Island French Resort — Hotel in Samal

My husband and I needed to get away from the city and we decided to try out this resort. Reserving on Agoda was easy and contact via cellphone was excellent because we immediately received responses to our questions - thank you! We decided to commute because of the usual weekend queue for the ferries - which was a good decision to make. We took a habal-habal (motorcycle with driver) for fifty pesos each from the Samal port to the resort - going back the next day, we just flagged down a tricycle and paid the same price.||||Arriving at the resort, the beautiful bougainvilla flowers greeted us and we found the resort was nicely laid out. We were efficiently taken to our room by a smiling receptionist who, we found out later, also served meals. It was a very nice and comfortable room, tastefully designed with good bedding and interesting paintings on the walls - we really liked it. We discovered that the rooms were named after places in France rather than assigned numbers - that was a nice touch. Unfortunately, the room assigned to us was located right beside the source of the karaoke music emanating from the property next door - it was the hum of the aircondition that made the noise tolerable at night until around 9 pm when it finally stopped.||||In the room, aside from a soap bar, there were no other amenities (e.g. shampoo). A small "terrace" in front of the room was equipped with relaxing chairs and bars where one can conveniently hang wet stuff. Unfortunately, the small piece of earth in front of the rooms did not have grass on the earth, so that wasn't pretty at all. The resort beach front was pleasant with lounge chairs and small tables where one can eat (where we had lunch). The beachfront itself is narrow and the big wall on the beach was an eyesore (that probably belonged to the beach lot next door). Upon arrival at noon, we noticed the place was not completely swept clean but in the late afternoon, this seemed to have been done.||||Food and coffee: excellent Filipino food - they should retain their chef! All meals we ordered were delicious. However, a big disappointment was that, even though their website said they had "French specialities", THEY DID NOT!!! The only "French" items on the menu were Salad Nicoise and Chocolate Fondant (and the latter they did not even have). Breakfast was complimentary - but there was only one choice (so yes it was not really a choice).||Since we are coffee drinkers, we were attracted to this resort when the website said they serve "Italian coffee". When we ordered Italian espressos the first time, the staff served us big mugs of coffee - which we protested. Apparently, they top up the coffee with hot water, thus effectively diluting the coffee. I therefore had to teach them how to make proper espressos. The next morning, the staff said they could not serve coffee because the coffee machine had been taken to the main house by the owner who was still sleeping! They suggested 3-in-1 instead, which we refused as we find this horrible and not proper coffee. I had to insist that the staff procure our espressos; only then did the staff go to the main house to be able to finally serve our espressos. My husband and I find this whole incident weird; indeed, why did we have to insist? All in all, the staff seemed always ready to be of service and are friendly, but any management, which could have resolved these things easily, was absent the whole time we were there.||||The pools were fun but the water looked murky: so either the water was not clean, or had a lot of chemicals or the tiles gave off that color to the water. A highlight in staying in this resort is the trip to vanishing island on the resort boat - this made us really happy as the place was beautiful and the boatman was really very kind.||||All in all - an OK weekend experience in this resort with mixed reviews, not something I'd like to repeat or recommend unless they are sure to improve on little things that matter and which seem to depend more on management supervision or staff training. I also suggest that their website remove their food reference to "French specialities" - this gives a false impression - and ensure that "Italian" coffee is...

Our trip was more like a team outing. |We were composed of 8 men and I as the only rose among them.||Their requirements were |Videoke and|Pool - I asked them to choose between a pool and a nice beach and they chose pool||And my requirement, as the one controlling the budget, is minimal corkage for food and drinks, free breakfast||Not all resorts in Samal allow videoke, bringing of food and drinks and have pool so we picked the resort||PROS|1. Pool - I saw in a blog that pool is not important but since we planned for island hopping, it was relaxing to dip in a pool every night. It was a good choice to pick pool over nice beach front.|3. Ambiance - It was like our own resort! On our first night, the caretakers left us but we were allowed to get anything from the kitchen in coordination with the guard on duty|4. Warm hospitality - Maria was very respectful and accommodating|5. Privacy|6. Safety |7. Free trip to vanishing island - |8. You can bring and cook your own food|9. You can rent videoke|10. Room - clean and with complete toiletries||CONS|1. The beach is not good for swimming but since we planned for island hopping - we just wanted to relax in the pool or sing through videoke at night|2. The breakfast! We had all corned beef and egg on day 1 and the serving is not enough. Same with Day 2 except we already had choices - hotdog, corned beef and dried fish (tuyo). |3. Water - There was shortage of...

It was my first time to travel without a clear plan. My buddy wanted it to be spontaneous. No online booking or reservation...and seriously we wasted about 3 hours looking for a decent, relaxing and reasonably priced resort. Samal is beautiful in its own right. Though it is my weakness to compare places and beaches that I have been as if I made a rubric in terms of quality of sand, clarity of water and scenery. ||We visited nearly 6 resorts before reaching Island French, mostly we went to big resorts first, but nothing stunning or anything that catches my eye ( aside from being pricey) We reached Island French and fell inlove with it at my first glance. Yes it was small, but serene, well appointed, and manicured. Their shoreline is short and shallow, but the free tour to the vanishing island is more enough to compensate for this tiny imperfection. Food taste good and enough for sharing. Bed is comfortable, Room is clean and ... just lovely! ||Over-all I had a good, relaxing stay here for one night, as we plan to check out another place. Recommended for couples and solo traveller who wants peace and quiet and a lot...