Hotels Near Sibaltan Heritage Center in EL Nido

The facility itself is nice but for the my version of a 5 star rating the resort would need to meet the standard of Peninsula Tokyo or the Park Hyatt in Kyoto. Unfortunately the facility doesn’t not meet that standard. What will make up for the lack of the amenities, cleanliness and attention to detail is the service provider. From the front desk to the waiter and waitress, to the cleaning Male/ladies, the service staff will go above and beyond to meet your needs. Last draw back is the sand flies (nik nik as the locals refer to them) are pesky little suckers….literally which makes one hesitant to enjoy the beautiful beach on the resort…which then leads to you missing the beautiful sunrise and sunset that one would expect in paradise. Over all, yes i would gladly return to this facility. It is probably the best on the island but I cannot on good conscience say the this is a 5star resort.

El nido, Palawan is one of the tourist spots visited in the Philippines. With that being said my Family decided to go on a vacation in this place. The moment we arrived in Puerto Princesa airport it was exhilarating imagining what more there is when we arrive in El Nido. From there we had a roundtrip airport shuttle provided for a surcharge which is available upon request. We stayed in El Nido Garden Resort hotel for four nights and we had the best experience. The place was spacious and immaculate, the staff were accommodating, the food was amazing and the view was breathtaking. Outside you can take a stroll and or swim even at night since they have a swimming pool. You can do recreational activities there and wrap it up with a drink at their mini lounge/bar. Their location is very accessible to many Beaches if you wanted to visit some such as Lio and Nacpan. At night you can also come to restaurants around the area but I assure you the foods in this hotel are enough to satisfy your tongue. They are open at 7-9 AM, your hunger will surely be gone. They have big air-conditioned rooms with flat-screen televisions each. Every room has private balconies and you can even hang your damp clothes there! Private bathrooms have showers complimented with toiletries and hair dryers. You can make yourself at home there and relax while taking some time off.

The hostel staff is great, very accommodating, helpful, smiling and always greets us. This is the best hostel I have experienced so far. We stayed for 3 nights and the room is very clean. They always clean it every day and when we were gone doing a tour outside, our room was already clean with new towels. I love the nice design of the hotel as well as the breakfast, which is good. I enjoyed their unlimited pasta for dinner. Lastly, it's very near the town proper, within walking distance. We only have issues with the door lock, but the staff was very fast to fix it, which is excellent. Highly recommended!

I understand why reviews of this hotel are so mixed. I first stayed in the newer part - a beautiful room on the 3rd floor, overlooking the beach. The room was clean, new and sparkling. There was a modern key card lock system, a fabulous bathroom and great views. Then, I was transferred to a room in the older section. Here, the bathroom had only a hand held shower head, the grout was discolored and the water didn't drain well, leaving me standing in a puddle while using the sink. The wood furniture and floor was scuffed and worn. The door lock used a key and was a bit flimsy. That said, it had a balcony overlooking the beach that offered the same great views. Avoid the first floor, as others have said, because people walk by on the way to breakfast and there is little privacy. El Nido beach is very busy, with walkers, vendors, even motorcycles, so be sure to get a higher floor.

We left on a bad note and so our review will start on a bad note! All this place cares about is soaking you for every cent your worth without regard to your happiness. Billing meals and drinks uses a system devised in the 17th century utilizing carbon paper, a pen, and pad. No computers. How could things go wrong? On our final day we received a call from the front desk confirming our early morning transport to the airport which we had already arranged and confirmed twice. We were quoted $44 for private transport to the airport at 5 am which was already way too much for the 15-minute 4.3-mile journey. Our flight left at 7 am so I was a little confused why the resort wanted to leave so early. To add to the confusion, we were quoted $26 for a private airport transfer earlier that week. So, during the phone call we confirmed the price which now was quoted at $61! I balked at this and was requoted at $53 than again at $61. I now proceeded to the front desk to find out what is going on and talked to the manager. She showed me the pricing and indeed, if you had private transport to the airport before 5 am the cost was $61. At 5 am and after, the price was $53. However, my transport was at 5 am so it should be $53. She did not agree. So I arranged for 5:15 am and she reluctantly charged us our original quote of $44. Ok, all is well now. However, I believe that the resort wanted us to leave early for the airport in order to charge us more money. We ate dinner and we had two bottles of water. We settled our tab at 8 pm due to our early departure the next day. During the settlement, I pointed out that the restaurant had not billed us for the two bottles of water, however the desk person said that they were included and pointed them out on the tab. Great all is well! At 10:30 pm while sleeping our phone rings and the same desk person says “I know your sleeping but could you come down and pay for two bottles of water which were not billed?” ***! I said no (I was so mad I actually cursed on the phone) and said I would pay the driver in the morning. Again, I was so mad I could not get back to sleep! I cannot believe a resort would wake someone for $5 which I tried to pay earlier, particularly after spending over $2,800 on our stay. Just let it go! But the money was more important than the guest’s happiness. Our room and balcony were noisy from the main highway below and was really hot and unusable in the afternoon because the sad little AC could not keep up with the direct sunlight from the balcony even with the curtains closed. No shade at the pool. The resort is super steep so if you have any mobility issues, don’t stay here. Can’t walk to town because of how steep the road is. Housekeeping locked us out twice and confiscated our key. We had to ask for coffee in our room every morning. The hardest bed ever (ouch). Some positives: the view from our balcony was amazing, the infinity pool and view from restaurant was also amazing. The room decor was impress

Disclaimer: This was during check out. Overall, it was a good value for money. I's safe and near the town and el nido dock. You can just walk to find food. Although, they don't have the best amenities, it was good. Most stays in El Nido are quite expensive so this one was a catch.

We experienced excellent service, all our small problems were quickly solved. Straff very friendly and helpful! Nice room with view at mountains. Abundant breakfast, rice or toasted bread with sausages, fried eggs, or beef patties. Manager always there to see that guests were satisfied. WiFi les at top flr. As retired Quality Dept. staff member of Jap. company in Netherlands, my rating is 5 out of 5.

Good wstay overall, a few hiccups here and there but staff were doing their best to deliver quality services, no major issues. We stayed at the ocean view room which is fantastic to wake up with morning view or sunset view. They could have done better to make sure the room is ready at check in time. Restaurant food was actually really tasty and well done, highly recommend to spend at least a lunch and dinner at the hotel. Airport transfer was also comfortable and staff didn’t mind stopping us at the locations on the way. I also booked island tours at the hotel which was made easy and quick, no hassle looking for one outside.

The resort is in a great location with a small but quiet beach and a nice house reef outside. Beware that some units require walking up a lot of steps and the ones set away from the beach have a lot of mosquitoes around. The staff are super friendly and nice although the service of the hotel could be more attentive i.e when lying on the beach you don’t get asked if you want drinks. Room cleaning was only done once in our 7 day stay and only because we asked for it. Towels are not automatically offered to beach goers all the time. The restaurant is pretty slow with almost an hour for food to arrive sometimes. The food itself can be nice depending on what you order. Some is pretty good actually…others a bit average. Pricewise, this isn’t a cheap hotel and I feel that if you compare the price to resorts in other tropical beach locations around the world, you get much better service in other places like Sheratons, Marriotts and Hiltons etc. that said, overall I would still recommend Matinloc for the great beach and reef.