Keelooma El Nido — Local services in El Nido

We heard a lot of good things about this trip and your company and were very excited. Unfortunately our trip was definitly not as expected due to the following reasons we would like to share with you:

20 people on the boat are at least 6 too many on a boat with this size. There is too little space at the table during lunch, so not everyone is able to eat there and some people need to sit on the floor in the sun or elsewhere. This should not be allowed! A clear sign that there are far too many people on the boat. You feel like a sardine.

The luggage was not really accessible, even during the day. This was promised differently.

Accommodations were on two different islands, not on the same one as we thought. Maybe a communication error? Information in advance by mail was very good and informative. However, it is not clear how you get from the boat to the island. You need a drybag yes, but these are not enough for everything to pack in normal cases... please communicate this clearer.

Generally very poor flow of information from the guide Randy. What is the general plan, when do we stay where? Times for breakfast, departure etc. are not clearly communicated and implemented. Unfortunately, he is not really suitable as a guide. He is conspicuous by his absence and by his poor English.

Camp kandooma only has 6 separate cabins, with significantly more couples in the group. Some couples could not sleep in a private cabin, even though expected by everyone. The showers with running water and the lights and electricity were very positive in this camp.

On the patoyo island camp, the toilets were not cleaned when we arrived and looked disgusting. Although more than enough staff was available. A girl from the group had to ask if someone can clean the toilet before something has been done... The shower regulator was defective as well. Guide Randy didn’t know in advance if there are towels for the guests in the camp or if they have to bring their own. How is this possible?

Cookies are placed in the sales tin for the guests, very unloving. No more cookies were served on the last day at all. Too little fruit. One pineapple for 20 people...? On the other hand, the sweet bananas from chef sunny boy were great.

Kayak was never available for the guests as there was only one onboard used by the staff.

Breakfast is scheduled for 7 am and served at 8 am. The communicated time caused discussion among the participants.

On the second day, the participants wanted to know how long the trip to coron would be on the last day. Randy replied with 3-3.5 hours. This seemed too quick for many participants, based on previous experience and google maps. In the end it took 5.5 hours. How can a guide estimate the journey times so badly that the customers can do better? Wind and weather were definitely no excuse on day two and three. Next... on the last day the question arose as to when we would arrive in Coron, the answer was 4-4:30pm. In the end it was 5:30pm. Either the guide doesn't know any better, which he shouldn't or the customer is deliberately lied to.

We had a lot of snorkeling stops, which was nice. But in the program also other things like shipwreck and cliff jumping were promised. We didn‘t do any of these things. In addition we heard from other people who did that tour, that they visited local schools and had karaoke nights and bonfire…. We basically had nothing more than a ferry from El Nido to Coron with snorkeling and overnight stops…

Due to all these circumstances and unfulfilled promises and conditions, the expectations of Keelooma and the tour were far below what the expected and got promised. Many other tour participants were very disappointed...

The good: The overall experience is good, and the landscapes are gorgeous. One of the snorkelling spots had the healthiest corals we've seen in the Philippines!

To improve: We were too many people. This kills the complete experience. And that's not really what is advertised nor what we paid for. We were not only one boat, but 2 (around 30 people), and we were not the only ones with this 3d2n trip with that configuration since we met a couple in Coron where 34 people were on the Keelooma expedition. The dinner was never relaxed since everyone was so hungry and the food came quite late, that it was a rush on the food. It is supposed to be something special... please communicate more clearly about the number of people. We were disappointed from that point of view.

The organisation is overall ok, but it can be improved. For example, breakfast time is communicated, but not when we leave the camp. This is not efficient! One of the camps is on the Calibang island and not on the Linapacan island, which made us make an "unnecessary" back and forth to the Cobra island of 2 hours. Maybe a better route could be found or another camp (other companies have they camp on the Linapacan island which is much more efficient. Or do you have a camp on Linacapan but we were too many people?)

Last but not least: SECURITY on the boats. We had quite rough waves, which can occur, and this is nature...all fine. But when trust is lost, the trip is less enjoyable. In short, in the morning of the 3rd day, the small boat, which was supposed to take people to the tour boat, had an issue. The water was rough, and the boat was maybe overloaded, but the fact is that everyone had to leave the boat and come back to shore since the boat was not under control anymore and looked like to sink. Fortunately, no one got hurt (except the boat). Finally, the guides told us that we had to walk up and down the hill (the same way as when we arrived) to reach the tour boats in the wave protected bay. Which we could have done since the beginning! It was pure negligence, and it could have turned bad. I'm glad we weren't not on that boat. We left the island with a huge delay and arrived in Coron in the dark, after 19:00. (The sunset from the boat was cool).

Conclusion: We were not feeling safe anymore on the boat, and this is not really the goal. Apologies have been made, but this doesn't bring back trust. It was an unforgettable trip, but not the unforgettable we expected.

I am convinced that with fewer people, a better organisation, and thinking twice before sending out a small boat loaded with people into the rough water, keelooma will get better...

Overall mostly good company to do the expedition with:

You start your days at around 8/9am then sail till around 4/5pm. What I didn’t realise is that there is sometimes a long wait between stops (sometimes up to 1.5 hours) so bring something to keep you occupied. Most people either talked, read books or napped. There is also limited seating on the boat especially those in the shade. You’ll end up sitting on the side of the boat on life jackets. The snorkels weren’t always the best and breathing tubes got used up so if you have one consider bringing it.

Food was all buffet style and varied every time. I don’t think there was as many options for veggies etc but other than that it was all good. No issues with food poisoning. We also always had water and ice tea available on the boat as well as cookies and other snacks.

Sleeping arrangements were fine if you’re in a couple. Some of the singles on the boat had issues as they were told they’d get separate beds but had to share. The huts aren’t big enough for 2 separate beds anyway. We were told that our boat would only have 20 people max on it but there ended up being 23 which probably didn’t help in the case of the singles where some people got their own hut and some had to share. This also made the boat quite cramped.

Be prepared that you also might get bitten everywhere on your body. We had a mosquito net but they still got through. There’s no WiFi anywhere obviously but we did get 5G in some areas. There was no power sockets until our second night. We brought drinks with us as we saw beers were extra however we ended up having a lot of gin and rum mixers in the evening for free.

The staff were all friendly and interacted with us. Although we did have 1 incident when we stopped for snorkelling. We saw lots of small things in the water and our leader told us it was just plankton, that might leave you a bit itchy. Once getting in the water they were actually small jellyfish…. Lots of people panicked as they stung badly in big groups and were left with a few red...