Ahana Resort El Nido

DONT STAY HERE !! Worst place I have ever stayed at . No hot water for 4 days and then they finally moved me . To get drinking water took up to 30 mins and one day they ran out so I had to purchase their expensive water . They hardly answer the phone to get picked up and believe me it’s a long way up a steep dusty and hot hill . No curtain at front door so everyone can see u in bed . Air con is poor and it took them 2 days to get me a fan . Internet continues to drop out . I spoke to Marrianne the manager and for all that I had to put up with she offered me one free meal . If you think this is untrue read everyone’s reviews, they all sound the same cause it’s true

I often shrug off some bad reviews thinking it can't be that bad, but genuinely this hotel is the worsts I have experienced and feels like a complete tourist trap. Having travelled extensively across SE Asia & Asia as a whole staying in a range of places from budget hostels to luxury hotels, nothing has been so disappointing as this. Main Issues: Location: It's badly located on top of a hill around 25 mins from El Nido town, the area is a building site with nothing else around. Taxis, TukTuks etc. won't go up the hill so you will likely have to walk up at some point. This is essentially a 10-15min Uphill walk on a rocky path. They state 5min somewhere which is hugely unrealistic, it's a 10-15 min uphill trek. Instead of running complimentary shuttles to El Nido Town, they capatilise on the fact you are stuck by charging you 10x the local taxi rate to use their 4x4, they also have only one which you will be competing for with other guests and I had to wait 3 hours to be picked up when using it. The round trip cost to El Nido Town is 30 USD (Should be 3 USD in a tuktuk) Given you are on a hill with nothing else around, you will likely be forced to use this service. Facilities: The hotel itself has a small pool, restaurant and 5 rooms. You may think on the images it looks nice, this is completely superficial and you quickly find out it is tired and impractical. The restaurant is open and has no aircon, the food is expensive and of poor quality compared to El Nido Town, you also aren't allowed to bring food or drink from outside and again given the poor location will be forced to eat there. No fridge, dirty rooms, ant infested and mouldy. Staff were rude and unhelpful, rooms had no curtains so you can see the bed from outside, and the bathroom had a seethrough netting with staff lingering outside. Also even when no one is in the hotel they blast music from the bar (mostly the same loop of cheesy EDM) with disproportionately loud sub which was really loud in the room played from like 8A.M to around 10/11PM nice little cherry on top of the roasting hot room. Not an issue given the room was so hot but they didn't have hot water in our room ( or anyone else's there at the time ) not sure why you'd want a cold bath but that's all you'll get. Genuinely don't believe anyone could be happy staying here, Philippines hotels generally aren't the best value but this takes it to a whole new level

firstly I’ll begin by letting you know how disappointed we are in this reservation. many of the hotel facilities that were listed in the booking were not present upon check in and were completely inaccessible. Firstly and most importantly the location of this hotel is over 25 minutes from the city centre, with accessibility to the hotel impossible via a tricycle or a normal car. a 4x4 needs to be hired with a charge of PHP800 to and from the city centre. No running power from 11am to 2pm. Upon arrival we were greeted with a very steep unfinished hill that is broken and not kept well. there is no safe in the room to store valuables or passports, no fridge to keep water and other amenities cool. At all other hotels we were offered complementary water to drink in the room or use in the kettle, but this hotel only offered 2 bottles of water a day with a charge of 80php per bottle of water with a 10% service charge on top of that 80php. No iron, the internet is shocking, when it does work it takes almost 10 minutes to load a page. the food choices here are very minimal, breakfast is dismal, with breakfast charged over $20 a person per day. we booked breakfast to find out that their choices are 2 fried eggs with some salad on the side. The shower pressure is ridiculous with dismal water temperature. you’d be lucky to get a warm shower after being out all day. there is no gym, the telephone in the room doesn’t work. There is no minibar or fans in the room. we were only given 2 body towels to use with any requested towels taking hours to be brought to the room. the bathroom floor is very unhygienic, we used slippers in the shower. there is no clothes racks or hooks to hang up clothes leaving us with no option but to hanging them on existing furniture. no dining room table or any types of streaming services on the tv’s. We’ve had a seperate incident today where our room door doesn’t unlock from the inside, with no access outside, a phone that doesn’t work and internet that doesn’t connect we were stuck in the room for over 20 minutes before our banging got somebodies attention in the next room who then alerted the reception. My wife had a panic attack in this process and our stay has been dismal upon dismal.. I’ve had enough of this place we booked a total of 12 night of accomodation and left 2 days into our stay.

We had the most incredible stay at Ahana, and would come back again in a heartbeat. All the staff were so incredibly welcoming and helpful throughout our stay - especially Niel - nothing was too much hassle. Ahana has been built so beautifully with great attention to detail; it feels like a little paradise with its gorgeous views, greenery, infinity pool, bar, and stunning rooms and bathrooms, and solid Wi-Fi. We had the best sleep at Ahana too with the coziest beds you just sink into. So relaxing. And the food!! SO delicious. We woke up every morning looking forward to our french toast and smoothies :) Getting there was no problem at all - they reached out to us to find out what time we need picking up (complementary) and also going back to the airport. This was a huge help as it was in a proper truck rather than a tricycle which is the only other way of getting around El Nido (other than by moped), which would not have been ideal with our luggage. I understand that the track to the resort may not be ideal for those who struggle to walk up the stairs with ease day-to-day. But if you can do that then you can get up the hill. We found it really easy to get to the main town of El Nido by arranging tricycles to pick us up and drop us off at the base of the hill whenever we needed - Ahana are also kind enough to take you up and down the hill free of charge if you cannot do the walk yourself. Although the resort isn’t in the centre of town, the pay-off for the peace, views and gorgeous apartments is more than worth it and makes the resort so luxurious. Again, we didn’t have any problems anyway with the location and by arranging tricycles we were free to do all the amazing activities El Nido has to offer and stay out as late as we wanted. The only con I can give Ahana is the bunnies out the front. They are not cared for properly at all given the teeny tiny size of their cage and absolutely nothing to stimulate them. I can’t imagine the suffering they are feeling. Sadly this is something more people need educating on. Ahana, please do feel free to reach out to me personally if you would like some help understanding what is best for bunnies so positive changes can be made - I am more than happy to help :) Thank you for the most magical stay that we will never forget - we really hope to come back again in the future!

Positive: - nice beautiful & clean room - view - breakfast Nevertheless, I will certainly not come back to this place nor will I recommend this place to anyone. The location is unfortunately really bad (quite secluded and no beach access) and the „resort“ (consists of 4 apartments, 1 pool and 1 tiny bar & restaurant) is not that great to stay there during the day. Water in the pool is Dirty, restaurant food is ok and there is a daily power shutdown from 12am - 2pm. Therefore you are somehow forced to leave the resort during the day to explore el Nido or other legitimate resorts. When leaving the resort it gets really frustrating. They’ll charge you 1,600 PHP for drop off & pick up from the center. But latest pick up is at 9:30pm. Consequently you won’t be able to explore the nightlife in el Nido. Tricycle is only partially an option since the resort is on a hill which is not reachable by tricycle. (The road is really steep and bad. Walking also no option since no lights and would take some time) Ahana offers a free pick up to get you from the road up to the hill but also latest at 9:30 - 10pm. For other destination such as Nacpan Beach they’ll charge you 4,000 PHP for drop off and pick up. Further we didn’t get off to a good start since we arrived at 11am at the resort. Our room was ready but we weren’t allowed to enter unless we pay an additional 1,500 PHP (not 100% sure regarding that amount but roughly 1,5k). Therefore we had to wait for 3 hours and we didn’t experience the customer service as forthcoming but rather had the feeling Ahana was taking advantage of their secluded location and used it to squeeze out more pesos from their guests. To sum it up this place is great for people who want to take pictures only and pretend to have a nice holiday on their social media. However, people who want to enjoy a stress-free and fun holiday, explore el Nido nightlife, relax at proper resorts or beaches, I would recommend to go for another place even for a considerable higher price. Furthermore, I’d also like to highlight that this place could potentially increase value of experience for their guests tremendously by simple measurements such as being more flexible for the pick up timings from the road to the hill (resort location) and increase customer service related to check in handling.

Pros of staying at Ahana: - Beautiful and picturesque boutique resort. - Good food so shoutout to the chef! - Attentive staffs Cons of staying at Ahana: - FAR from the center so you have no option but to either use their pick-up/drop-off service which is expensive, to begin with, OR rent a motorbike if you want to go to the town or explore other places. - Road going to the resort is dangerous. It is an unfinished road that is very steep and dangerous to navigate even if you are a pro at driving a motorcycle. - No proper internet connection (smart has no signal in the area while Globe has but still it's not enough to open a data) Definitely this place is NOT for those who travel and work remotely at the same time. The town center or Corong-corong is the best place to stay if you are a digital nomad or has a constant need to open your data. - Due to the proximity of the resort to the town, you have a very limited food choices. You can only access food through their in-house resto which is also expensive. - Overpriced Transpo rental services (motorbike rental costs you 900 pesos for 24hrs while in town it's only 500 pesos for 24hrs & car pick-up/ drop off costs you 800 PH pesos/ $16-9usd per way) Overall experience: While the resort is stunning and has the feeling of exclusivity, my advice is to rather look for a resort in Corong-Corong or the town center where you can basically get the same feeling and atmosphere. The expensive transport, the dangerous steep road, the area being poor with internet/ mobile coverage, and most importantly the proximity of the resort to the town where restaurants and other places of interest makes it not an ideal place to stay.