Blue Mango Inn – Boracay 2013

When we got to the Blue Mango Inn they apologized for not picking us up at the station but since we made our reservations through Agoda they did not have our flight info.  I told them we took the bus and they said they still would have picked us up.  So next time I guess we will call first.  Anyway they had a boy take our bags to our room and gave us a welcome drink.  So far so good.  The room was very nice sized, good aircon, and wonderful view of the garden. 

Later I was very pleasantly surprised by a couple small things that are more important than you would think.  First they had an actual adult sized toilet.  You should see the little toilets here – kind of a joke really.  I feel like I am using the kids restroom at the schools I used to work for.  The other thing was the hot shower.  Most places that offer hot showers have an electric spot heater that usually has very little control of temperature or flow.  So it is too hot/too cold/no flow.  But they had actual hot water piped in from a central heater.  So not only the shower but the sink had hot water.  Comfortable shaving!  Ok, I said they were little things, but you live here after being used to the US and see how much you appreciate real plumbing ha ha

The room was pretty big for a Filipino hotel.  About the size of a Travel Lodge type of motel in the US.  And I already said they had great plumbing but also they did not have a tabo (bucket) by the toilet.  And the shower was actually separated from the rest of the bathroom by a partition.  Usually the shower is just a shower head in the wall next to the toilet.  Makes for a very wet bathroom.  Yeah… I miss real plumbing.  We had great balcony with a beautiful view of the gardens.  The gardens help block the view of all the other hotels.  They really do cram the hotels in tight here. But this one felt very secluded – good job of camouflage. 

Foreigners can’t own businesses or property over here in the Philippines so I don’t know who technically owns the hotel, but Vaughan is the American who runs it.  He is very friendly, and a great host.  He makes sure and meets everyone that checks in and gets to know you a little and tries to see if he can help with anything you need while here.  It is a dive resort so he has a lot to do to keep people on schedule and happy.

The first night, after our beach excursion, it started to look rainy (yeah, it rained every night we are here) so we opted to eat at the hotel for the first dinner.  I ordered a cheeseburger and it was a good, standard American sized, burger.  Nice lettuce, big wonderful bun, and decent cheese. All of which are luxuries over here!  The girls split a chicken curry.  Good thing they split it because it was HUGE!  The prices were very reasonable for a hotel restaurant. About p1,000 ($23 USD) for the 3 of us for dinner and drinks.  Most of our meals will come from small local fast food shops for 1/3 of the price, but some splurging is in order while vacation.

Breakfast is included in our daily room rates, which were about p2,450 ($57 USD) a night. Over the 4 mornings we had pancakes, fried eggs, scrambled eggs, toast, rice, you know, breakfast.  Oh, the bread.  OMG, the bread!  Ok so no offense intended but most Filipino bread sucks. (ok the jumbo pan de sal is good, but anyway)  This was a huge multigrain loaf with sunflower seeds in it.  Very good on a grilled cheese but amazing for toast!  Vaughan said there was an American down in Station 2 with a bakery. I think I like the food in Boracay.   The breakfast had quite a few options for an included breakfast.  Not just cold cereal and a donut like a lot of places.  Menu prices would be about p600 ($13 USD) for the 3 of us.

We had one more dinner here and the girls got the chicken curry again, way to branch out and try new things, huh?  I cannot remember what I had that night.  But I did have a grilled cheese for lunch while they napped that afternoon, and it was good. All the food here was really good.   It was more like American prices but was worth it.  And like I said most of our meals were from Andok’s or something similar, so good Filipino prices.

They have direct beach access and you can get full table service from the restaurant on the beach. You don’t have to have direct beach access to enjoy the beach, but it is kind of nice. 

The Blue Mango Inn is a fantastic hotel.  I simply cannot recommend it enough. 

Here is my other Boracay blogs and a couple useful travel links.