Pawikan Island — Hotel in Palawan

To every reviewer who said that the website pictures didn’t do NoaNoa justice, you are 100% right! The physical beauty of the island is truly exceptional – from its stunning flora, turquoise waters, exceptional marine life and beautiful views of neighbouring islands of all sizes.||My husband and I arrived in a raging thunderstorm after being driven through the driving rain from El Nido airport and yet, once we approached the island (the boat crew was well versed in covering all our belongings in plastic sheets) our mood lifted. Even in those weather conditions, it looked stunning! Luckily, the bad weather moved on quickly (although thunderstorms were a frequent occurrence during our six-night stay but usually came as a relief after the day’s airless heat and humidity; they also made for a fantastic show watching from our huge wrap-around terrace).||Our home was the Honeymoon Suite which is simply beautiful and has all mod-cons including A/C in the bedroom (although most of the time we simply left all the windows and doors open and used the ceiling fans instead). Maybe an additional fan on the terrace itself would have been pleasant for reading outside in the evening. Amazingly, the natural garlic oil sprayed to keep mosquitoes at bay really worked and we were not bitten once despite never closing a window or door at night!||The owners, Andy and Chelo, could not have been kinder and more welcoming and were always at hand with helpful advice and action. They were only too happy to accompany us on our snorkels and showed us some highlights of the underwater paradise surrounding the island. The reef is literally steps from the beach and both are rightly passionate about preserving it. Back home, we love going to our closest aquatic store and marvel at the fish and corals in the marine section (we only have a tropical tank ourselves). Snorkelling around NoaNoa was like walking into that store, stepping into their marine tanks and swimming with the most colourful fish – just magical!||The staff working on the island are just lovely – whether the work in the restaurant/bar area, in maintenance, gardening or in the spa. Several of the girls have hearing/speech impairments but are aptly assisted by their colleagues who all seem to be fluent in sign language. It was really good to see them being given a chance to be the lovely, capable staff members that they clearly were.||The food was excellent. We are usually not big lunch eaters and for the last three days, when we were the only guests on the island, the chef acknowledged this by asking us if we just wanted soup and a sandwich/pizza/salad (no point cooking wasting food on a three-course lunch for us when we would have left most of it untouched). Breakfast and dinner were lovely. Dinner usually consisted of a starter, main course consisting of two separate meat/fish dishes plus boiled rice and various vegetables/salads, and a few dessert options. Unfortunately the dessert options did not change during our stay, which was a shame (we both have a sweet tooth and would have liked to try more than the very tasty chocolate and custard cakes).||All in all, NoaNoa was exactly the blissfully relaxing refuge that we so urgently needed after completing a quite exhausting, busy three-week China trip - a beautiful haven in which to recharge our batteries. Thank you so much to Andy, Chelo and everyone on NoaNoa – may you be able to preserve your paradise for a long...

We have just spent a week on NoaNoa as a couple and are so happy we made the choice to stay there when we were looking around what would be a nice resort in Palawan close to El Nido. A “nice” resort is a serious understatement when referring to NoaNoa. Words as fabulous, magnificent, delicious and paradise are more appropriate to describe this small piece of heaven on earth that the owners Andy and his wife Chelo have created and decided to share with a few guests. ||Before describing this great resort, I want to call out what made this experience stand out versus anything we’ve seen in close to 40 years of travels: the personal approach by our hosts Andy and Che together with their staff. We have never come across any place where personal treatment is taken to that (superlative) level (without being over the top). All along our 8-day stay, we felt truly cared about: from the moment we arrived on a delayed flight and they still managed to get us to the island, through the daily excellent meals with only fresh ingredients served family style, the kind advice (including personal fitting of snorkeling fins by the owner), the small conversations with the ever-attentive staff through the personal goodbye at the end of our stay. We knew people in the Philippines are very friendly but Che and Andy have perfected that art!||Their private island resort only has 6 rooms spread over two buildings (main house and guest house). This way, they guarantee a quiet and relaxing atmosphere for all visitors. We were treated to an upgrade in the honeymoon suite which covers the whole top floor of the guest house and beats any place we’ve visited before. Set against a hillside, the beautiful suite has more assets than I can describe: a huge bed overlooking the sea, inside and outside bathroom, perfectly working quiet AC in the bedroom, 180 degrees view over the sea and the fringing coral, fast internet etc. The whole resort is built with an eye for detail and quality, from the bricklaying in the stairs, the bathtub and shower floor to the splendid woodwork in the separate beach bar and the extensive spa.||The 5km long house reef fringing the island is protected since years thanks to Andy and is the best we have come across all our scuba and snorkeling holidays. No scuba diving is allowed to maintain the quality of the reef and as avid a scuba diver I am, I have to admit there is really no need for anything else but fins and a mask ! The abundance, diversity and quality of the reef surrounding NoaNoa is astonishing. Amidst all the news about bleaching of corals in Australia, the Caribbean etc, including some recent examples we have witnessed ourselves in|Curaçao, it was refreshing to see coral as lively as NoaNoa possesses. The reef is teeming with life and we saw more types of fishes than we could count, including some pretty good size ones. And for those that (like myself) can’t cope with a week without scuba diving, Che kindly organized a day of diving, about 90 minutes away from the resort. This was yet another highlight of our trip as I was able to spend almost an hour watching manta rays circling around 4 cleaning stations during one of the three dives we did. ||I don’t typically write long reviews but could go on for quite a bit longer to describe this beautiful paradise that we definitely want to...

We have just spent a week on NoaNoa as a couple and are so happy we made the choice to stay there when we were looking around what would be a nice resort in Palawan close to El Nido. A “nice” resort is a serious understatement when referring to NoaNoa. Words as fabulous, magnificent, delicious and paradise are more appropriate to describe this small piece of heaven on earth that the owners Andy and his wife Chelo have created and decided to share with a few guests.

Before describing this great resort, I want to call out what made this experience stand out versus anything we’ve seen in close to 40 years of travels: the personal approach by our hosts Andy and Che together with their staff. We have never come across any place where personal treatment is taken to that level. All along our 8-day stay, we felt truly cared about: from the moment we arrived on a delayed flight and they still managed to get us to the island, through the daily excellent meals with only fresh ingredients served family style, the kind advice (including personal fitting of snorkeling fins by the owner), the small conversations with the ever-attentive staff through the personal goodbye at the end of our stay. We knew people in the Philippines are very friendly but Che and Andy have perfected that art!

Their private island resort only has 6 rooms spread over two buildings (main house and guest house). This way, they guarantee a quiet and relaxing atmosphere for all visitors. We were treated to an upgrade in the honeymoon suite which covers the whole top floor of the guest house and beats any place we’ve visited before. Set against a hillside, the beautiful suite has more assets than I can describe: a huge bed overlooking the sea, inside and outside bathroom, perfectly working quiet AC in the bedroom, 180 degrees view over the sea and the fringing coral, fast internet etc. The whole resort is built with an eye for detail and quality, from the bricklaying in the stairs, the bathtub and shower floor to the splendid woodwork in the separate beach bar and the extensive spa.

The 5km long house reef fringing the island is protected since years thanks to Andy and is the best we have come across all our scuba and snorkeling holidays. No scuba diving is allowed to maintain the quality of the reef and as avid a scuba diver I am, I have to admit there is really no need for anything else but fins and a mask ! The abundance, diversity and quality of the reef surrounding NoaNoa is astonishing. Amidst all the news about bleaching of corals in Australia, the Caribbean etc, including some recent examples we have witnessed ourselves in Curaçao, it was refreshing to see coral as lively as NoaNoa possesses. The reef is teeming with life and we saw more types of fishes than we could count, including some pretty good size ones. And for those that (like myself) can’t cope with a week without scuba diving, Che kindly organized a day of diving, about 90 minutes away from the resort. This was yet another highlight of our trip as I was able to spend almost an hour watching manta rays circling around 4 cleaning stations during one of the three dives we did.

I don’t typically write long reviews but could go on for quite a bit longer to describe this beautiful paradise that we definitely want to...