Busuanga Bay Lodge
We really enjoyed our stay at BBL. We were there for 2.5 weeks, and we spent most of that time scuba diving the nearby shipwrecks.
Highlights:
- Our room (a hilltop suite) was huge, comfortable, and air conditioned. It had a wonderful view of the bay too. If you are considering staying in one of the other rooms, like the waterfront kings or the bungalows, just be prepared to do a LOT of uphill walking: the resort is very sprawled out on a fairly steep hillside, with the restaurant at the very top of the hill. I would not have enjoyed walking up from the waterfront rooms three times a day just to get food. It also rained a lot, and doing that walking in the rain would be even worse.
- The dive shop (Pirate Divers Busuanga) was right on site. Going diving each morning was a breeze, and the wreck diving was amazing. Note that Coron's dives are more suited towards advanced divers. If you're a beginner, I'd suggest diving somewhere easier like a reef. The diving is also primarily for the shipwrecks. The marine life here isn't particularly impressive.
- There was wifi available in our room for a small charge (it worked out to about USD $5 every few days, and it was fast enough to stream HBO (while HBO doesn't offer service in the Philippines, you can use the free Proton VPN to make it look like you're in the US).
- The hotel is far outside of Coron town. The good news is that the hotel is in a much prettier location (Coron town was dirty and crowded). Bad news is that getting into town will cost you about $40-$50 USD each way and takes about an hour each way.
- They gave us a free 90-minute couple's massage one day just to say thank you for staying with them
Lowlights:
- We were really unimpressed with the food. They had a handful of western-style dishes, and a handful of filipino dishes. It was about as basic as what you'd get at a Denny's. And then their complimentary breakfast is too small to really qualify as a breakfast, so my wife and I usually had to split an extra yogurt-and-granola plate to feel full. And their very basic entrees cost about double what a normal meal costs in Coron. For those prices, and considering how much the rooms cost, I would have expected much better food. One redeeming fact is that their rotating daily special is usually pretty decent.
- Al Faro restaurant across the bay had slightly better food for about 30% cheaper. We ate dinner at Al Faro one night and really enjoyed it. However, BBL's rooms are nicer than Al Faro's, so I'd still prefer to stay at BBL, but I do wish BBL would improve their restaurant.
- We wanted to arrange for a Coron Island Day Tour. This is a standard tour in Coron. When we asked BBL's front desk, they only offered us one option: a private full-day tour on their speedboat with a nice lunch for around USD $500. We thought this price was a little ridiculous, so we decided to look elsewhere. We ended up finding a website called Klook that let us book a group tour, including round trip transit to meet the boat in Coron town, for a total of $160. I'm still annoyed with BBL for not offering to help us arrange this cheaper option.
- We had them do a single load of laundry, and they charged us USD $40!
I'd increase my rating to 5 stars if BBL improved the quality of their food and the pricing of their other services.
