Keelooma Island Camp — Hotel in Linapacan

Honestly me and my girlfriend ( also most, or all of the others that went in the boat excursion ) are quite disappointed with the trip. We had big expectations about it after our research through your website or Instagram.

He was a very friendly person but unable to understand or speak English. We never knew what was about to happen or what was the plan, activities and so on. When we asked what was the plan for the day(s) he was not able to say much more than that, we go to make some stops for snorkeling. He was never able to introduce any place, for example, that we just arrived a snorkeling area where we will see star fishes. The only thing that he said in every place that we stopped was “here you can snorkel there, take pictures and sightseeing”.

But this communication problem got even worst when started to affect the safety of the crew - in many of the snorkeling areas there was a lot of coral reefs in very shallow water that needed to obligate everyone to use shoes for safety and he never mentioned it. After the first episode we kept asking him if was important to use the shoes for the other snorkeling areas and he kept saying “no, you don’t need” - and again we faced our selves in very shallow water with rocks and coral reefs full of sea urchins under us. For some people was very uncomfortable. In the end he never recommended the shoes at any situation. We were in open sea and none of the Keelooma crew was able to speak English. If anything worst would have happen it could have been catastrophic.

One time in the second day we asked if there was beer or rum and Coca Cola and he first answered “no” - he said that there was just a few beers left. This when probably just around 4/5 beers were sold among everyone one. And to make even more confusion, after a while we asked again if there was any beer or rum and Coca Cola and then he said “yes” - and there was in the end much more beer and also rum and Coca Cola. This was a very confusing situation for everyone.

Another thing that we need to mention are the activities - in the end the only activities that we made was snorkeling, nothing else. Previously we saw in the Keelooma website and instragram things like building a fire in the beach - we asked the tour guide about it and he said again “no” - we don’t even know if he understood the question honestly. Also it’s mentioned in your website about making “Trekking”, but we didn’t make any. None of the Keelooma crew even came to snorkel with us to show the best places or explain something about the fishes or corals that we have seen.

The truth is that we expected much more. We really investigated before hand about the best boat excursion since this should had been the highlight of our staying in Philippines and we are very disappointed with it. We felt that we were catch in some google advertising trap. This was a lifetime opportunity since we probably would not be able to come to Philippines again.

Also after the trip we send an email to Keelooma with the feedback (mostly the same text that I wrote here before) and they never replied back - before, when we wanted to book the trip and to make the payments they were always very...

The expedition with Keelooma was a disappointment, even though there were some good moments. We booked a 3D2N trip and a small boat was supposed to take us to reach the big boat that would take us along the tour. The small boat’s engine stopped halfway, which can happen, but we were left stranded for 2/3 hours out in the sea where barely no other boat passes by (late morning) with no drinkable water and no food provided, plus the captain and crew of the small boat didn’t speak English. The majority (including the crew) had no mobile connection. Luckily, we brought a Globe SIM card which enabled us to get some signal and contact the organizer, who contacted the crew of the big boat to come and rescue us (they barely had connection as well). Once they arrived, we realized we were joining a tour of 11 people that started the day before (the other group also didn’t know, it’s not mentioned in the website and I would have preferred a joint start). In total we were 16 guests (the website leads you to believe the capacity is 12 which is misleading) and it felt overcrowded for the boat’s capacity, lacking a decent toilet and enough space, specially when waves got bigger (the seating area had no kind of mattresses and there was not enough shade). The food was very very good but sometimes too little for 16. There was barely no briefing or explanation of the route and too little time (~30-40 minutes 3x day) in several snorkeling spots (of which a few were good). It seemed that every time we reached the beach, we had to leave. The camps were in beautiful spots but the first one was not prepared for 16 resulting in some stress regarding enough sleeping space. The guide was nice and helpful but there’s only so much you can do when the organization by Keelooma is very poor. The crew didn’t seem to care (not once someone joined us in the water). The website mentions digital detox and reconnect with yourself but there were no campfires, no coconuts, no yoga, no relaxation, but rather evening Karaoke and loud music (stopping at midnight) with a big speaker pumped by a generator, which was enjoyed by part of the group but also quite tiring after a while, specially when you want to enjoy the calmness and simplicity of paradise (as advertised in their website!!) and lack of masses, as well as rest after a long day in the boat. 2 people got sick by the end of the trip. There were beautiful spots and special moments but I strongly recommend you not to book with them and go for...

We had really high expectations after reading all the reviews and ended up leaving pretty disappointed. The first day and night were 10/10 we went to loads of secluded spots, the food was great and our group was really social . The huts were incredible and we were the only boat there it even had chargers and some people got service. However as soon as we got to the second location it all went downhill. As soon as we pulled up we saw 2 massive turtles next to the boat we were encouraged by the guides to jump in noisily and quickly. The guides chased the turtles as did everyone else me and my friends stayed back as we didn’t want to stress the turtle who was swimming very erratically to avoid everyone. As I thought it was finally able to swim off one of the guides dove down to stop it going in the direction it wanted the turtle turned around and the guide followed it again and grabbed the turtle on either side of its shell twice !!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes and I shouted at him to stop touching it as as soon as he did the turtle moved off with such speed I’ve never seen before I was so astounded and the guide completely ignored me and was even laughing, turtles have such sensitive skin that our touch can cause them illness and even death , you should never touch or disturb them as they need to breathe at the surface and can get really stressed. There was no need as the turtle was there just trying to feed and I was extremely disappointed at the guides atttitude to this. After we all did karaoke and some fish bones were left out accidentally and unfortunately 2 dogs ended up dying infront of us all we were all evidently upset but didn’t blame the guides, however some people asked them to move the fish bones after this incident and the guides wouldn’t which was insane after seeing how distressed we all were. They also picked up the dead dog and placed it right next to the huts we were staying in so my friend when she went on the beach in the morning ended up seeing it again and we didn’t know it was there. We also asked to give some stray dogs some water and said all we needed was a container and they wouldn’t provide us with one. After these instances I was really left disappointed and unfortunately it ruined the rest of the trip for me and I couldn’t wait to leave. Which was really disappointing because all of it could’ve been easily...