Bohol | Where to Stay
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Walkway to the second pool (Photo © iHeartPH 2019)
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Walkway to the second pool (Photo © iHeartPH 2019)
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Spa
We got our discounted spa voucher from the PTAA Travel Expo 2019 last February 2019. Instead of paying full for P1,000 worth of spa services, we only got the voucher for P800. They even gave us a free bag of goodies with Bohol's famous peanut kisses and a cute plush turtle. Attending travel expos is just one of the few ways you can get big discounts from these luxury resorts plus other freebies. Most of these luxury resorts regularly participate in different travel expos offering up to 50% off on accommodation prices, discounted spa and restaurant vouchers, among others. You can check out my favorite travel expo here: PTAA TravelTour Expo.
The spa is located by the beachfront in an expansive area between the main pool and the premium beachfront villas. It is tucked away from the crowd so it's a little less noisy. Several signages are also posted around the area indicating that "You are now entering a stress-free zone" to make sure that noisy people (like me) are aware to not make any unnecessary and stressful noises haha! This spa area is also surrounded by trees so it's shaded and cooler than most parts of the resort.
We got one of their 90-minute full body massage packages and since we already have a voucher, we only had to pay for a few more bucks. We got our massage in the evening around 8:30 PM, which by the way, you have to reserve a day before or at least in the morning since a lot of people usually get their massage at night. They do not allow room service so you have to head out to the spa area, which is actually much more comfortable. Nothing beats an evening massage with the sound of the ocean and crickets in the background!
Entrance to the spa (Photo © iHeartPH 2019)
Gym, Courts and Other Sports Facilities
South Palms Resort has the most complete sports facility I've ever seen in a resort. They have a half-court for basketball, a tennis court, pool table, table tennis, foosball, and a gym with at least 5 exercise machines. We're not big on sport facilities, to be honest, but we had to try their facilities the next morning. After breakfast, we went straight to the basketball court to shoot some balls in our flip flops. Apparently, that was not allowed so we had to go back to our room and get into our proper sports attire. Good thing we brought our rubber shoes and sneakers. We spent about 2 hours just playing ball and spending a good 15 minutes in the gym. Most of it was spent playing two rounds of 9-ball and one round of 8-ball.
Restaurant
Now, the restaurant is our favorite piece of this resort. The breakfast buffet is something you dream about at night and look forward to when you wake up in the morning. Exaggerated but true in my case lol! The food choices are generous, everything tastes good and the service is just outstanding. Hands down to the staff who are so friendly and helpful all throughout our stay. I found out that Kuya Rommel, who was at that time assigned at the noodle station, was from my hometown and the brother of one of my classmates in primary school. The following morning, he would look for us in the restaurant and makes sure he brings us our favorite yoghurt.
As usual, I was drawn to the waffle/pancake corner with mouth-watering toppings such as mango and strawberry puree, maple syrup, chocolate chips and rainbow sprinkles. They also serve chocolate donuts and corndogs. And somewhere around the corner of that long buffet table, they had different kinds of cold cuts and cheeses! I tell you, it's breakfast paradise! And for those who love to eat rice in the morning, they also serve different kinds of rice to go with your choice of Filipino dish, which was where my husband was drawn to haha!
Another unforgettable experience was during our last breakfast in the resort before we left for Manila. The restaurant manager approached our table and checked if there was anything else we needed. We chitchat a bit, told him that it was our last day at the resort and we were supposed to head to the airport later that morning. He quickly grabbed a few pieces of bread, some packed butter and cheese, my favorite yoghurt and two canned drinks and made us a snack pack to bring while traveling.
My favorite cheese bar at Oceanica Seafood Restaurant (Photo © iHeartPH 2019)
The Beach
South Palms Resort is actually located along the stretch of Dumaluan Beach. This part of Dumaluan Beach is less crowded because it is exclusive only to South Palm Resort guests. There is a security guard manning the border that the resort shares with Bohol Beach Club and keeps non-guests from entering the premises. It can be a bit demeaning and discriminating to some degree but makes real sense if exclusivity is what you sell to your customers.
During our visit, the water was too shallow to swim in the morning but nicer towards the afternoon. We would normally just spend our mornings in the gym, pool or by the bar but about 3:00 PM, we would start swimming and lounging by the beach. Swimming can be unpleasant in front of the resort itself -- the seabed here is rocky and there are dangerous urchins in some parts of it. The rocks are either white or pale gray so you would easily mistake them for sand. If you are not wearing booties or aqua shoes, you might get injured. We found a better place to swim in front of Bohol Beach Club. Just look for the part with water of lighter blue hue. Not sure if it's still there now but there was a small bamboo raft floating nearby which we used to rest in and jump off to the water.
If you don't want to swim and would rather just lounge, relax and read a book by the beach, you have lots of places to hang around. Since the place is highly exclusive, you can just lay your beach towel or your sarong on the sand and sunbathe. Lounge chairs, hammocks and bed swings are literally everywhere along the beach. It gets crowded towards the late afternoon so you better pick a place before all the seats get taken.
The beach in front of the premium beachfront rooms (Photo © iHeartPH 2019)
Sunset is when the beach gets crowded. I would assume all guests are out of their rooms and are mostly spending their time enjoying nature while drinking their fruit shakes or cocktails. You won't really be able to see the sun as it sets because Dumaluan Beach is facing south, much like Alona Beach, but the magnificent sunset colors would never elude you. I've taken some pretty pictures of the sunset while we were in South Palms. At first, it would be all warm colors like yellow, orange and red, and as dusk begins to creep in, the warm-colored sky turns into purple and pink.
Since I am not really a morning person, even if I try hard enough to wake up before sunrise, I normally get up around 7:00 AM. So I got ready for the day and went out to explore the beach. I woke up ahead of my husband and because he moves at a glacial pace in the morning, I needed to go ahead and we'll just have to meet somewhere. Again, the ocean is super low tide during the morning of January and February so I took advantage of the moment to walk around the seabed and explore what kind of sea creatures are there to see. The beach has already been cleaned up by the staff and as you can see in the pictures, there are piles of seaweed that were washed ashore during the night, swept and ready to be picked up by the trash cart. The staff has also placed the lounging chairs back in their places on the beach since these are usually folded and kept in a dry place during the evening. At this time, the kitchen is very busy and you can smell breakfast in the air!
There were not a lot of people who wandered around the seabed and there were only about 6 or 7 curious explorers. There was even one traveler who were trying to pick up starfishes and putting them back into the puddles of water so they wouldn't dry out and die. I don't know if that would even happen as I've never seen a dried out starfish in my life having grown up near the sea but okay. I also met a few locals from the village nearby who took advantage of the low tide to get something to eat. They were harvesting sea urchins and shellfishes to bring back home to their family. Their kids even came to play around while their moms were busy getting food.
I remember we used to do this back in my hometown. There were times when we had nothing to eat in the afternoon so we would go to the sea with a basket and a tupperware filled with cooked rice. We would spend about an hour by the seabed looking mainly for urchins and shellfishes. We would get different kinds of sea urchins we would call sawaki (the red ones), dapaw-dapaw (the green ones) and paja-paja (the bigger pink ones). We also had the black ones called tuyom which had longer thorns and much more difficult to harvest because you won't be able to do it by hand alone. Apart from urchins, we also harvest lukot and jellyfishes. Until now, I don't really know where lukot comes from. I've been told they were secretions of sea cucumbers but they look more like seaweed to me. I called them green instant noodles when I was kid because they look very much like the Maggi instant noodles I usually have for breakfast before going to school. After harvesting, we would look for a place to sit in and enjoy our harvest. We would go back home with empty tupperwares but filled up stomachs and baskets full of sea urchins enough for us to cook for dinner that same night.
When we were kids, we've always been told by our parents and grandparents to leave the smaller ones alone and harvest only the adult ones, which is what we normally do back then. But since population growth and over-consumption are inevitable, we have seen lesser and lesser urchins in Bohol. Since urchin population has dwindled over the years, locals harvest even the small ones so the urchin population continued to decline even further. I don't think there are any regulations being enforced since sea urchins is one of the staple food in this region. I know a couple of controlled sanctuaries where people are not allowed to take urchins but not in Bohol. Anyway, this is a different topic altogether. Back to my review of South Palms Resort. :)
Overall, I would rate our stay with a 9.5 out of 10. I hardly have any negative comments for this resort. Online payment was a breeze, check-in process was flawless and the staff and facility are on-point. The beach is not ideal but definitely not the resort's fault. You just have to look for a better place to swim in without the rocks and the urchins but you should be able to find that perfect spot.
If you'd like to check prices, you can compare prices in Agoda and the resort's website. You can also call them up using the contact information below just in case they have promos.
Address: Barangay Bolod, Panglao Island, Bohol, Philippines
Number: +63-38-502-8288, +63-38-501-3088, +63-917-716-7609
Email: info@southpalmsresort.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthPalmsResortPanglao
Website: https://www.southpalmsresort.com
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (as of January 2020 in Tripadvisor)
See more reviews here: Tripadvisor Reviews of South Palms Resort
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