Pacifico Beach Resort — Hotel in San Isidro

I made the mistake of first comparing this resort to other fancy hotels. But you should compare it to other siargao hotels to be fair. Siargao is a remote large island with most inhabits still living in villages. Therefore, when you compare this resort to the normal hotels and hostels, like cavys homestay, which I got to see firsthand, this is a resort. Cavys offers a bare basic small room in a house with a wooden table and normal Outside, wooden sign with dirt roads. This resort has a fancy, delicious restaurant that offers exceptional food. The entrance is beautiful with palm trees lining each side. Taxi drivers are familiar with the place so there is no wandering. There is no phone service or wifi. One of the hotel clerks informed me they took out wifi a month ago because the connection is unreliable here. The town’s electricity went out on the first night I was there. I didnt mind much since there wasn’t much to do after dark except for a slight heat in my room which the fan in my room could’ve helped if I had power. My room had a large bed and towels and soap and a glass bottle of water in a cup, which you can always refill. You can hear the beach waves while sleeping. I was told there are guards at night walking the perimeter. An hour south in general luna, I saw tourists from Manila use the cell service with good speed. But my Globe network couldn’t connect. I don’t know if it was my network or what. The restaurant prices are more expensive than if you just walk a quarter mile north to the village restaurants, which are just as good, more authentic, and tasty — though they also offer tacos and other stuff in the village. Most of the menu is non filipino, like fish and chips and pasta. The hotel clerks generally don’t speak english well, so basic questions about nearby atms or island hopping tours weren’t answered well or at all. You are pointed to the village for more detailed info about the tours. And turns out atms are far south for thirty minutes in the small city banks. Bring cash or you can risk running out. There were insects and ants at the restaurant but it was candle lit and the food was top notch and what do you expect in an open air restaurant in a remote island. The bathrooms have open ceilings, peeling walls, but I like stuff fancier and cleaner than most. I almost had a crisis when the rusted metal door lock got stuck when I locked it and I was scared If be sleeping in the bathroom all night since no one would hear me since the check in desk (which I slowly discovered also functions as the restaurant ordering desk and bar) is a two minute walk away and no one would hear me yelling. Fortunately, I got the door open after a while of struggling and chose to shower with the door unlocked since I didnt see any signs of people nearby. The shower had hot water just don’t expect a marriot five star shower. It is a basic white bathroom that has a shower and foot head. Overall, the room and restroom is doable. I like the privacy and serenity and can tolerate the lack of extreme pristine rooms given the island circumstances. Plus my room walks out to a hut view of the beach with cushion chairs. The beach is great but only for viewing. Signs and the hotel clerks said the tide is too strong to go in. It is not for beginners, just surfers. They advise going north for better calmer beaches. The restaurant is top notch ambience with candles and professional dishes that have those fancy extras like leaves and mango shavings over your crepe. Of course, there are palm trees and beach views everywhere. My room had four power outlets with electricity that worked...

To the American owner living in Cebu:||I really wanted to give you a five star rating for the resort; however, this review reflects the entire customer experience. ||We loved your facilities. Hearing the waves lap on the beach was amazing!||We loved your food. The homemade pasta was the best I’ve ever had!||Most all of the staff members were lovely to interact with and we truly enjoyed our stay.||—||However, we left your resort and Siargao feeling very stressed out because one of your staff members tried to take advantage of us by blatantly overcharging us for surfing and a taxi ride from General Luna to Pacifico. ||They waited until we were getting into a cab to catch our flight.||First, they attempted to charge us 2000php for the cab to Pacifico. We were refunded 500php shortly thereafter, after your staff realised we knew the going rate for the one-way trip. ||Second, the manager tried swindling even MORE money from us in between checkout and the cab waiting to take us to the airport. This was for surfing the day prior. ||Allow me to explain...||We cancelled plans to go to Sugba Lagoon so that we could go surfing in a quieter surf spot on our last day. The same manager who booked the van also took care to cancel SL and book himself as our surfing guide (renting boards from his brother, of course). He took us out about 1-2 hours prior to low tide and there were no waves. If my wife hadn’t paddled out with him in the 5 minutes before I got to the beach, then I would have cancelled it right then and there. It was bad. So much so that I couldn’t even surf. We were paddling in 3ft of water, over rocks, catching 1ft waves. For me that lasted about 5 minutes before I gave up. It lasted about 45 minutes for my wife before there just weren’t any waves to surf especially with the tide going out.||He then tried getting us to rent a bike and his brother as a guide to drive 30 minutes to an actual surf spot closer to high tide. We politely declined and agreed that we were done surfing for the day (cut up from the rocks :/. I also declined the offer to surf in the morning because I didn’t really trust that this guy knew the waves. After all, we already paid him to cancel a nice SL tour in favour of the brilliant idea to take us out in low tide. So, out of respect for our “guide” we didn’t go into the small community and ask for another guide. We paid for our hour lesson and my board rental and were on our way.||So much for cutting our losses...||The next morning, to our surprise, here comes the “manager / guide” + his brother demanding and additional 500 php for the board rental. This just MOMENTS after finding out he overcharged us for the cab to the resort, and MOMENTS before leaving for the airport.||They initially said that we didn’t settle up after the first “lesson” which was a complete fabrication. Then they said that the lesson went for 1.5 hrs, again a complete fabrication. The reef ran dry buddy, maybe don’t take customers out in low tide. Then, they said I was supposed to surf in the morning. Again, another complete fabrication. I reaffirmed with him at dinner that we were done surfing... what a way to make your guests feel uncomfortable and unwelcome!||You can’t charge customers for services not rendered. It was bad enough that you wasted our time and money on our last day in Siargao.||In summary:||Great place to relax, eat, and drink. ||They might try to take advantage of you for any/all services not offered by the hotel.||Get your own transportation.|Get your own...

Had an amazing few days relaxing at the pacifico beach resort. Our room was large and comfortable with a double bed bunk bed and a shared bathroom that was kept very clean. The on-site restaurant did delicious food the veggie curry and fish lumpias were both amazing as was the mango pie for desert!! The staff were friendly and always happy to help and the service excellent constantly refilling water etc. The whole place was very relaxing and quiet so days were spent sleeping in hammocks in between eating drinking and surfing!! I did three days of surf lessons which was okay but not much more my first instructor TJ was really nice but more of a guide then instructor we surfed mostly at baybay beach as the Beach infront of the resort was too big with a really strong rip at this time of year the waves were a bit inconsistent due to wind but had one excellent afternoon when they were cranking!! I also surfed one afternoon at tangbo with TJs brother but I didn't like it there as it was very shallow so everytime you fell off you were likely to catch the rocks on the bottom!! One bit of advice get a tricycle from the airport for 500 pesos and arrange for them to pick you up at the end of your trip aswell as we ended up paying 800 to come back on a motorbike with bags precariously placed on the roof that we booked through the surf instructors so save yourself some money and get the extra comfort of a tricycle by booking ahead!!! |But overall definitely my favorite place in the phillipines so far make sure you get here before the whole world discovers this...