Hotel Renate

Hotel Renate

Hotel Renate sits in Purok 5, Barangay Danao, with Alona Beach listed at about 950 metres away and the airport roughly a kilometre in the other direction. Booking.com scores it 8.0 (“Very Good”) from 239 reviews, and guest feedback on the platform runs a touch higher, at 8.2, commonly citing the location, attentive staff, and balcony views as the strongest points of a stay.

The rooms

The property is compact — 9 rooms total — each furnished as a family room with a private bathroom, air conditioning, garden views, a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, a mini-fridge, and tea and coffee facilities. Separate toilet and shower areas, hairdryers, and towels round out the bathroom setup, a step up in detail from many similarly priced Panglao inns.

On site

A garden and terrace anchor the common areas, along with a bar and free WiFi. The front desk runs 24 hours with multilingual staff, offers luggage storage, and can arrange a roundtrip airport shuttle for a surcharge — useful given the short but not walkable distance to the terminal.

Getting to the beach and reef

From Danao, reaching Alona Beach means a short tricycle hop rather than a walk from the hotel’s inland position; from there, the island’s core dive geography applies — a house reef dropping to a wall around 20–30 metres a short swim offshore, and boat trips out to Balicasag Island, about 20 minutes away, where the municipal government caps diving and snorkeling at 150 people a day and collects a roughly ₱250 environmental fee per diver to manage pressure on the sanctuary.

A dish to look for after dark

Roadside barbecue stalls set up along the Tawala road most evenings, serving Larsian-style grilled skewers and fish — a cheaper, more local alternative to hotel and resort dining, and a common stop for guests who’ve spent the day on the water and want dinner among locals rather than at a beachfront restaurant.

Water, honestly

Panglao has no rivers; every property on the island, Hotel Renate included, draws water from a freshwater lens sitting above denser groundwater in the island’s limestone bedrock. Published studies have found chloride levels in some wells running well above the WHO’s 250 mg/L guidance during dry-season demand peaks, which is why tap water isn’t safe to drink anywhere on Panglao and bottled or filtered water is the standard for guests and residents alike.

Getting around and day trips

A tricycle to Tagbilaran City runs about 150–200 PHP, crossing one of the two bridges linking Panglao to the mainland. The most common inland pairing from a Danao base is the Chocolate Hills with a Loboc River cruise, both roughly 45 minutes to an hour away and typically booked as a half-day tour.

The island before it was a dive destination

Panglao carries evidence of pre-colonial habitation in coastal shell middens, and the Spanish established a mission parish here in the 17th century, centuries before organised dive tourism arrived. That tourism trade only began in earnest in the early 1980s, when backpackers travelling through the Visayas started putting up beach huts and dive shops along what was then undeveloped shoreline at Alona — growth that continued through the 1990s and accelerated sharply after Panglao International Airport opened in 2018.

More of the reef system than Balicasag alone

Beyond the standard Balicasag run, Panglao’s dive operators also reach the Cathedral dive site, a swim-through favored by certified divers, and Puntod Reef, a shallower spot closer to shore. Which sites a given boat trip covers depends on the operator and conditions on the day, so it’s worth confirming an itinerary rather than assuming a fixed route.

The other half of a countryside day trip

Guests pairing a Hotel Renate stay with the standard inland tour usually combine Chocolate Hills with a Loboc River cruise — a slower boat ride aboard a floating restaurant, often with a live band, that works as much as a lunch stop as a scenic trip. It’s a lower-key add-on than the tarsier sanctuary or the hills themselves, and a common way to fill out a full-day excursion booked through a tour desk or hired driver.

What diving actually costs

For guests deciding whether to add water activities to a stay built more around location and service than beach frontage, a two-tank introductory dive with a Panglao operator typically runs 3,500–4,500 PHP, gear included — a useful budgeting reference given that certification level and site choice both move the final price.

Who it suits

At 8.0–8.2 across 239 reviews with compact, well-appointed rooms, Hotel Renate suits travelers who want a small, service-attentive property close to the airport and willing to tricycle rather than walk to Alona’s beach and dive shops.

Getting There & Booking

Rooms can be checked and booked directly through Booking.com or via Stay22.