charge (it worked out to about USD $5 every few days, and it was fast enough to stream HBO (while HBO doesn't offer service in the Philippines, you can use the free Proton VPN to make it look like you're in the US). The hotel is far outside of Coron town. The good news is that the hotel is in a much prettier location (Coron town was dirty and crowded). Bad news is that getting into town will cost you about $40-$50 USD each way and takes about an hour each way. They gave us a free 90-minute couple's massage one day just to say thank you for staying with them

Lowlights: We were really unimpressed with the food. They had a handful of western-style dishes, and a handful of filipino dishes. It was about as basic as what you'd get at a Denny's. And then their complimentary breakfast is too small to really qualify as a breakfast, so my wife and I usually had to split an extra yogurt-and-granola plate to feel full. And their very basic entrees cost about double what a normal meal costs in Coron. For those prices, and considering how much the rooms cost, I would have expected much better food. One redeeming fact is that their rotating daily special is usually pretty decent. Al Faro restaurant across the bay had slightly better food for about 30% cheaper. We ate dinner at Al Faro one night and really enjoyed it. However, BBL's rooms are nicer than Al Faro's, so I'd still prefer to stay at BBL, but I do wish BBL would improve their restaurant. We wanted to arrange for a Coron Island Day Tour. This is a standard tour in Coron. When we asked BBL's front desk, they only offered us one option: a private full-day tour on their speedboat with a nice lunch for around USD $500. We thought this price was a little ridiculous, so we decided to look elsewhere. We ended up finding a website called Klook that let us book a group tour, including round trip transit to meet the boat in Coron town, for a total of $160. I'm still annoyed with BBL for not offering to help us arrange this cheaper option. We had them do a single load of laundry, and they charged us USD $40!

I'd increase my rating to 5 stars if BBL improved the quality of their food and the pricing of their...

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Busuanga Bay Lodge. AJ’s team was stellar. Joaquin, Nichal, and Crizelle at reception helped us book our stay, arrange transportation, and customize our tours to our group’s preferences. Ninoy was a knowledgeable and friendly guide and he accompanied us on all our tours. He was incredibly accommodating. The restaurant staff - Dexter, Erika, Jenny, and Nanelyn - were attentive and friendly and the food was amazing. The menu was extensive and everything we tried was delicious. Our compliments to the chef, this was some of the best Filipino and international food we had our entire trip. We especially loved that the restaurant and pool area were situated a few floors above the ground floor, meaning there were far fewer mosquitoes than we noticed at other places in Palawan. Additionally, the view over the bay was out of this world beautiful. During dinner service, the BBL trio performed and provided great dinner music and serenades. Our first night, we requested a song that the trio didn’t know. The following night, they performed the song just for us after practicing for only a day! The rooms were large, clean, and comfortable and the grounds were beautiful and well kept. On our last night, the team provided a special candlelit dinner for us, for which we are very grateful. We were celebrating a retirement and a 30th birthday, which we had only discussed with the staff in passing, and to our surprise the team provided special desserts to commemorate these events. Aldy at the marina assisted us with kayaking equipment and was very helpful. We kayaked across the bay to the abandoned sea plane, which was a cool little trip! Kristelle and Rose at the spa provided excellent services. We booked massage, body scrub, and facial services and all were very good. This resort definitely felt like a luxury experience and we didn’t want to leave! We would absolutely...

Stayed 7 nights here to scuba dive. Resort has the best views in my opinion. Incredible views of the calm and sheltered bay while beautiful green hills dot the background. They put as at a room very near the dive shop so it was easier for us to move our scuba gear around. Food was incredible, they have a talented chef. Room was absolutely huge with 2 queen beds, large bathroom, and still lots of space to place luggage and diving bags. The usual amenities like coffee/tea making facilities, bathrobe, slippers and a safe was provided in the room. No wifi in the room so best to get a SIM card once you land at the airport. Strong wifi at the restaurant though. They provided free kayaks and stand up paddle boards. There isn’t much of a beach, there is a small strip of mostly rocky beach with parasols overlooking the lovely bay. Infinity pool at the restaurant area has the best view. They have the best staff who are friendly and very attentive to all your needs. Loved the talent show put up by their staff at dinner one night. They are so talented! Beautiful singing, harmonizing and playing of instruments. Do bring insect repellent though, lots of mosquitoes but to be expected as there are plenty of lush green foliage at this resort. This resort is ideal for scuba divers due to its close proximity to a couple of wrecks. Diving was amazing as we got to penetrate the wrecks in a safe manner led by our responsible and capable dive master Lulu, he runs a 5* diving centre located at the resort. We had an amazing...