Surigao Tour blog series won't be complete without the hotels and apartments stayed during the entire travel. This blog is intended solely for the reviews of all three - Britania's La Entrada Resort and Restaurant, Qben Apartment and Lodge in Tandag and Butuan's Jullian's Inn.

Disclaimer: All images and videos are mine, otherwise stated.

As a traveler, I would always find the most affordable and possibly comfortable hotel to stay with during our trips with my husband. Last two years, we have been traveling by ourselves, just the two of us, my husband and I and this is because it is easier to decide and to move, we don't have to adjust for other's opinion before deciding on where to go next or what. However, last month January 2017, during our first trip of the year 2017 we finally opened ourselves to traveling with a group. My brother and sister in law as well as my high school friend who went to the Philippines for a vacation with her brother and her boyfriend came altogether for the Surigao Tour. The two latter ones will be published on a separate blog.

I had posted the details on what had happened during the trip, there were couple of mishaps on my first group travel and the weather was not that cooperative with our trip.

Surigao Tour Day 1 - Hinatuan Enchanted River, Tinuy-An Falls and Doll House
Surigao Tour Day 2 - Britania Group of Islands Hopping

Indeed the saying below is true:

"Sometimes you get a view, sometimes you don't. But that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be a bad journey."

That was not a bad journey at all, in fact, I had learned a lot of things during the trip and I believe that I will be able to apply those learning on our future trips. You know what it is when a certain thing fails, you found a treasure in the learning earned. Currently, as of this writing, we have two locations pending for traveling, one is for this month as our 2nd Anniversary as married couples in Sagada and Banaue and in April for Coron. Both excites me and I am sure that those will be great places to visit.

But this blog is about the hotel reviews so let me start with the first we had stayed on our first night in Surigao, by the way, it was originally planned as a two nights, three day vacation but it ended up to be a three nights and four days trip instead due to the weather issue.

Britania's La Entrada Resort

After swimming with the fishes at the Enchanted River in Hinatuan, getting wet at the little Niagara of the Philippines in Tinuy-an Falls and getting amazed of the dolls in Bislig's International Doll House, our tour guide drove us to La Entrada Resort and Restaurant where we will be staying for the entire night. The resort has a special rate for tour guides. Actually, I really believe we got the best deal for the tour since we only had to pay Php 1899 for the two days and one night Surigao Tour plus we have no problems with the van, it was brand new and that it was pretty comfortable going around, I met Sir Jo Layo who was the contact person for the tour, he made sure everything will be alright and I really appreciated it.

We reached the resort at almost nine in the evening and we were all dead tired of the whole day of traveling so everyone was like wanna go to the room immediately but unfortunately, there were also guests ahead of us so we had some waiting time at the lobby. But I had noticed the nice lighting this resort has and I would like to take photos right at that spot but I had to ensure we get to our rooms first before the photo taking. Gladly, it only took less than 30 minutes before we got to our rooms.

La Entrada Resort and Restaurant Christmas Tree positioned in the center of the lobby since it was still January.

San Agustin, Surigao del Sur is where this resort is situated, the rustic themed resort looked appealing to me with all those mangroves surrounding it plus those wooden bridges connecting the resort rooms from the main lobby making its own wooden web! I ended up sleeping later than the rest so I can take photos of the location.

I was the last one to get to bed but the first to wake up at five in the morning so I can catch the sunrise. In front of the resort's main lobby, another long wooden pathway going to the docked engine operated boats and their conference rooms. But first, I found their carefully manicured garden at the entrance which was not really visible when we arrived, it might be because of our tiredness that night.

Here's my list of good things about the resort:

- Ambiance

La Entrada Resort and Restaurant - This is the main lobby of the resort, wooden floors, wooden chairs, everything is wooden.

It is pretty obvious that the ambiance was pretty sleek and it is one of those types which looked like it was constructed without hurting nature specially the mangroves, which I like in the first place. The mangroves were just happily standing next to the resort rooms. They looked rather healthy so I believe the resort is safe enough for them.

I like the concept of having a wooden / bamboo web connecting the entire resort rooms or accommodations towards the lobby. I also love the evening view when the lights are lit up and it just displays a relaxing ambiance.

- Restaurant Servings

Before we left the resort, we had lunch at their restaurant and although I believe their prices were good for a group, I didn't expect that the serving would be good for more than 5 persons which was a good and a bad thing. Good thing because we got to eat a lot but bad thing because it has to be packed and ended up getting spoiled.

The La Entrada Resort and Restaurant - It was almost ten in the evening and these were the only ones in the restaurant.

My sister in law seems hungry looking at the food that was about to be served. Here's the sumptuous pancit.

Mixed vegetable served in our table for lunch before moving out of the resort.

I should also commend that their "pancit" was really good plus the servings was just superb! I wish I was ready to engage my taste buds and my hungry stomach. We ended up leaving lot more on the table though.

- Free Island Hopping

This I believe is the best part of the resort package, our free island hopping tour was incredible although the weather was not cooperative, we enjoyed it soo much specially the breakfast at Hiyorhiyoran Island. By the way, it was not Hiyorhiyoran originally, before, it has a different name which I now forgot.

Aside from Hiyorhiyoran, there were more islets composing the Britania Group of islands but for our tour, we had visited and observed four of them: Hagonoy Island, Naked Island, Boslon Island and Hiyorhiyoron.

We had breakfast there and we also had snorkeling sessions. I won't forget getting drenched in the sea below and the rain above.

Here's the list of stuffs to improve:

- Customer Service

There was no sense of urgency each time I go and inquires something to their front desk and I don't know why. Being in the customer service field, a company specially a resort should attend to their guest's concerns and requests. I strongly believe that our customers should be given proper and immediate response and get them reassured their needs are being worked on.

The La Entrada Resort and Restaurant's beauty really shines at night when all the lights are lit up and the ambiance is like the one above.

The first time I had visited it was when we first reached our rooms and found no towels in my friend's room. It took them almost an hour to get the towels in our room, I am pretty sure the towels are just in the corner of the resort and not from another town. The second time was before the Island Hopping, the other person who was scheduled to be in the front desk advised me to wait for the boat man but he didn't arrive so I had to go back and forth just so that the island hopping gets pushed through. But it took him an hour or more to get to the resort but he was sorry, I appreciated the gesture though. So with this, I believe they can still improve this part here and perhaps adding more people at the front desk will help to ease the waiting time.

- Room Maintenance

I do understand that wooden themed resorts will always have this issue and I just hope they could fix some issues and squeaking of the floors specially the second floor part.

The rooms assigned to us were planted on the water so when there are strong winds, out felt like it was also dancing with the wind.

- Power Outlets

After staying in this resort, I had realized the importance of bringing external power banks or extension outlets. There are actually portable ones for gadgets so I will buy one soon too.

The issue was that there was only one double outlet but the upper other was defective so we were left with only one to be used by four mobile phones, two DSLRs, one GoPro action camera and we still have spare batteries to charge too. I ended up staying late just so I could get the batteries charged before going to sleep even to the extent of waking up every hour to change the devices. It was so much hassle!

- Wi-Fi

Their Wi-Fi correction couldn't get to our rooms too even if the rooms were just made of light materials. It seems only accessible from the lobby and restaurant area which was a bummer! Well, we got our own mobile data but it would still be better if the connection coverage reaches each rooms. Perhaps they should consider buying some extenders.

Nevertheless, we love our stay here and recommends it to others as long as they are aware of those drawbacks, and they will be able prepare for those, they'll be good.

"Balik balik" is a Bisaya term which means come again.

All images and videos are mine, otherwise stated.

Read also:

Review for Qben's Apartment and Lodge and Jullian's Inn 

©Jean Beltran-Figues
bitLanders user since 2014