As I was researching places to stay in the Philippines, I found that high end, luxury hotels were few and far between. That was until I found Busuanga Bay Lodge. Located on the picturesque island of Palawan, this elegant, boutique hotel looked above and beyond other options in the area.
While it was one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever stayed at, depending on what you’re looking for in Palawan, I would not recommend it. If your goal is to see the famous sites of Coron and get a feel for the local culture, Busuanga Bay Lodge is not the place for you. If you’re looking to relax in a secluded, tropical environment and not move, then it is 100% the hotel for you. Honeymooners, I’m looking at you! This would be the perfect place to relax after the craziness of a wedding.
The reason I didn’t love Busuanga Bay Lodge is because it’s located an hour from Coron Town, the heart of Palawan, and is unbelievably expensive because of it. It costs roughly $20 per person for a ride into town which is a lot for the Philippines where most tricycle rides are less than $5. The hotel offers the same tours you can do in town but they are more than double the price. The hotel knows you’re secluded so they definitely take advantage of that.
But Busuanga Bay Lodge does have one of the most beautiful, Instagram-worthy infinity pools I’ve ever seen. I could spend hours laying by that pool looking at the surrounding islands and boats going by. The hotel is so secluded that it’s ridiculously quiet. The perfect place for a relaxing getaway.
Busuanga Bay Lodge has a restaurant on site and offers free breakfast. You’re able to order off quite a large menu so that was a good perk. The food overall at the hotel was pretty good but not the most amazing meals I’ve ever had. They also have happy hour every day with 50% off drinks.
Busuanga Bay Lodge isn’t on a beach but they do have their own private island. For about $60 a person, you can spend the day on their island, South Cay, with unlimited food and drinks included. It is a gorgeous little island with a white sand beach, floats for the water, and kayaks. The lunch they served was delicious and a ton of food. We had so much food that we didn’t even eat dinner when we got back to the hotel that night!
I stayed in one of Busuanga Bay Lodge’s Bayview Bungalows during my three night visit. I had an individual hut overlooking the bay. The room was spacious with plenty of closet space, a large bathroom, mini bar, and free water (you can’t brush your teeth with the sink water). If I could have a do-over, I would stay in one of the ocean view rooms as the view from my room wasn’t fully ocean view. We booked this hotel using Chase credit card points and the ocean view rooms were actually less points with a better view!
Busuanga Bay Lodge offers many activities both on site and off. On site, you can rent paddleboards and kayaks or use the gym and pool. The hotel website mentions other on site amenities including jet skis but they were unfortunately not available during our visit.
Palawan is known for being one of the best dive spots in the world. But if you visit and aren’t PADI certified, you can get certified at Busuanga Bay Lodge! They have their own dive center on site. We unfortunately didn’t have time to take advantage of this but if we had more time at the hotel, we definitely would have gotten certified here. We heard great things.
Off site, you can join daily boat tours of Coron Island or the islands surrounding the hotel. These tours are definitely more expensive than the ones in town. The tours also need 4 people in order to go so if only one couple wants to do the tour, it won’t happen. We ran into this problem when wanting to visit South Cay, their private island. Fortunately, another couple decided to go at the last second so we were able to as well.
For a private boat tour, the price at Busuanga Bay Lodge is about 3x what it is in Coron Town. The other option is to join the hotel’s daily tour where you are on the hotel’s schedule. Coron Island is home to some of the most photographed places in the Philippines so I was very concerned about crowds. Busuanga Bay Lodge is about an hour and a half boat ride from some of the famous spots in Palawan including Kayangan Lake and the Twin Lagoon. The hotel’s tour doesn’t leave until 8 a.m. so that gets you to these popular places at prime tourist time!
I asked the front desk if the tour could leave earlier to beat crowds and got a hard no. I ended up doing my Coron Island tour through a company in Coron Town. We used Calamian Islands Travel & Tours. I booked the tour online and had a round trip taxi take me to town. Because cab rides to town from Busuanga Bay Lodge are so expensive, it ended up being a similar cost. But I was able to get the private tour in town to leave at 7 a.m., arriving at Kayangan Lake 15 minutes later. I was one of the first people at the lake so it was definitely worth it! If your goal is beating crowds or saving a little money, I would recommend doing your Coron Island tour in town rather than through Busuanga Bay Lodge.
If you do make a trip into Coron Town, stop for lunch or drinks at Buzz Express, the restaurant owned by Busuanga Bay Lodge. On the menu you’ll find massive burgers, wraps, and buckets of beers. It is very western so don’t expect to find a local meal here! It felt like the kind of place that would be in my hometown of Rochester, New York. But it was a good spot to have some appetizers and beers after a long day of sightseeing.
There was only one thing that I really hated about Busuanga Bay Lodge. Yes, the hotel is far from town and expensive but those things I knew before arriving. The thing I had the biggest problem with was the staff. The staff could not have been ruder. After arriving from North Zen Villas on Panglao Island where the staff was some of the best I’ve ever had, I was blindsided. The staff at Busuanga Bay Lodge seemed like they would rather be anywhere but there. Any time I asked for anything, they acted as if it was the most difficult and annoying ask in the entire world. Even simple things like asking to use the phone at the front desk to call locally. That is a very common hotel ask! It really made me hate the place. When we got a cab ride to town for our Coron Town tour, the driver dropped us in the middle of nowhere and told us the office was somewhere around there. It took us almost an hour on foot to find the actual office. I would think at the price of the Busuanga Bay Lodge, they would at least make sure that you got where you had paid to be dropped off! As beautiful as this hotel is, the terrible staff makes me not recommend staying here too long.
How to Get to Busuanga Bay Lodge
Busuanga Bay Lodge was our second stop in the Philippines after Bohol and I found it a little more difficult to get to. I believe flying into Coron is the easiest way. There are a few airlines that fly to Busuanga (Coron). We flew Philippine Airlines from Cebu and flights were a little less than $100 per person. Busuanga Bay Lodge organized an airport pick up for 1000 PHP per person or about $20 each. You can also get to Busuanga Bay Lodge by taking an Air Juan seaplane flight from Manila directly to the resort.
You can take a ferry to Coron but it’s a bit far from many other islands that travelers visit. Unless you’re coming from El Nido, flying would be the easiest. The Coron port is also quite far from Busuanga Bay Lodge. It will probably cost you about 1000 PHP for a transfer.
Overall, I enjoyed my three night stay at Busuanga Bay Lodge. Since I stayed there with credit card points, it was free so I especially liked it! I stayed here before joining a Tao Philippines island hopping camping trip so it was a great place to have a little luxury before getting on the boat.
If you’re looking for a remote, romantic getaway or honeymoon destination. Busuanga Bay Lodge is the place for you. If you want to explore in and around Coron, look elsewhere that is cheaper and more accessible. Many people recommended Funny Lion hotel to us but it was full when we booked. If you’re looking to be in Coron, check that out!