Ahana Resort El Nido

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

Pick up/Welcome : 10/10 Amazing service. Driver knows how to maintain the car and handle it. Professional driving service by all aspects, through all of our staying in hotel. Rooms: 10/10. Clean, well maintained and giving all the sense of a tropical design and have also an amazing bathroom. Even the terrace has direct access to a private mini garden. Daily make up room service. Restaurant: 10/10 The chef knows what is doing! Awesome food and very very tasty! Its pitty for not staying longer to try all the choices of the menu! The waiters providing amazing professional service in their every interaction and you don't want to dine outside of restaurant! Bar: 10/10 Their cocktails very well exexuted and plenty of alcohol choices for keep you company on this amazing pool with AWESOME view! Reception: 10/10. Awesome information service, immediate assistance 24/24 and always providing solutions for eash of your request. Hotel concered or not. You have a feeling that you have friends ready to assist you on this foreign place. Facilities: 10/10 . Its a resort that goes way above expectations. The people that working love their job and you can easily understand that from the quality of their services. Of course some electricity cut off because of the generator maintainance (the resort is on the mountain in a self providing electricity plan probably) is completely understandable. But again only in rooms this is happening from 10am-3pm. Who is in their room anyway on these hours in El Nido??! The road to hotel is under construction but they offer pickup and drop off daily with their vehicle. Nothing to worry about that also! Overall experience: 10/10. I highly recommend staying there if you visit el nido!!

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!

Ahana Resort is exquisite. The resort is stunning, and you can tell that it’s been put together with a lot of love and thought. Niel radiates loveliness, in fact the whole team is wonderful and can accommodate anything you request. The food is scrumptious, the beds sumptuously soft, the activities that can be arranged via Niel plentiful, and you feel like you’re in a tranquil secret sanctuary despite only been 20 minutes from El Nido Proper. The Wi-Fi is also perfect (there isn’t even a password) which made contacting people and booking activities so much easier than at our last hotel. Everyone moaning about the location and the cost of transport via the resort lacks initiative. When in town I got the number of a tricycle driver and it was easy to arrange him picking us up from/dropping us off at the resort at any pre-arranged time (I’ve attached a photo which includes Mar’s number for this). The resort will drive you down the unfinished road from the resort to meet your tricycle (complementary), but we didn’t ever need this as walking up and down the unfinished road is easy if you’re able-bodied. The resort will also give you a complementary lift from the airport and back to it, which is so nice because their truck is luxurious compared to the tricycles (I can see why it would cost more). The only thing that I didn’t like at the resort were the rabbits at the entrance- their cage is too exposed to everything around them and they have no where to hide in it. The cage also has wire flooring which is unacceptable. Please get them a better cage- something big with at least one platform and spaces to hide (and definitely no wire flooring). Enrichment is needed too (toys). Thank you so much for a delicious stay- we really hope to come back one day!!!

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.

This is a newer resort that has a million dollar view for a very reasonable price of stay. Very modern decor, the pool looks out onto the ocean and the rooms are comfortable. Because they are high on the hill be prepared that they may not always have ingredients for everything on their menu but even despite this the stay was amazing because of the staff who go above and beyond who work tirelessly for their guests (thank Niel, Arnelle, Ian and kitchen staff!). I would highly recommend making sure you bring extra pesos to give a well deserved tip to the staff!! Sadly not many tourists are accustomed to doing so but this makes a big difference and ensures that places like this can continue to operate with skilled workers.