Caalan Beach Resort El Nido Palawan – 5 Days Hotel Stay Review

February 15 to 19, 2016 – I was in El Nido Palawan for another great adventure. I’ve finally set foot on the most talked about paradise in the Philippines, a paradise part of Palawan. With that, Caalan Beach resort in El Nido has taken me and my good friend, and travel buddy, Channel for 5 days, and 4 nights – yes, for the whole week.

Usually I do get a hotel stay for at least 2 nights from hotels, which is great for me because with that I’d be able to try out the differences between hotels around the town. But the resort was so great that they did want us for the whole week there, though we can actually just say we need to try out other accommodations there, though we planned to do so, but being at Caalan Beach Resort for 3 days was really great that we don’t want to transfer anymore – so that actually summarizes our stay, we love the resort way too much that we didn’t want to leave anymore.

The Caalan Beach Resort El Nido

PROS:
* Away from the noise of the town
* Family friendly
* Awesome staff
* Clean

CONS:
* 15-20 minutes walk from the town

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Caalan Beach Resort is formerly known as Taiyo Village Resort, wherein “Taiyo” means sun in Japanese, and yes Naoko the owner and operator of the resort is Japanese. They’ve changed the name into Caalan Beach resort in honor of the Caalan Beach – which is where their beach is. And yes, they do have beach front rooms, if that’s what you’re looking for.

The resort is about 15-20 minutes walk away from the main town, which is nothing for foreigners actually but Filipinos like me is not a fan of walking, but we did try to walk it a number of times and it was a fun walk – yes, day and night, we did walk it. But no worries, if you’re not a fan of walking they have their own tricycle there that can take you to the main road, and from there you can actually walk to the town, or take a tricycle – there are a lot of tricycle from the corner waiting.

The Hotel Rooms

They’re not a high end hotel, so please don’t expect big and super comfy beds like you’re in a 5 star. But we were able to sleep well for days, and was comfortable, the size of their beds are even better than what we have at Sea Coral Lodge in Coron Palawan. Their staff also cleaned the room every day, and changed the sheets every 2 days, but there was one night where I spilled our meal on the end of my bed, and the next day, after we had a tour they’ve changed the bed sheets – and it wasn’t 2 days yet.

The room doesn’t have a TV, but you can borrow one from them. The TV is not really necessary when you’re in places like El Nido because you’re out all day for a tour, and when you’re at the hotel you just want to rest, and sleep – which was what we actually did for days.

Also, if you’re bored at night a lot of foreigners do just go out to the town, to take their dinner or go to a beach party. I’ve also heard there’s this boat party till 2AM, so yeah, the town will entertain you.

The rooms also have it's very own private patio, plus we also get our very own hammock.

The Hotel Bathrooms

Their bathrooms have hot showers, which I really appreciate. Most of the accommodation in this price range doesn’t have this. The bathrooms are also bigger than what I’ve tried on hotels that are at this price range.

The Hotel Restaurant

They don’t really call it restaurant, they call it lounge. We only eat there during breakfast, we ate western style breakfast for 2 days, and finally on our last day there we decided to go for the Filipino food. They do serve western style breakfast, but if you’re a Filipino, and we all know we can’t live without rice, so you may request to have that instead – actually their staff will offer it to you.

Their breakfast is not like buffet, but it was fulfilling. The breakfast starts with some breads, spreads, and a coffee. Once they’ve done cooking your breakfast, they’ll serve it to you, most likely with eggs – I don’t mind eggs, love eggs. After that, they’ll also serve you some bowl of fruits. So you’ll really be full, not that many, but it was really fulfilling – no lie.

I advise not to eat a lot also on your breakfast, since most of the tours there in El Nido Palawan are island hopping tours, so to be safe, don’t eat too much, since the El Nido island hopping tour C doesn’t have any bathroom or comfort rooms available on any destinations for you to take a break or release something.

I was actually looking forward for Naoko’s pancakes, I’ve heard a lot about it. Since most of their previous guests was talking about the delicious pancake of Naoko, but she wasn’t there for days, and when she was there we were about to leave, and was too early for her to cook breakfast, or at least a pancake.

Also, if you're tired on going out at night to eat out, you may place your orders at the lounge around 6pm and they'll be serving dinner at 7pm. Just make sure you order around 6.

No worries, planning to come back there. Channel wants to.

The Hotel Services

Since the hotel is also a bit far away from the town, the great thing about the Caalan Beach resort is that they also have their own tours. It's the same itinerary with other tours in El Nido, it's just that when booking a tour with them, the boat will just pick you up at the resort from the shore of the beach. Which is really cool.

They also have kayaks, stand up paddles, floaters, and snorkels that you can use for FREE.

The Hotel Room Rates

For an update price of their rooms, please visit their website. But as of now, the room that we have is P2,500 good for 2, but the room can fit in up to 4 persons – just pay P500 per person for the extra persons. The rooms above us are P2,700 though, same rules apply.

They also have other rooms with the same rates, and some a bit higher that are still near the beach. If you’re a large group or a family, they also have rooms available for that. Just make sure you book ahead since they can be easily fully booked because a lot of people prefer them. I prefer staying with them.

Their room rates is good, there’s no Peak season, low season rates like other hotels do there in El Nido – which is crazy because you think you’re going there in low season, then they give you a different rate. Anyway, at Caalan Beach resort you get what you pay for, and their rates are fixed. That’s what I appreciate with them.

For their room rates and type of rooms, please check out this link: http://caalanbeachresort.com/accommodations/

Exotic Philippines Hotel Ratings

As I’m writing this review, it’s actually more than a month later because I want to absorb just what happened to me in the hotel. I don’t want my overwhelming joy be the reason that I’ll give the hotel that I review a big rating. So I take time, think, absorb. But really, even a month later I’m still really happy with the hotel.

I felt like there’s still something missing with the Caalan Beach resort, but I can’t point it out because in general I loved my stay that again, I want to stay there again when I come back in El Nido. The staff are awesome, the owners are great, our stay was way a lot better than what we’ve expected.

Let me give them 4.5 stars out of 5 stars, because I felt like there’s something missing and not being able to spot it is my fault so I’m just deducting 0.5 points. Would love to give them 5 stars though.

I've also created a vlog about my stay, giving you details and touring you around the Caalan Beach resort just to give you an idea and know what to expect from the resort.

Lastly, you might enjoy this or like this amenities of the resort, which I really like. Chilling here is really nice, just relaxing in this area.

Anyway, if you’ve been to Caalan Beach Resort which is previously known as the Taiyo Village Resort, please let us know or share your experience of them by leaving it as a comment below.

TIPS:

The Caalan Beach Resort's tricycle will pick you up at the corner of Lally and Abet, but they're also trying out a new place where they can pick you up, it's the DELINIDO CAFE, just beside the El Dive - a dive shop. The tricycles from the terminal is not familiar with Delinido yet, just tell them it's beside El Dive.
Since they do pick up their guests at Delinido, you might want to check at Delinido if their tricycle is there waiting for a pick up, you can chill there while waiting for the guests and hitch a ride.

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