One of the many surprises that our Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) familiarization tour has in store for us was actually our 2-nights stay in El Nido Resorts. El Nido Resorts is a group of luxury and sustainable island resorts in Palawan. They have a total of 4 resorts located in different islands around El Nido namely Apulit, Miniloc, Lagen, and Pangulasian. For this trip, we stayed at Lagen and Miniloc. Let's start the hotel review with El Nido Resorts Lagen, shall we?
Lagen Island has the densest forest over limestone out of the 45 islands and islets of Bacuit Bay. It serves as a home for a diverse variety of birds and mammals. They have a total of 50 rooms that includes these water cottages built on stilts above the water.
I stayed in their Forest Room which was located pretty much beside the forest. The room is quite spacious, probably around 60sqm in size.
My room has an extra sofa bed so it can easily accommodate up to 3 pax.
All rooms have their own veranda as well. Say hi to my neighbor Hendric Tay, he is the puppet master/founder of The Travel Intern.
Their bathroom feels a little bit old and needs refurbishing. Must be the lights?
As for the buffet, it was ok. It had the usual stuff, I expected more seafood though.
We had a pleasant time in Lagen despite spending only one night in the island. According to Agoda, a night in El Nido Resorts Lagen costs around ₱20,000-₱26,000 per pax. Again, I did not pay anything as this was part of the familiarization trip hosted by TBEX and the Tourism Promotions Board of the Philippines (TPB).
Let's move on to El Nido Resorts Miniloc Island, shall we? Say hello to Larmie, she works for the travel agency that organized our trip. :)
Before I begin, I'd like to give a moment of silence for my favorite swimsuit that I left in Miniloc. It took me a week to realize that I left it in the resort. They tried to look for it in my room but obviously, someone must've already gotten it. I love you swimsuit! It was nice traveling around El Nido with you.
I stayed at one of their Deluxe Seaview Rooms and for some weird reason, I am digging the rustic vibes or native interior design. This room felt a bit more spacious compared to the one in Lagen. May paandar pa na fruits, kaso hindi ko naman nakain. A night in Miniloc will cost you ₱20,000-₱25,000 per pax.
The best part of staying in Miniloc is that it's literally like 2 mins away from the Big and Small Lagoon with a speedboat. We actually had the said tourist spots to ourselves since tours from El Nido town proper were suspended due to bad weather.
I apologize in advance if you don't see any food photos in this post. I was probably so hungry to even think of taking photos. Like I said earlier, they serve the usual buffet spread you see in a Filipino restaurant. It's better than none actually. I heard from a friend that they weren't satisfied as well with the meals served in Pangulasian during their stay few months ago, to think they ordered ala carte since buffet was only available during breakfast.
Overall, I appreciate the time we spent in both El Nido Resorts. I'd highly recommend it to honeymooners or families who have extra $$$ to spend. Thank you once again to TBEX and TPB for hosting our stay. ;)
