Malipaj Apartments

Malipaj Apartments: Panglao Apartment Stay

Malipaj Apartments is a small, purpose-built apartment complex — nine units, per its Booking.com listing — sitting inland from Alona Beach, roughly 1.3 miles away, and only about 0.6 miles from Bohol–Panglao International Airport. That airport proximity matters more than the beach distance for most guests here: this is a self-catering base first, a beach base second. The coordinates place it near Barangay Danao’s interior, about 2.3 miles from Panglao’s town center.

The Apartments

Units are air-conditioned with flat-screen TVs, private bathrooms, kettles, and free WiFi; some apartments have fully equipped kitchens rather than just a kettle and fridge, which sets Malipaj apart from the standard single-room budget stay found closer to the strip. A garden and bar sit alongside a year-round outdoor pool, with balcony access and pool or garden views depending on the unit. Continental and American breakfast, with fruit and juice, is served each morning. Hostelworld carries the property’s OTA rating at 8.7 (“Fabulous”) from 54 reviews — a reasonably solid sample for a property this size — while a separate Booking.com listing shows a slightly different figure, a common split when a small property runs on more than one platform with different guest pools reviewing it.

Getting Around from Here

Reaching Alona Beach means a short tricycle ride rather than a walk; island tricycle fares generally run PHP 80–120 shared and PHP 250–350 hired outright. The airport’s closeness cuts both ways: convenient for arrival and departure, but it also means occasional aircraft noise depending on flight schedules and wind direction, something not mentioned in the marketing copy but worth flagging for light sleepers.

The Reef and What It Takes to Reach It

Alona’s house reef, the island’s main snorkeling and dive zone, sits 30–50 metres offshore and drops to a wall around 20–30 metres, with 8–15 metres of visibility depending on the day. Some sections are still recovering from the 2016 regional bleaching event; others are in solid shape. Boat dives run daily to Balicasag Island, 20 minutes out by outrigger, known for its sea turtle cleaning stations — access there is capped by the municipal government at 150 divers and snorkelers a day, two dives maximum, with a roughly PHP 250 environmental fee collected per diver, a direct response to how much traffic the reef would otherwise absorb.

Countryside Day Trips

A common circuit from this side of the island combines the Chocolate Hills, about 45 minutes inland with an observation deck and an optional quad-bike route, with the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary at a similar distance and a Loboc River lunch cruise. These are typically arranged through independent van operators rather than through the apartment complex itself, and most run as half-day trips.

Food and a Note on the Water

With a kitchen in some units, self-catering is genuinely practical here — a rarity in Panglao’s accommodation mix, where most properties assume guests eat out. For a taste of something specifically local, kinilaw na tanigue — raw Spanish mackerel cured in coconut vinegar, ginger, chilli, and onion — uses vinegar tapped and produced on Panglao itself, and is worth seeking out at a market stall rather than a tourist restaurant. One practical note that applies regardless of kitchen access: Panglao draws its water from a freshwater lens rather than any river, and tap water is not potable anywhere on the island — bottled or filtered water is standard practice, including for cooking.

Why the Airport Is So Close

Bohol–Panglao International Airport, a short ride from Malipaj, opened in 2018 and shifted most of the province’s air traffic away from the older Tagbilaran City airstrip on the mainland — one reason the resort corridor along this stretch of the island has kept expanding inland rather than staying confined to the original Alona beachfront cluster where organized tourism first took hold in the early 1980s. Organized dive tourism on Alona itself traces back to backpackers building small huts and dive shops along what was then undeveloped shoreline; growth through the 1990s and the airport’s 2018 opening are the two events most often cited for how quickly the island’s accommodation base multiplied.

Who This Suits

Malipaj works well for longer stays, groups splitting a kitchen-equipped unit, and travelers prioritizing airport convenience over beachfront location. It’s less suited to anyone wanting to walk straight onto Alona’s sand, or expecting resort-level service from a nine-unit apartment building. Given the size of the property, availability during Holy Week, Christmas week, and Chinese New Year books out fast — resorts across Panglao routinely run near-full occupancy in those windows.

Both Stay22 and Booking.com carry live availability for Malipaj Apartments; confirm current nightly rates directly rather than relying on the estimate in this listing’s price field.