Coron Village Lodge

We are from a team who does CUSTOMER SUPPORT ALL OUR LIVES which means we are into details of GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE... We planned the vacation to Coron a month before the trip.. We booked for the lodge after booking our flights to Cebu Pacific. We were awed by the pictures and reviews about the lodge that's why we chose to stay in the lodge. When we arrived at the Busuanga airport we settled a service going to the lodge but the son of the owner Wilot Fernandez asked the driver to tell us to move to a different van because we are supposed to get the service from the lodge itself. Not knowing anyone and not booking somebody to take us to the lodge not to mention a very tiring day from a night shift at work before we headed Coron of course we stayed at the van where we currently are. I remembered the face of the man at the airport who opened a can of SML prior the flight, he is the same guy who is asking us to move to a different van with a very persuasive commanding voice. Anyways, we are in vacation mode so we headed to the lodge arrived approximately 4PM of April 13, 2009... We booked for 14 pax originally a month ago and settled the deposit made through PNB ALABANG so we were thinking that we will have a good place to stay and we will get to bond as a team. We were welcomed by the receptionist named Jenny and was given our assigned rooms but we were like scattered and was not given rooms which are close to each other so we requested to get rooms even the expensive ones to be given to us so we could be close with each other. We got the apartment type, and 4 other separate rooms because they have a policy that only 6 people could occupy the apartelle.. Jenny kept telling us that it isn't her fault because it was forwarded to her from their Manila office and she was not informed that we want rooms that are at least close to each other.. She sounded like she is blaming us because we have lots of requests as if we came to ruin her life and even told me to move to a different lodge if we wish. To cut it short>> day 1, just accomplishing which rooms to stay took us 3 hours.... hay.. Left the lodge for our first destination to Maquinit Hotspring that night when we got back at merely 9pm there was no water in the bathroom.. OMG!!!

DAY 2
We headed out to explore the islands of Coron at 8 or 9AM and went back at almost 7PM at the lodge.. To our dismay the room that we had>> RM.14 was occupied by another guests already.. Our things were packed by the staff, bags were opened, underwears, celphones, personal stuff were touched by the people we don't know and was moved to the bigger apartelle.. I am married for almost 10 years now and my husband and I has things that are known or touched only by us. We don't even let our housekeepers touch or wash our undies and these people from CORON VILLAGE LODGE did invade our privacy, packed our things and moved it to the other apartelle. Of course emotions would spark and not knowing somebody we headed to the Chief of Police of Coron.. Fortunately, they took care of us and we were even treated for a dinner by SB Mata>> a councilor who heads the Tourism of Coron.. We agreed to settle things with Wilot and agreed to forget everything because he agreed that we are not paying a single centavo for our entire stay in the lodge..

Day 3 to 5 went fine.. But when we checked out we were asked for the payment because according to the staff Wilot has not agreed to anything but a 20% discount and a supposed free dinner the night they packed and moved our things.. This I remember his exact words when our team lead said that "Didn't you know you'll get in trouble for doing this?" Wilot replied "I don't care!!!"
Imagine the stressful vacation we had.. So unbelievable... Try to book at their lodge so you'll see and experience it yourself.. We extremely had a NIGHTMARE for that entire stay sad to say...

Hi, The worst hotel/lodge experience I had is when I stayed in The Village Lodge.
Our goup stayed in Village Lodge last week and we were so disappointed. Perhaps, the management has changed the way they run things there.
Experience from day 1 is so stressful.
Upon arrival at the airport, we have hired a van to take us to the Village Lodge. The Village Lodge owner's son - Wilot, who happened to be in the airport and took the same flight with us, are saying that we should get off the van that we hired and ride on the lodge's service. Of course, we did not get off because we have already made arrangements with the van that we hired. This evect actually made a scene in Busuanga airport and marked the start of a stressful Village Lodge experience.
Arriving in the Village Lodge is not so fun as expected since the receptionist - Jenny is not so friendly. Stressing us about the room reservations, saying she is not the one who booked it for us but the people in Manila so she is not aware of the request. She placed us in rooms so far apart from each other making it difficult to bond together. By the way, we are a group of 18 people. Here you can already sense that the system they used for coordination is not so efficient. We then requested to transfer rooms and they have agreed. This is so different from the flying colors that the lodging house is received in most travel sites. Our entire afternoon was wasted due to the inefficiency of theire booking system. So that's day 1.
Thinking that the bad experience will only be on Day 1 and we are in sync from then on, we are so shocked when going back after a day-long island hopping to find out that our things are not in our room and were moved to a different room without our consent. Our bags opened and our personal things were packed for us by whoever. Personal things ranges from wallet, celphones and even dirty underwear.
In exchange to this, the manager - Wilot, offered us free dinner but this seems not quite good enough. The experience is like when a stranger rummaged through your personal belongings and then offered to feed you after having seen your dirty underwears and so on. So we went to the Police station to report the illegal search and Wilot, the son of the owner, agreed not to charge for the rooms for the duration of our stay. This is what he said in front of the Chief of Police and a city counselor.
This resolution turned the mood up but when the day comes that we are checking out, they are actually asking for the payment! They said that Wilot did not agree to the free stay. Talk about bad customer service. Mind you, his words were sworn in front of the Chief of Police and one city Councelor in charge of Tourism in the City!!!

Just a piece of advise, if you want hassle free, stress free vacation, don't even consider staying in THe Village lodge.

Also, to add to your wonderful experience, there is always NO water supply in the Village Lodge. So just imagine, after a tiring day of swimming, the village lodge leaves you no choice but to keep the mosquitos in the front lawn fed while waiting for the water to be restored -so you can do your bathroom duties and freshen up for bed. This might take a good 2 hours after which the water will again be cut and you need to wait for another extra 2 hours.
It was such a horrible experience and a dent in Coron's rising tourism. If we are just staying longer, we are thinking of requesting for their business liscence to be revoked so they can undergo a hotel management training or so.

Back in coron after 5months.... well its just not a vacation for me
its also my way of celebrating my birthday outside Manila.. we stayed there for 5 days and here's how the story goes!!

Friday - our first day " rest day " from office to the airport
we arrived in coron at around 3pm... bob shai, Bob rene, Bob Argel, Bob Henry and the rest of the Parokya welcomed us... we took our lunch and went to our room..
well its our 2nd time around so most of them knows the two of us very well.. we went to our room took a rest and went out around 7pm for dinner
we are on a 3day 2 nights package so our spare time was spent with the " Parokya ni bob " maybe you guys are wondering who "BOB" is..
its what they call one another... callname starts with bob

Most of the rooms were renovated and they did some extensions at the dining area
they did 3 renovations in one year and they are planning to do more this coming 2010

When We went to Coron Last May and Bob onyo told us about a guy Named " WILLOT " they call him Bob Marley.. well at first you will think of him wearing dread locks but no he's not hahaha
the way he thinks about life is just like bob marley.. he's a Very down to earth person and he parties like a rock star.. Cool na Cool toh hehehe... He owns the place!!!
Everything turned out well on our first day... not knowing my Girlfriend is planning to surprise me on my birthday! hahaha...

When we were on our room and about to take a rest for our tour on the 2nd day.. we heard someone knocking on our door my reaction was who the hell is this guy knocking
well after knocking twice i knew it was him, our tour Guide "Bob Arnel" he was suprised and excited to meet us... he asked us if we are ready for our tour tom..
we told him hell yeah and he should be ready too!! hahaha

Ohhh i Forgot we are missing one Bob that Day " Bob Onyo is till not around on our first day and we are so worried that we might not see him on our second visit..
we are relieved when we saw him the next day...

We also met Bob Grace... you can see her on the bar with bob onyo they are the best bar tenders in village lodge

And how will i forget about my pandesal partner!! Bob Bendoc!!! wehehe..

2nd day... first day of our tour package... "Coron Island tour"
Cap Jun is already wating for us we are all excited to meet him again. we requested him to be our boatman
its like remembering Team "Bob Arnel"
we lack one teammate bob Macmac is not around he was hospitalized the day before our tour " get well soon Bob "

Since we've been there already we just went to our favorite spots...
Banol is our first stop... Banol is always like a first time.. you will always admire its beauty...
2nd stop is my favorite.. "Kayangan Lake" Water is very calm and clear.. We borrowed the "balsa" and i was the one rowing for them its like an exercise for me
we went to the far ends of the kayangan lake.. we saw some small barracuda fish but they are harmless..
3rd stop is the Famous " Barracuda Lake " went free Diving "its good for the Lungs hehehe" I can only go upto 6 meters deep though..
We saw a fish called "cugtong" or Giant Lapu Lapu its scary and at same time exciting hehehe
4th stop is the maquinit hot spring hehehe it's not that hot anymore not unlike our first time
after the maquinit hot spring we went to visit our former teammate "bob Macmac " in the hospital.. he doin great and he is getting well..

3rd day " 2nd day tour "
well im excited for this tour because we went to some different islands...
first stop is the Coral Garden.. its our 2nd time in this coral garden and we are amazed that it still look the same back when we where there last may
then we headed to Calumboyan island for our lunch we stayed there for 2 hours had some small chit chat with the bobs while drinking San Mig light
then the interesting part came in where we went to this island called "pass island" its famous for its "pawikan laying egg grounds"
sand is so fine that you will feel like your stepping on a pillow with sand...
then we went to our boatmans resthouse/island(Del-Rey Coral Garden). its a coral garden with beachfront and picnic hut.. this place rocks and its nice to do an overnight in this place!!
off to the lodge we arrived at 6pm took a shower and took our dinner...

4th day its mah " Birthday "
nothin much happened in the morning we just took a rest because at night we will party...
we started drinking around 4pm... "Willot , Rene and My Girlfriend(Joy) planned to surprise me... my Girlfriend bought me cake..
Willot gave me a shirt and a necklace... this night is special for me because it's my first time to celebrate my birthday w/out my Family
I was surprised that almost all of the parokya was there... i bought some mixed drinks which later on was ordered by a regular customer (In short i worked at the bar for 1x day hahaha You should try the "PAROKYA DRINK")
I was Granted the "The First Ever Highest Honor" for a Guest " Being a True Parokya ni Bob Member " i thought I was far from my family but later on I realized im gaining a new family in coron

im so thankful to for them by accepting us and treating us like their own.. specially bob Willot!! he never failed to amuse us with hi Backpaking trips!! we also met bob Gino.. Gino is the Chef from manila!! he's from CSB
and later on we found out that we have a common friend (VJ).. Gino is cool and he cooks good burgers!! and Buffalo wings!! He also went to coron last january and never left the place
now he only visits manila for vacation *baliktad na!!* hehehe

Willot gave us a 21shot of Willots firecracker!! *whew* ika nga ni bob rene Burn baby burn!! hahaha we went to party at hard rock...
everyone is dancing and having fun... What a Birthday for me!! its best birthday i had outside manila!! thanks bobs!!

5th Day Off to Malcapuya... purest white sand in coron!!!
My Girlfriend joy, Bob Argel, Me and Cap juns adventure!! Ayus Din toh si Bob "Argel" Day off niyan hahaha

I went to the market to buy our food... i bought one whole Tulingan fish, Watermelon, seaweeds, salted egg and many more
we also bought what bob rene calls Parrot fish!!
all in all we have three fresh fish to grill... on our way to Malcapuya we bumped into some fishermen who our captain knew... they gave us three more fish to grill fresh from the sea!!
all i said was WoW thanks alot guys!! if youre going to buy those fish in Boracay it will cost you 700 pesos each...
when we arrived in malcapuya i was amazed with the crytal clear water even if its 10-15feet deep imagine you will see the fishes without going under the water!
Place is cozy and theres only 2 of us plus jun,argel and the guards of the island... its like we rented the whole island for one day..
Malcapuya is definitely one of the best island you need to see when you're in coron..

on our way to the lodge all we are thinking about is that we are about to leave tom which is sad because we wanted to stay there for at least 3 days more but we cant because
we need to work!! Badtrip noh??

We had our dinner at ginos famous "Burgeelicious Burger house" Gino's Burgerhouse.. Best Burger in town man!!! and went back to the Village Lodge Bar to drink with Bob Willot and the Parrokya
we decided to go to Hard Rock since its our last night... we felt sad but we need to enjoy the moment while we are still there...

We went home around 2:30am fixed our things and then we slept until 7am
Bob Willot ask someone to wake us up and we had coffee at the village lodge while reminiscing our trips and kalokohans...

They taught me some Cuyonon words and expression like " Abuh or Abeeh ".. and "pay" which means kumpadre!!

We left Coron at around 8:30 arrived the airport at 10am left for manila exactly 11am..
travel is always faster wen your on your way home because your not excited anymore...

Well thats our Vacation, Birthday weekend in Coron last Oct 23 - 28

I just noticed that some people didnt enjoy their stay in Village lodge..
Im just amazed because most of us did enjoy our stay at the village lodge.. maybe some of them didnt communicate with the locals very well
im not saying this because im a regular in Village Lodge
thats an important thing to do when your not in your territory or place.. you need to interact with others.. those guys are kind, humble and nice to be with..
you just need to know them better...

I agree with willot its just a lodge not a hotel... whos doing their best not just trying...
this is the best lodge in Coron.. i would rather stay here than get a hotel... smile at them and you will gain friends!! Promise

about the Package make sure that you clear things out with the manila office because the manila office makes the schedules and arrangements
dont blame the village lodge people once you're there...

Enjoy your stay at the VILLAGE Lodge and we'll be back in Coron sa MAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRCCCCHHHH yeah!!!!

Kita kits mga bob!!! "Abeeeeehhhh"

Coron Village Lodge is an affordable, efficient, and accessible place to stay in Coron, Palawan. It doesn't hurt that the cook delivers a perfect, crispy, juicy pork chop that makes you go back for more.

The lodge is clean and comfortable enough even for groups of barkadas. Also, it is near the market and the bangcas so it is not difficult to travel around. It is beside the road so you can just flag down a motorcycle if you wish to go to the market to get some supplies, or to Maquinit to soak in the hot springs, or to the harbor if you want to go island hopping and snorkel the day away.

Lastly, the owner, Kuya Willot whips up a mean Firecracker- a combination of tequila, gin, and some lime. A perfect way to cap the trip.

We stayed at the Village Lodge for three nights in mid-December 2008, and we are very glad that we did. We were a little concerned, as we were booking from Canada and had never been to Coron. As it turned out, the Village Lodge was a wonderful place to stay - I wish we had stayed there longer, and if we return to Coron then we’ll stay again at the Village Lodge without hesitation.

We found the Village Lodge to be accurately described as per its website, which can be easily found by searching for: Coron Village Lodge.

We took a chance on it because of several other positive Internet reviews, and because it was more centrally located and yet farther away from some of the establishments that were reportedly noisier. This indeed turned out to be the case, and we found ourselves within a pleasant walking distance of almost everything in a nice section of town (and just a 5-10 minute walk to the base of Mt Tapyas). We heard no noise of any kind from any of the other guests (no loud TV, music, karaoke, etc), despite the fact that we were there for three days. It is situated on a main road, and so there is some tricycle noise (and roosters crowing) during the night, but this is standard virtually everywhere in the Philippines and was, in fact, less of an issue here than any other place we stayed during the whole month.

We found the room to be really clean, the AC worked well (and was relatively quiet), and there was hot water (the hot water was provided by a small wall mounted heater, which I found to be standard for all places with hot water in the Philippines). We had absolutely no complaints of any kind with the room. The only thing that may have been an issue is one time we found that there was no water in the bathroom – it seems that the building we were in wasn’t supplied by a water line. But within moments we noticed a water truck outside and within a few minutes the water was restored. We particularly liked our room, as we paid a bit more for a deluxe room with balcony, but any other rooms that I caught glimpses of also seemed clean and nicely appointed - similar to ours.

Originally we had planned to eat at many places around Coron, but after finding the Village Lodge café we ate all of our meals there. Both of us loved the food, and found the portion sizes and the prices to be very reasonable. We particularly enjoyed taking our meals in the outdoor patio/garden area, which we found to be perfect to our liking.

We enjoyed meeting and talking to Bec D. Fernandez (owner), who introduced herself to us, and even recognized us by name, city, and country – a nice touch that indicates the level of service that both her and her staff endeavor to provide. While we were there they arranged a day-long boat tour for us that we both thoroughly enjoyed. We had a great picnic lunch (food provided by Village Lodge Café) on a relatively small and private beach (very nice). We found that we had nothing to worry about during our stay, and they even arranged for an airport van (inexpensive) to pick us up on our departure day.

Overall we found Coron to be inexpensive, fun, and extremely memorable – probably our favorite part of our 4-week vacation to the Philippines.

For that, we offer special thanks to the owner and staff of the Village Lodge.

For anyone checking out their website and considering them as a place to stay while in Coron, we would definitely recommend them – and further, we definitely recommend visiting Coron!

Coron Village Lodge - at first view you would get the impression that your at a very inexpensive lodge and secretly wishing that you had gone to the more expensive hotel. Why is that? You get the feeling that the lodge would include a lot of bug encounters, a bit of discomfort and such. However, as they say, looks can be very deceiving for this is not the case with Coron Village Lodge.

First of all, they fixed our itinerary - this means that they fixed everything for us. This includes the pick up from the airport, tricycle rides to all the sights (to the boat port, souvenir shops and some attractions), accomodations (clean room with aircon and cable) and ALL your meals.

As expressed by someone staying in the inn with us - Being in the lodge feels like you are just staying at a relative's house where that relative of yours takes care of you every step of the way. Courteous guides who accompany you every step you take, making sure you get all the things you need. Great service. Great ambiance..

and..

GREAT FOOD!

All I can say, this lodge rocks! Admittedly, it can do with some renovations in their rooms but heck the service is impecable, their food was superb and it made my family's trip very very memorable. I'd definitely go back here soon!