Las Cabanas Beach Resort

Las Cabanas - relaxing away from El Nido town

This is not a bargain option. Current price is P9800 for two (at time of writing this is over US$200), but it includes 3 meals a day.

The selling points are that the place is extremely relaxing. Very few people in the area. The resort only has 5 rooms. There are neighboring cottages, and the pretty beach attracts some daytrippers, but for the most part it is quite and you have a lot of space. The meals are very good. Ordinarily I wouldn't like to be forced into paying for 3 square meals a day in advance, but these are home cooked meals from scratch (which has downsides: you order from a menu and need to put your meal request in in advance; some items will be unavailable on given days). So I think it's ' worth it', and your only other practical feeding option would be to tricycle into town (a 30 minute journey by combo of walking and tricycle for 150 pesos), or bring your own food (no self cooking facilities). The owner also has a restaurnt in the town where you can eat for free as part of your package -- this is a good deal because it means you can go into town during the afternoon or evening and not feel like you are "wasting" one of your meals. The staff are good -- very responsive to your needs but stay out of your way otherwise. The owner, Dan, is a French Canadian who has lived most of his life in Asia and is an interesting guy to chat with. The groundskeeping/gardens are very nice and are what to help create the relaxing charm of the place.

Downsides are that this is a remote location. Power is provided by generator. You can only charge items for a few hours a day during the evenings. Your lights and fan are powered by a solar charger. If it's a cloudy day, you won't get a good charge, which means you might not be able to run your fan all night. Other than the good food, there are no frills of staying here. It's a basic (but comfortable) cottage. Mosquitos and - much worse- fleas, were a problem when I visited in February 2011. The fleas were the worst for me at dusk, and bit me relentlessly. I used Deep Woods Off but got bit my mosiqutos and fleas on nearly every square inch that I forgot to spray. There are no fleas in the room, and the staff is good about setting up the mosquiot net over your bed each night. Another downside to some is that there may be 8-10 inch geckos in your room. They are completely harmless and won't bother you, and actually help by eating insects. But if you're not accostomed to them, it can be disturbing. Luckily they tend to not move around much (they stay very still to suprise their prey), but they call out in the night and you will occasionally hear them climbing into the walls and roof of your cabin. They will get into your room. But you have a mosquito net that they cannot penetrate, and they don't want to come near you anyway. Another issue, which I wouldn't call a downside, is that you are far from El Nido town. You will need to walk 15 minutes (on a pitch black beach and wooded path) at night (bring a torch!), and take a tricycle for 15 minutes into town. As for swimming, the beach outside the resort is great, but the water is very very shallow and rocky in many places. I was never able to walk out far enough barefooted to get into a deep area. There is a good swimming spot but you need to walk 500 meters or so down the beach.

Something to keep in mind is that you can stay in El Nido town for much - MUCH - cheaper. However, the town just feels depressing. From what I could tell from the outside of most places, they are very basic and probably dirty inside, and definitely noisy. The beach in El Nido town isn't so great. We walked along it and were somewhat dismayed that one of the beachfront hotels ran its wastewater down the beach into the ocean. I think if you're in El Nido with a few friends and on a budget, then staying in the town rather than Las Cabanas makes sense. But there is a reason Las Cabanas can charge so much even though it doesn't have steady electricity -- it's location is just so much better.