Tamarind — Hotel in Panglao

My children (young adult and teenager) and I were most fortunate to stay at the Tamarind. It was a quickly planned trip: on a whim we decided we’d like to go out of town and the following morning, we found ourselves in Bohol.||Because of the impromptu trip, all of the bigger and more known resorts in Panglao were booked solid. The Tamarind, though, had availability. Air tickets confirmed, we booked the Tamarind and hoped for the best.||We didn’t have to worry about a thing.||Accommodations: Clean + comfortable! We were in Villa 1. For basically 3 adults, we had plenty of room. Our villa was designed like a townhouse. In fact, this was bigger than some of the townhomes I’ve visited in the city: two stories, with a full bath on each floor. The first story has a complete kitchen – gas table top range, refrigerator, hot water pot, cooking pots, pans and basic prep supplies (even a colander for the fresh fruit you’ll surely buy!), coffee/tea/creamer, tableware, glasses, utensils, and even placemats! An AC unit, a tv (with cable) and a comfortable couch setting along with a bed tucked under the stairs completed the first level.||The second level has 2 bedrooms, both with access to a shared balcony. There is also a storage room. The mattresses and pillows were comfortable and the beddings were not scratchy. Each bedroom had its own AC and TV. The bedrooms are decently sized. A king bed, 2 bedside tables and a pseudo walk-in closet (no door separating the closet/dressing area from the bedroom) was more than plenty comfortable.||Both bathrooms sported water heaters (thank you!!!!) and fixtures that reminded us of our own home. Bracing ourselves to deal with cold water and the pail and dipper (tabo) routine, having hot water, good water pressure, and showers (multi-jet shower panel on the 2nd floor and rain fall shower on the bottom floor) that work were major bonus points. ||The only hiccup we encountered was the key to the unit. It was difficult to put in the lock to unlock but this can easily be remedied by using a better locksmith.||Location: The Tamarind is located less than half a mile from Alona Beach. We enjoyed walking through the community to get to the main road from the property. We walked the path in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night – it was totally safe. (We did use the flashlights from our phones at night to help guide us.) If you’re looking for the beachfront action and noise, then the Tamarind is not for you. However, for us who cherish the peace and quiet, Tamarind fits the bill..||Amenities: The restaurant is nicely priced and tasty. The pool rocks. The lounge chairs are nap-inducing. Wi-Fi = yes!||Staff: Simply exceptional. From the airport shuttle service, tour bookings, to genuinely checking in on how we’re doing, May, her partner, and staff are outstanding…always smiling, always accommodating, even if inadvertently caught rushing off to tackle a task.||I am, admittedly, hesitant to share this review. But that would be totally selfish. Go ahead and stay at the Tamarind – just make some room for me when I go...

Everything was nice, until the last moment.|We checked in on Nov. 23rd, 2019 and planned to check out on Nov. 26th, 2019 for a diving trip around Alona Beach, Panglao. In the beginning, all the services were fine, they cleaned the room every day, even changed towels which unnecessarily.|One last move broke the whole experience. After confirmed that hotel check-out time is 12:00 PM, we registered one morning dive in dive shop ahead before check out day, so that we will be able to finish the dive then go back to the hotel in time to take a clean shower which dive shop couldn’t provide before set off.|In the morning we went out of our rooms, ready to get some easy breakfast before the dive. A man sits in the lobby told me “Sir, please hand out your room key and take all your luggage out to lobby before you leave”. I thought he was thinking that we’re checking out the hotel to say so. I reply that “No worry, we’ll coming back later and check out before 12:00 PM”.|From this moment on, everything is broken up. The man insisted that we have to take out all our luggage and hand out room keys to leave. No matter how we explained that before 12:00 PM we were still able to use the room. The guy keeps circling that hotel will clean the room now so give me the key and take our luggage. The argument kept on for like 20 mins or so. We were thinking that we could just leave and ignore the man. But the worry of the hotel actually has other keys to access our rooms even the safe, and employee said that they will take out everything when they clean the room, held us in the argument.|We just want to use a quick shower before room check out time, is keeping ignored. Even told us to shower at the poolside then change the clothing there. We were almost gone mad at this point. The time was getting close to the scheduled dive. We could only set back and removed all our luggage out of the room when we made an agreement that we could use rooms to shower when we come back in the morning before check out time. We rushed badly to dive shop to catch up the schedule.|To manage level:|I would suggest that if you want to save time to set room ready, simply change your check out rule to 11:00 AM, even 10:30 AM, it solves everything. To regular acknowledge, check out time means customers should be able to use the room and keep personal belonging before the time. The time should not be just a reference depending on the hotel’s move.|To divers:|“To check out once you walk out the room” rule certainly not handy for divers who want to do one last dive before check out.|To employees:|Don’t fool and embarrass your customers.|Later, when we finished the dive and got back to the hotel to take shower around 10:30 AM as made agreement. Why wouldn’t I feel surprised that the employee told us that “no, rooms were cleaned, you checked out already and may not go inside.”?|The experience was good until the last moment ruined all. For sure, your reputation and tips, gone with our loss of...

We stayed in the Sunset Double room, room 205 (or whatever it is called, it's just not facing the pool). The sunset was nice, but you are facing the airport (TAG) and just some farming space in the back so you get dog howling and rooster crowing plus planes landing at 4-5am each day. Asked to be changed to a room around the pool they said it's fully booked, not sure if it's true or not. I changed my hotel after the first night. But let's be really analytical and objective with this review, something I wished someone who stayed before me could have written to avoid all this trouble that I experienced.

Pros: Friendly staff, it's quite common to have friendly service in the Philippines. They give you 2 bottled filtered water in your fridge when you arrive. Indeed more environmental than most hotels in Bohol.

Cons: The AC stayed at the same 20 degrees no matter how high I turned it up. The room didn't come with blankets until I asked. My husband later said it was ok but still, the worse first night ever. I had to wear all the clothes I had. The rocky road that led to the hotel. You'd see people talking about it, but no one has talked about just how far it is. It is a 500-800m dirt, rocky road that leads you from the main road to the hotel. It is windy and very bumpy. It broke one of our wheels of our bags. Did I mention that if you're not staying on the pool side you'll hear animals and plane landing starting at 4am each day? Bad coffee, if you are a coffee lover like us, well, you ain't going to like Bohol. Prep your own and bring your own coffee maker if you can. I regretted that I didn't bring our French press and coffee beans. Wifi, it is bad.

Overall, I do not recommend visiting Bohol, or at least avoid Alona Beach area. It is a very touristy place with A LOT of touts. The food around Alona is really average too no matter what you read on Google maps. The only restaurant I'd say is worth the...