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Reviews of Malapascua Exotic Island Dive and Beach Resort

3 out of 5
Malapascua Exotic Island Dive and Beach Resort
Sitio Pasil, Logon, Daanbantayan, Cebu

Reviews

8.6

Excellent

Rating 10 - Excellent. 42 out of 104 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 47 out of 104 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 13 out of 104 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 2 out of 104 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 0 out of 104 reviews" "

8.6/10

Cleanliness

8.4/10

Staff & service

7.8/10

Amenities

8.0/10

Property conditions & facilities

8.6/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Daniel

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Fantastic Stay
Exotic Beach Resort remains to be a fantastic hotel even after my first visit 7 years ago. Food is of great quality, service is fantastic and the rooms are quite spacious.
Stayed 4 nights in Oct 2023
Response from Cora on 7 Nov 2023
Dear Daniel,Thank you so much for taking the time to share your wonderful feedback about your recent visit with us at Malapascua Exotic Island Dive Resort. We are absolutely delighted to hear that you have returned after seven years and still find our hotel to be a fantastic destination.We can't wait to welcome you back for many more memorable stays in the future.Warm regards,Cora de Boer

8/10 Good

Mark

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great location Avoid Breakfast
Spacious clean rooms. Hot showers cold air conditioning. Beautiful White sand beach quiet location. 5 minutes walk to local shops and street food. On site restaurant has no ability to cook any hot food. Breakfast looks great but cold even though requested hot !! Avoid the restaurant at all cost. Happy Hour at the bar is only for cocktails NO beer so totally pointless that’s why the bar is always empty… Tried to change for drinks we didn’t order or consume upon check out. The cashier Rude and unapologetic. Lacks any customer service skills.
Stayed 2 nights in Sep 2023
Response from Cora de Boer on 12 Sept 2023
Dear Mark,We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback regarding your recent stay with Malapascua Exotic Island Dive Resort. Your input is invaluable to us, as it helps us continuously improve our services and enhance the overall guest experience.Please accept our sincerest apologies for any inconvenience you may have experienced during your dining experience. We have shared your feedback with the concern department to ensure that we address this issue.We are committed to making the necessary improvements to ensure that your next visit to our resort exceeds your expectations.Thank you for choosing to stay with us, and we hope to have the opportunity to welcome you back for a much-improved experience.

8/10 Good

Mark

Stayed 1 night in Sep 2023

8/10 Good

simon

Liked: Property conditions & facilities, room comfort
It’s a long walk…
It’s 3*, you get what you pay for. The room was perfectly ok. Shower was quirky, but, worked. Bed comfy, WiFi dreadful. Service was hit & miss. It is quite a long slog from what feels like the heart of this area. Maybe 10-15 mins walk along the beach. It may not sound a lot, but, in 30c + it became a chore, u r hot & sweaty before u get anywhere. Other than the service and location, everything else was acceptable.
Stayed 5 nights in Jul 2023

10/10 Excellent

Victoria

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
This was a fantastic place. The beach is breathtaking amazing snorkelling direct from and beach and the dive school were also great. Bar and restaurant attached were good and Malapascua itself is a small and friendly place. Best place we came to in the Philippines.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2023

6/10 Okay

Gordon

Travelled with family
Disliked: Staff & service
My stay
Overall the rooms were clean and tidy. The shower head could do with changung. The front desk service could do with improvement. Breakfast was good and staff there very friendly. Diving equipment was good and staff great. Just a few refinements required and it would be a pleasure to stay there. Internet in rooms would be a big bonus
Stayed 3 nights in Dec 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 4 nights in Nov 2019

8/10 Good

theStanimal, Port Angeles, WA

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Quiet location at end of developed area, “around the corner,” slightly leeward of the prevailing winds. Menu is large but unreliable. Food okay, but grilled fish always over cooked. Breakfast buffet okay, coffee good. Juice is instant. Usually provided sliced mangoes. Water from tap very salty, regular soap provided does not lather, suggest bringing salt water soap. Room AC slight mildew odor.. Bar upstairs nice but empty of patrons. Found more people enjoying nightlife at other resort up the beach. Great area despite locals trashing their place and amazing island hopping. Nice snorkeling. Chinese scuba fanatics I met there rated it at 9 out of 10.
Stayed 7 nights in Aug 2019

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Lovely island would visit again
I enjoyed the stay the staff were very nice to me
Stayed 2 nights in Jul 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Location was ideal, right on the beach. Staff was very friendly and my dive master Dulter was very knowledgeable and eager to make all my dives informative and fun
Stayed 3 nights in Jun 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Nice Beach Hotel
My friend and I had a great stay at this hotel. We loved the location and being right on the beach. The staff was friendly and the amenities were nice for convenience, such as the dive shop and restaurant. Know that there are not roads on this island and the wifi is not the best anywhere. We definitely would stay here again. Know that salt water is what comes out of the shower head and sink though. I think it is a Malapascua issue though and there isn't anything they can do about it.
Stayed 3 nights in Feb 2019

10/10 Excellent

Jorunn

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
It IS exotic!
Beautiful setting "in an exotic environment". Restaurant with lots of choices at a reasonable price. Great buffet breakfast.2 weeks and no need to go anywhere else to eat. Upstairs bar for socializing at the end of the dives. Their own house reef - nice. Spacious rooms, only top floor gets sun (seaview smaller). A/C noisy (plans to change them). Toiletries: Only shampoo in plastic "bag" impossible to open + bars of soap. Kettle provided, but not coffee/tea (can be easily bought just outside the resort). Sand-flies in restaurant (sand needs raking everyday, not done). Soft sand everywhere, so no use of fancy shoes. Private transfer from Maya worth the price.Best if one can share a boat. No internet in rooms, and works intermittently in the joint areas (same all over the island, I believe).
Stayed 15 nights in Feb 2019

8/10 Good

Andrew

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
As with most of the hotels on Malapusca, the hotel is right on the beach. We were very grateful for the arrangement of travel for us from out hotel on Mactan Island to the boat to Malapusca, although I feel it was slightly misleading of them to tell us it included a private boat, as it was just the boat everyone else took, which we had to pay for, with added cost for an extra bag. The rooms themselves are very basic but clean, with good airc-onditionning.
Stayed 2 nights in Dec 2018

10/10 Excellent

Craig, Brisbane AU

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Friendly and fun staff. Delicious food and a peaceful, relaxed environment
Stayed 1 night in Nov 2018

8/10 Good

Frederick

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Stayed 1 night in Jul 2018

8/10 Good

Tao, China

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
We stayed in one of the family rooms for a week at Exotic. The place is right on the beach and what I loved about Exotic was the fact it was on the tail end of Bounty Beach so it’s much quieter. The staff were attentive and since my husband and I are plant based the breakfast was catered for our needs, they were very accommodating. The rooms were a good size and the TV worked well. The only thing we didn’t know was the showers are salt water. The rooms were cleaned each day with new towels, but the bathroom wasn’t cleaned that well and smelt of urine. There are sun lounges you can use for free with free beach towels upon request. There is NO pool at Exotic either, but the beach is literally on your doorstep. We came to Malapascua for scuba diving but one area they can improve on is the hospitality from the dive shop which they lacked. We didn’t have a good vibe and feel from the dive shop from the staff working there. They seemed bored and apparently there are two Caucasian guys who are the instructors and not once did they said hello to us. They didn’t sell the dive very well and just gave us the price list. That’s a shame really. We were going to be a family of 5 Divers! Exotic seems to be very popular stay with Chinese tourists from HK and mainland China and we found them very loud/smoking the whole time at the restaurant. The food at the restaurant is not bad either It’s a beautiful spot and an amazing beach with great dives if you are here for scuba diving.
Stayed 7 nights in Jul 2018

8/10 Good

Victoria, Cebu

Liked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
This is a great 3 star resort. Its my favorite on the island and I've been there 3 times and love it. There's a new roof top bar called the One up bar which is a great addition and I heard they'll be building a swimming pool soon. However it's right in the beach for swinging in a hammock or swimming. The restaurant has a great selection of tasty dishes. The rooms are basic and clean. I don't dive but my diving friends say it's the best. The service in the restaurant is way too slow. The staff are lovely and if you walk up to the counter they'll gladly get you what you want. But it's table service and most of the time the staff stand around talking and not attending to their guests. Luckily there are some other great spots to eat. Amihan, Angelina's and Maldito are favorites. Wait staff aside, I'll be back there as soon as I can :)
Stayed 3 nights in Jul 2018

10/10 Excellent

Alex, Hong Kong

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Staff and service very nice, only the Wi-Fi speed
Dive shop staff take care all level diver, I really enjoy diving with them.
Stayed 4 nights in Jun 2018
Response from CJ on 12 Jul 2018
Hi Alex, Thanks for the great feedback, we really appreciate it. I'm, glad that you enjoyed our staff's company. It is our passion to give excellent quality of service to our guests. We do not only treat them as just "guests" but more likely a family to us. Thanks for the feedback regarding the WiFi issue, rest assured, I will raise this issue with our management so that we could be able to resolve it as soon as possible. Looking forward to see you dive with us again soon!

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Beachfront hotel with well operating diving center
But a little far from Main Street, breakfast there is good, the diving cemetery is experienced
Stayed 1 night in May 2018
Response from CJ on 20 Jun 2018
That is such a great way to start our day today! Thank you so much for such a wonderful review and for taking the time to write.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Awesome diving and resort
Best resort on the island!! Only negatives: slow wifi and slow service at the restaurant.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Disliked: Property conditions & facilities
Too expensive for what you get
They put strong air fresheners in the room, and even the sheet and blanket had the strong smell of that, it was awful! Every time when we order food, it took them at least 30 minutes to deliver and 50% of the time you don't get what you ordered. We asked them for the room service and they forgot about it. The shower head is not movable, it's not convenient when you just want a shower without getting the hair wet. The room is big and has a nice TV, nice beach at the hotel, that was one thing very nice about this resort. But overall it's too pricy in terms of the service and facility.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2018

8/10 Good

Ron, Barrie

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Relaxing 10 days
The staff were amazing! Resort was quaint, peaceful and relaxing. Would have loved to dive but I caught a cold. Lazed by the beach on a daily basis on the comfy chairs. There was a great selection of meals at the restaurant. Will return again one day.
Stayed 10 nights in Jan 2018

6/10 Okay

Victoria, Cebu, Philippines

Liked: Cleanliness
Rustic Beach front slice of Paradise.
Malapascua is my favorite small Island. There are no roads and no cars and you can take a sandy path from one side of the Island to the other in 20 mins. It’s a favorite for divers, not really for snorkeling. Some great Restaurants and bars. Most accom on the Island is 3 Star with no pool. The beach is soft white sand. Exotic Dive Resort is my pick for hotel.
Stayed 3 nights in Jan 2018

10/10 Excellent

Helen, Sydney, Aus

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great hotel on the beach
The hotel included a wide choice of breakfast options which you could eat on the sandy dining area with a view of the sea. The staff were always really lovely and happy, albeit a little slow to grab their attention. Our room was spotless and as we were on our honeymoon they went to the effort of putting flowers everywhere which was a lovely touch. Its a little further up the beach from all the other hotels but we found that nice.
Stayed 5 nights in Dec 2017

8/10 Good

monty

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Come and dive and relax
Very enjoyable,quiet,comfortable place. Dive shop and personnel top notch. Restaurant pretty good and other options nearby.
Stayed 3 nights in Nov 2017

10/10 Excellent

Naomi, Cebu City

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Superb!
Great experience. Would highly recommend it! The staffs were very friendly and their service and facilities were very good.
Stayed 2 nights in Oct 2017

10/10 Excellent

Petia, Sofia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Excellent resort with all facilities needed
Perfect location, comfortable rooms, top quality dive shop with experienced guides and several boats. The restaurant and bar is one of the best on the island...so if you don't like you just don't need to go around. In my opinion the top place to stay on the island even if you are not a diver. If you are a diver i can add the the dive team is so professional and even caring all the time of all equipment and staff so you just relax and enjoy your diving. If you want to improve your skills they are offering all kind of courses lead by instructors. A prefect combination if you want to relax and take maximum from diving.
Stayed 10 nights in Sep 2017

8/10 Good

Sebastian

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Stay
We had a really good time at Exotic. The room was good, the restaurant was good and the beach was the best on the island. The only thing we can put a finger on, was when we booked an Island hopping tour, we got a snorkling tour instead. There was some miscomunication. Futheremore we booked a message (we are a couple) and when we showed up, they only had one masseuse. So we had to do it after oneanother. That's okay, but they needed to tell us, so we could consider if we wanted to use 2 hours instead of only one. Otherwise we had a great stay here at exotic!
Stayed 4 nights in Jul 2017

10/10 Excellent

Tomoko H, Cebu

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great ambiance and privacy
one of the best locations, great ambiance, nicely planted with tress to provide shade near the beach and most of all the food (kitchen staff were great)
Stayed 2 nights in Jun 2017

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Exotic review
Despite an upgrade room was average at best. Room cleaned was ok. Beach was not. Lots of trash on beach and in the water including several baby diapers !!!! Believe it. Water still look clear but not for long at this rate. Restaurant service not good. The only night I attempted to eat at the hotel after an hour of ordering my food had to leave the restaurant hungry. Correct. They never served me any food !!!! The most troublesome was the amount of garbage locals through into the waters and on the beach.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Amazing beach and best hotel on the island
Although the food wasnt the best Exotic has to offer, they have an amazing beach with quality tours for divers. We stayed for 5 days and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.

10/10 Excellent

Simon

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great resort on the beach
The room was very clean, spacious and comfortable. The resort in general was well maintained and had everything we needed - a nice section of beach with loungers etc, little foot pools in front of each room to wash the sand off, snorkel gear for hire, a restaurant serving a huge range of food (maybe too much) etc. Note that they will refill a water bottle for a small charge so you can reduce your plastic use. If you need small items like sunscreen, snacks etc there is an alley to the village close to the resort. It's also worth going for a walk there to see the contrast between the resorts and the way the locals live. Made us think twice about bargaining for fresh fruit etc sold by the local people on the beach. Note that it's a 10-15 minute walk along the beach from the public boat drop-off / pick-up point. You can book a private boat but you just pay the same as a full public boat would cost (PHP 100 per person * 15 people minimum = PHP 1,500). We booked a taxi from Maya to Cebu Mactan airport through the resort, it cost PHP 3,100. A guy in a resort t-shirt met us at Maya and showed us to the taxi.

8/10 Good

Andrea

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
This hotel has definitely the best beach in Malapascua. Breakfast was great for Asia, with a wide variety of food. Also is a quit place so you can have a rest if you need. If you´re looking for a place where is a vibe go to Buena Vida Resort. Rooms are ok, nothing special.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness
Disliked: Staff & service
Room was clean and comfortable . One thing, service at restaurant was below average. Breakfast ,most of foods are empty at 8 am and did not refill. At dinner, we had to wait one hour untill everyone get our food.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, room comfort
So so hotel
Its an OK place to stay but I prefer to stay somewhere in the center of bounty beach as I had to do a bit of a walk to get to other dives shops and restaurants. The room and bathroom is good but service in the restaurant can be slow. There is good selection of breakfast but flies are all over the fruits and salad. It would be great if they put a cover on it to prevent flies. I was put on a room near the beach which is good but it can be noisy at night since my room is facing the restaurant.

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

Diego, Edmonton , Canada

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Frontview ocean. Great scuba school.Very good food
Great staff and great food. Big thanks to Renelo our scuba instructor who treat us very good. Professional, polite and friendly staff. One of the best hotels in the island.

6/10 Okay

Aizad, Kuala Lumpur,

Liked: Cleanliness
Felt like a private beach. No WIFI in rooms
The hotel was nice. The beach was not too busy despite it not really being a private beach. The food at the restaurant was okay too. Didn't try the breakfast but didn't look too appetizing. Rooms were alright, looks dated but not uncomfortable. On the island, everything is walking distance so we didn't mind walking around to get to restaurants. There are little shops nearby that you can find basic goods. Hotel staff weren't that helpful when we wanted to take the boat to Maya. We asked if we could walk to the port but they insisted us to take a motorbike, saying we can't walk there. When we got to the port, we found out that it was possible to walk from the hotel in just 15 minutes as it is actually located next to the nice restaurants on the island which we walked to the day before.

10/10 Excellent

Carles

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
The rooms are clean and comfortable but whole premises are looking old and need some refurbishment. Restaurant has a very big selection of asian and western food. Staff was kind. Hotel has sunbeds (too few) in the beach in front. In general we liked but a bit expensive for such old premises.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Pleasant surprise! Gluten Free Friendly!!!
We stayed here for 5 nights and extended our stay for 2 more. The swimming in the ocean was magnificent and the staff went out of their way to make our stay so very enjoyable. I am gluten free and the food manager of the resort made sure I was taken care of and cooked special meals for me that were GREAT! The costing of the bar/food is so reasonable and you sure get a lot of bang for your buck here! The beds were very hard, but that is just not what we were used to so made sleeping difficult. A/C worked great and the size of room was huge! The breakfast that is included in the price of room was made to order and generous in size and hot and delicious....no cold mediocre buffet here! This resort was a wonderful place for us to spend our holiday.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Exotic Island Dive and Beach Resort, Dec 2016
The entire staff was fantastic and very helpful. The restaurant menu had a plethora of Asian and European selections, all of which were prepared perfectly. They also offer Heineken and San Miguel on tap. The dive locker, boats, equipment, and staff were very professional and attentive to every need.

10/10 Excellent

Michelle

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A peaceful paradise with amazing service
What a perfect stay - if you want to be able to leave behind the pace of life and completely take your foot off the gas, in search of complete chill time, then this is your place. The small effort to get there (Mactan airport - 3hrs in a car - 30 mins boat) is very worthwhile as, waiting for you, you will find a beautiful, picture postcard, secluded beach, palm trees and a lovely little resort to cater for all your needs. Chuck in a beach front room, an expertly run dive school, a hand full of good reads and a ever welcoming staff (with an awesome array of colourful uniforms), an extensive menu & happy hour choices to see you into the evening, then the scene is set for you have a truly well deserved relaxing break. Thank you all the staff for looking after us so well, you are all a credit to the resort.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Room comfort
Great Staff, Great Food, Tiny Room
The hotel is really old. The room condition is really not good. It has really limited space. Because I only had a small boarding suitcase so it is find for me. But my friend had a 28 inch luggage and he can't even find a place to lay down and open his luggage. So every-time he wants to pull some cloth from his bag he needs to open the case on this bed, and after that he needs to close the suitcase so that it can stranded in somewhere in the room. A lot of mosquito in the room, also some ants. The tap water is a little bit salty, which is fine as this is very common on the island. The service of restaurant and quality of food are great when comparing to other restaurant on the island.

8/10 Good

MARSH RYAN

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities
Nice, clean hotel and your literally on the beach
Our stay was amazing and the food is very good.

4/10 Poor

Yann

Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2024

8/10 Good

matthieu

Travelled with partner
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
Tres belle plage, excellent restaurant, à part le petit dejeuner qui est tres moyen. Propre et calme. Wifi peu performant et eau chaude plutot froide. Enfin super centre de plongee integre dans l hotel
Stayed 4 nights in Jan 2024

8/10 Good

Yoshio

Travelled with group
Liked: Staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
料理がうまい。何をたべても美味しい。 スタッフが優しい。 シャワーは弱い。 街から離れている。
Stayed 3 nights in Dec 2023

10/10 Excellent

Bjørn Vegard

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Paradise island
Amazing ambiance and friendly staff. Would come back anytime for this paradise
Stayed 3 nights in May 2023

10/10 Excellent

Lene thygesen

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Fantastisk beliggenhed. Serviceminded personale
Dejlig rolige omgivelser. Service mindet, smilende hjælpsom personale. Fantastisk beliggenhed. Gode snorkel/ dykker mulighed. Maden i restauranten var prima.
Udsigt fra værelset
Stayed 4 nights in Jan 2023

10/10 Excellent

Fridolin

Stayed 4 nights in Jan 2023