The Ananyana Beach Resort by SMS Hospitality

The Ananyana Beach Resort by SMS Hospitality: On Doljo Beach

The Ananyana sits on Doljo Beach, on Panglao’s northwest coast — a different stretch of shoreline from the reef-dense, dive-shop-lined Alona strip roughly six kilometers south. Doljo faces north, which makes it noticeably calmer than Alona during the southwest monsoon (roughly July through September), when Alona’s more exposed water turns choppy. That’s the trade guests are making here: quieter water and open beach frontage over Alona’s density of restaurants, bars, and dive shops.

Rooms

The resort holds 16 rooms across four categories, per its own listing: Superior Panoramic (from around ₱4,868 a night, ground or second floor, styled with native Boholano touches), Deluxe Sea View (from around ₱5,606, second floor, king bed, private balcony), Family Room (from around ₱7,081, ground floor, two queen beds), and a Suite Room (from around ₱7,081, ground or second floor, private balcony, positioned in front of the pool). Rooms include air-conditioning, a 32-inch flat-screen TV, a minibar, an electric kettle, and complimentary bottled water and toiletries, with daily housekeeping.

Guest reviews are genuinely split on room condition — several describe rooms as spacious and clean with working balconies and good bathrooms; others report mosquitoes or ants in specific rooms, or air-conditioning that needed a room change to resolve. That range is worth knowing going in, and it lines up with a 6.0-out-of-10 aggregate Booking.com score across a real review base (53 recorded at last check, close to roughly 68 aggregated across platforms) — not a property with uniformly excellent execution, but not a poor one either.

Beach, Pool, and Grounds

Direct beach access is the property’s core asset. Reviews specifically praise the beachfront, the sunset views from the shoreline, and a garden large enough for children to run around in; one guest mentioned complimentary kayak and life-vest use during their stay. The outdoor pool sits in front of the Suite Rooms. Not every account is positive on the beach itself — one recent guest noted floating debris and shoreline litter needing cleanup, and a few mention stray dogs on the sand, which is common across Panglao’s less-managed stretches and worth factoring in.

Dining

The in-house restaurant serves Filipino and international dishes, and it’s the detail guests single out most consistently — one reviewer called the food the best they’d had anywhere in the Philippines and ate dinner there nightly rather than venturing out. That matters practically: Doljo’s distance from Panglao’s main tourist strip means eating off-property generally requires hired transport (guests mention renting scooters for roughly 400–500 PHP), and the resort has at points run cash-only, so it’s worth confirming payment options before relying on a card.

Practical Notes

Check-in is from 2pm, check-out by noon. The resort sits about 15 minutes from Bohol–Panglao International Airport — closer to the airport than to Alona Beach, which is closer to 6km south. WiFi has been reported as intermittent by more than one guest, and a few mention generator noise reaching certain rooms — worth requesting a room away from it if you’re a light sleeper. Amenities beyond the beach and pool include on-site massage, scuba diving and snorkeling bookings, bicycle rental, and a beauty salon.

The Wider Area

Panglao’s beach-tourism economy has genuine range: backpacker rooms start around 600–800 PHP a night, mid-range cottages run 3,000–6,000 PHP, and a small number of four-star-level properties sit above that — Ananyana’s own room rates (roughly ₱4,900 to ₱7,100) place it toward the upper end of that spread. None of this existed in its current form especially long ago: organized dive tourism on Alona dates to the early 1980s, but the pace of development picked up substantially after Panglao’s own international airport opened in 2018, removing the Tagbilaran layover most arrivals previously needed.

Day trips from Doljo run the same routes as from anywhere on the island — Chocolate Hills and the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary near Corella are both roughly 45 minutes to an hour inland, and are typically combined with a stop on the Loboc River. At the sanctuary, guides tend to repeat a long-standing local belief — never confirmed, but widely held on Bohol — that disturbing or laughing at a tarsier brings bad luck, part of why flash photography and handling are discouraged regardless of the animal’s genuine sensitivity to stress.

Who It Suits

Ananyana suits travelers who want direct beach frontage, a quieter north-facing shoreline, and don’t mind arranging their own transport for anything beyond the property. It’s a weaker fit for anyone who wants to walk to Alona’s restaurant and dive-shop density, or who needs guaranteed uniform room quality — the review spread here is real and worth reading in full before booking a specific room type.