Nay Palad Hideaway

Why book?

As one of the few true luxury resorts in the Philippines, Nay Palad Hideaway delivers a whimsical and welcome alternative to the straight-lined beach resorts dominating much of Southeast Asia. Its all-inclusive concept means there’s no fussing about signing bills after lunch or scanning the activities list for prices, which sets the tone for a proper toes-in-the-sand break on one of the country’s prettiest islands.

Set the scene

After the 1.5-hour flight from Manila to Siargao and the 40-minute airport transfer in Nay Palad’s beige-painted jeepney (a typically Filipino minibus), arriving at the resort feels like stumbling into a Mad Hatter’s tea party on the beach. From the entrance, sandy pathways snake through frangipani-scented tropical gardens and past pointy roofs covered in nipa palm thatch poking out of the foliage. Closer to the sea, the same thatch covers a complex of treehouses and breezy pavilions, where you’ll find barefoot and linen-clad guests sipping G&Ts in secret seating nooks or pillow-strewn daybeds on the palm-tufted beach. It’s a whimsical jumble where no detail – down to the logoed glass dinner plates and lace-hemmed towels – has been overlooked, and even after your third day, you’ll still discover new bird nest-like hideaways and lounge-y wicker-woven cabanas hanging like giant Hershey’s Kisses from crooked palm trees.

The backstory

Nay Palad’s prologue has so many twists and turns; a book has been written about it (look up Not For Sale by the resort’s Belgian-German founder and former professional football player Robert Dekeyser). The resort started in 2012 as a living showroom for Dekeyser’s outdoor furniture business DEDON. It rebranded to its current format when Dekeyser sold DEDON to an external party in 2016. On 16 December 2021, typhoon Odette rang in a new chapter, wrecking the island and reducing much of the resort to rubble. After first putting their focus on helping the local community rebuild their homes, it took the team well over a year to bring Nay Palad back to life. Architect Daniel Pouzet, who also designed the resort’s first iteration, orchestrated the renovation and doubled down on his signature organic style with an all-new restaurant complex, a floating conversation pit, and a multi-tiered tree house lounge that wouldn’t look out of place in Alice’s Wonderland. After months of clearing up debris, renovating the villas and re-shaping the communal areas from scratch, Nay Palad Hideaway 2.0 welcomed back its first guests in June 2023.

The rooms

The eight villas – of which four have views of the Philippine Sea and the ‘Naked Island’ sandbank on the horizon – have largely retained their pre-typhoon blueprint and wood-and-wicker decor. Under soaring thatch roofs inspired by rural Indonesian dwellings, they now house two bedrooms on separate floors with beautifully carved headboards and billowing mosquito nets. Their spa-like bathrooms take up almost half the floor plans and centre around a wall-less rain shower suspended from the ceiling. There’s a second outdoor shower on the wrap-around terrace, where you’ll also find a supremely comfortable swing lounger rocking in the sea breeze. For bigger crews, there’s a three-bedroom Coral Villa and the swirling Perlah Villa complex, which comes with space for up to nine guests and has a pool, dining pavilion and secluded beachfront lawn for barbecues.

Food and drink

Top-notch. From his glass-walled kitchen at the heart of the resort, young-gun chef Père Massana and his team borrow recipes from Massana’s native Spain, the Mediterranean and the Philippine archipelago and turn them into multi-course feasts that change depending on the ingredients available. One day that could be a zingy tomato gazpacho followed by just-caught and grilled mahi-mahi, while the next dinner could include a brilliant rendition of Filipino insalada talong (aubergine salad), chicken adobo and skewered prawns. While there’s no menu, the team is happy to take requests (do ask for the coconut flatbreads) and keep dietary preferences into consideration. Matching the anything-goes vibe that flows through the resort, the breezy restaurant pavilion is merely a suggestion – ordering lunch or dinner to your private terrace, a candlelit table on the beach, or one of the dozen-or-so secret seating nooks scattered around the property is actively encouraged.

The spa

Tucked out of sight in the jungled gardens, the spa unfurls like a small Hobbit village of pointy-roofed treatment rooms connected by wooden pathways. Treatments range from aprés-surf aloe-vera massages to Thai-style rubdowns and locally-inspired hilot healing sessions and can be ended with a soak in a candle-lit bathtub. For Zen-ing out more actively, there are guided yoga sessions on a platform overlooking the mangroves behind the resort or in a stilted pavilion some 200 metres off the coast.

The neighbourhood

It’d be easy to spend a week around Nay Palad’s beachfront area, alternating between dips in the pool, reading books in a hammock, and tours around the gin-clear water in a see-through kayak – but on-the-up Siargao is well-worth exploring. The year-round surf breaks – including the fast-barreling tubes of Cloud 9 some 30 minutes from the resort – draw most visitors to the island, and Nay Palad’s team has a Rolodex of pro surf instructors on call to show guests the best waves. Beyond surfing, there are countless beaches, Listerine-blue lagoons and outlying islets to explore, while the island’s largest town, General Luna, clings to its on-the-cusp-of-discovery vibe with a relaxed but burgeoning restaurant and beach bar scene that channels the Bali south coast of 20 years ago.

The service

Filipino hospitality is generally hard to beat, but even Filipinos from outside the island will tell you that Siargaoans are some of the most hospitable people they’ve ever met. It’s no surprise that the largely local resort staff at Nay Palad delivers the kind of service you want to find in an unfussy, toes-in-the-sand spot like this: always on the ball but appropriately casual and only there when you need it. Upon arrival, you’ll be invited to slip off your shoes and use the resort as your home – which means it’s totally fine to order breakfast at 3 PM or pop behind the pool bar to fix yourself a calamansi-spiked mojito.

For families

The secret bird nest hideaways, shallow pool and swing loungers dangling from trees make this a playground for all ages. There’s a trampoline and climbing tree for little ones and grassy lawns for games of soccer or badminton. Come nighttime, the pop-up outdoor cinema and s’mores around a beachfront bonfire pit will allow plenty of parent private time.

Eco effort

The on-site organic farm, close relations with local farmers and fisherfolk, and a total ban on single-use plastics can be expected from a resort of this calibre. Still, Nay Palad is also actively involved in the protection and post-typhoon regeneration of the sprawling mangrove system that fringes the property on one side.

Accessibility

The resort is disappointingly not wheelchair-friendly.