Ahana Resort El Nido — Hotel in El Nido

Inquiry/Booking: I inquired with them via phone call and they sent me all the details I need in messenger. They were very accommodating with my questions and they were quick to respond. They also make sure that you are aware that their hotel is far from the center and is very inaccessible so you should know what you are committing to before booking with them.

Transfer: They would follow up on the pickup details days before check-in and would confirm again for any changes on the pick-up day. They made sure to call to confirm any last-minute changes plus they were very considerate to inform us that we might share the car with another group cause we have the same pick-up time. They were also supposed to pick us up only at the El Nido Transport Terminal but they picked us up at the nearby inn which is very nice since we have some baggage with us.

Check-In: We were greeted by Spencer in the reception and welcome drinks were given which is very refreshing and tasted great! Check-in is fast and we were informed of their rules and things that we should know so we can plan our days ahead like their generator shut down time, service charge in the restaurant, etc.

Rooms: Rooms are very spacious and has a very nice view. Everything is clean and the bed is perfect for a good night’s sleep. Rooms smells nice too! We stayed at the Deluxe queen room on the 1st night and at the Villa on the 2nd night and both are worth the price.

Facilities: Everything is well maintained. Pool water doesn’t feel itchy. Enough sun loungers surround the pool and you will never run out of place to stay. The hotel is small but the space is more than enough for the guests. Pool view is superb for sunset watching or you can go to the 2nd floor of the restaurant for a better view! Their tap water is clean too. We get to use the tap water for brushing our teeth which is not so common in El Nido.

Restaurant: I really love their food! Their Japanese sets are so tasty and cooked well. We tried ordering the same food again in one of our meals and the taste and doneness is the same so it’s not a hit and miss! The only downside is it’s really expensive compare to the other restaurants in the town proper. But for the quality of their food, you get what you pay for.

Location: It’s up in the mountain, hence the view so expect some wildlife around. I heard a geco on our first night though I was not able to see one. They have free transfer up and down to the main road if you want to go out. It’s hard to do it on your own. The only way to the hotel is not cemented and some parts are very steep and only for one car. Since they’re in the mountain, they’re also just running on generator which needs to be rested for a few hours a day. The shut down is only for the rooms and electricity is still available in the lobby so you can charge your phone, and stay there the whole time without issues.

Staff: Their staff is one of their assets. They are very accommodating and will check up on you for anything you might need.

Overall, we had a very relaxing stay at Ahana and we’ll surely stay with them again if ever we get...

The hotel itself is INSTA-beautiful, but the service is abysmal - both before the visit and during.

Online communication is terrible - prompts such as “please read” and “URGENT” are required in email subject headings to illicit any kind of response, and even then it might take up to a week.

When they describe the hotel as “secluded” or “remote”, what they really mean is “awkwardly placed”. It’s not far, it’s just up a very steep, narrow road inaccessible by public transport - meaning trips into town, beaches or restaurants/bars require someone from the hotel to drive you at least part of the way.

Instead of providing free filtered water, like everywhere else in El Nido, they insist on selling plastic bottles apparently due to “safety concerns” of the quality. This says a lot. If they are concerned that their filtration system is not adequate, they should upgrade not pass the costs on to the guests. We stayed in Palawan for a month and this was the only place that tried to sell us water. Eventually we got the requested filter water, and suffered no ills, unsurprisingly.

Much of the Japanese-style menu, which they appear very proud of, was unavailable during our visit. Standard staple items such as noodles and teriyaki sauce were apparently sourced directly from Japan, which meant they were simply not in stock and the chef was unable or unwilling to improvise with the ingredients they had. Bizarrely almost no fish on the menu. If there are no alternative walkable restaurants, the hotel restaurant and in-house chef needs to be a lot better than this.

There is no wine list. They have wine, they just don’t know what or how much any of it costs. In order to request a bottle, you have to point at one, have the barman pass it to you to assess, have him ask his manager how much it costs, and then repeat with every other bottle on the shelf. When asked if the had sake to go with the Japanese food, the response was no, despite there being bottles of sake on prominent display. Further inquiry revealed that the bottles they have are so exorbitantly expensive that perhaps they never expect to sell them.

There is almost no shade on the pool deck from about 10:30am onwards - and it gets HOT. The music playlist in the bar and by the pool is only about 10 songs long, so if you’re there for longer than an hour, expect to be driven slowly mad as chilled Coldplay house covers repeat endlessly through your skull.

Stay here for the pretty pictures, but get out as...

I often shrug off some bad reviews thinking it can't be that bad, but genuinely this hotel is the worsts I have experienced and feels like a complete tourist trap. Having travelled extensively across SE Asia & Asia as a whole staying in a range of places from budget hostels to luxury hotels, nothing has been so disappointing as this. Main Issues:||Location: It's badly located on top of a hill around 25 mins from El Nido town, the area is a building site with nothing else around. Taxis, TukTuks etc. won't go up the hill so you will likely have to walk up at some point. This is essentially a 10-15min Uphill walk on a rocky path. They state 5min somewhere which is hugely unrealistic, it's a 10-15 min uphill trek. Instead of running complimentary shuttles to El Nido Town, they capatilise on the fact you are stuck by charging you 10x the local taxi rate to use their 4x4, they also have only one which you will be competing for with other guests and I had to wait 3 hours to be picked up when using it. The round trip cost to El Nido Town is 30 USD (Should be 3 USD in a tuktuk) Given you are on a hill with nothing else around, you will likely be forced to use this service. ||Facilities: The hotel itself has a small pool, restaurant and 5 rooms. You may think on the images it looks nice, this is completely superficial and you quickly find out it is tired and impractical. The restaurant is open and has no aircon, the food is expensive and of poor quality compared to El Nido Town, you also aren't allowed to bring food or drink from outside and again given the poor location will be forced to eat there. |No fridge, dirty rooms, ant infested and mouldy. |Staff were rude and unhelpful, rooms had no curtains so you can see the bed from outside, and the bathroom had a seethrough netting with staff lingering outside. ||Also even when no one is in the hotel they blast music from the bar (mostly the same loop of cheesy EDM) with disproportionately loud sub which was really loud in the room played from like 8A.M to around 10/11PM nice little cherry on top of the roasting hot room. Not an issue given the room was so hot but they didn't have hot water in our room ( or anyone else's there at the time ) not sure why you'd want a cold bath but that's all you'll get. Genuinely don't believe anyone could be happy staying here, Philippines hotels generally aren't the best value but this takes it to a...