ALONALAND RESORT

ALONALAND RESORT: A 593-Review Guesthouse With a Pool Table

Alonaland Resort sits a 12-minute walk from Alona Beach, about 1.2 miles from Bohol-Panglao International Airport. It carries an 8.9 (Fabulous) rating on Hostelworld from 593 reviews — one of the larger review bases among Panglao’s budget-to-mid-range properties — and is separately listed near 8.7 on Booking.com, where couples rate the location 8.4 for a two-person trip.

Rooms and Shared Spaces

Rooms are air-conditioned with a desk, electric kettle, fridge, safety deposit box, flat-screen TV, and a private balcony; bathrooms have walk-in showers rather than tubs. Some units add a fully equipped kitchen, useful for longer stays or travelers cooking their own catch. Shared facilities include an outdoor swimming pool, a garden with barbecue facilities, a patio, and a pool table — an unusual amenity mix for this price tier, closer to a hostel common room than a typical Panglao inn. On clear evenings the property lights an outdoor fireplace, and free Wi-Fi and private parking cover the grounds.

The Sorbetes Cooperative

On the island’s north side in Barangay Tangnan, a community cooperative called KASOTAPA — Kapunungan sa mga Sorbeteros sa Tangnan Panglao — runs a small sorbetes production line built under the national One Town One Product program. It’s a livelihood project rather than a tourist attraction dressed up as one: visitors can watch the mixing and freezing process before buying the Filipino street-ice-cream directly from the parlour counter, and the income supports the cooperative’s member households rather than a single owner.

Reaching the Reef

The 12-minute walk to Alona Beach puts guests within range of the dive shops lining the 1.2-kilometre coralline-sand strip in Barangay Tawala, where the house reef runs from shallow coral gardens down to a wall at 20–30 metres. Boat trips from the beach front run to Balicasag Island, about 20 minutes by outrigger, prized for its turtle cleaning stations and the Black Forest wall past 40 metres — access there is capped at 150 divers and snorkelers a day by the municipal government, with a roughly ₱250 environmental fee per visitor.

Local Taste Nearby

Larsian-style barbecue stalls set up along the Tawala road from late afternoon, grilling pork, chicken, and seafood skewers to order — a cheap, informal dinner option a short walk from the resort, priced by the stick rather than the plate. Fishing households closer to Danao still prepare their own kinilaw na tanigue — raw Spanish mackerel cured in coconut vinegar tapped and produced on Panglao itself, along with ginger, chili, and onion.

A Younger Coastline Than It Looks

The tourism economy that supports guesthouses like this one is only a few decades old. Organized dive tourism on Alona Beach began in the early 1980s, when backpackers travelling through the Visayas started putting up small huts and dive shops along what was then undeveloped shoreline; growth continued steadily through the 1990s and accelerated sharply after Panglao International Airport opened in 2018, pulling much of Bohol’s air traffic away from Tagbilaran’s older airfield. A 12-minute walk from the beach today puts a guest roughly where the original backpacker lodges would have sat, before the strip filled in closer to the water.

Practical Details

Tricycles to Tagbilaran run roughly PHP 150–250; ferries to Cebu take about two hours from Tagbilaran port. Evening noise from restaurants and bars along the walk to Alona typically settles by around 11pm. Panglao’s tap water isn’t potable anywhere on the island — the municipality has no river system, and both residents and resorts draw from a freshwater lens that sits above denser saltwater in the porous limestone bedrock. Bottled or filtered water is standard practice here, not a resort upsell, and it’s worth budgeting for on longer stays that make use of the in-room kitchens.

Who Should Book Here

The pool table, kitchen units, and larger review base make this a reasonable fit for longer stays, small groups, or travelers who want more self-catering flexibility than a standard lodge room offers. It works for budget-to-mid-range travelers prioritizing reef access and social common areas over beachfront positioning.

Skip it if beachfront proximity matters more than a 12-minute walk, or if a fully serviced resort experience — daily housekeeping extras, a restaurant on-site — is the priority. Travelers weighing an inland-day itinerary should note that Chocolate Hills and the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella both run roughly 45 minutes inland from Panglao, workable as a single half-day tour booked through operators along the Tawala road, leaving evenings free to use the pool table and fireplace back at the resort.

Getting There & Booking

From Tagbilaran City or the airport, tricycles reach Panglao in 15–20 minutes over the Tagbilaran–Dauis bridge. Book through Stay22, Hostelworld, or Booking.com directly; the high review count across platforms gives a reliable read on current guest experience.