South Palms Resort: How Panglao's first five-star hotel combines luxury and culture

Your personal oasis

You can take your pick from four different rooms infused with locally crafted touches, such as coconut wood furnishings, artisan-made rugs, and a wall rack made from salvaged Boholano wood.

I was assigned to one of the Superior Rooms, which is priced at P16,650 per night and includes a private balcony and a lounge area where you can immerse yourself in the lush tropical greenery and glimpses of the big, blue sea. 

The most divine part of the room was perhaps the spacious bathroom, which gives you more than enough elbow room to enjoy the steam of a hot morning shower or the tranquil soak of an evening bath.

The Deluxe Rooms, priced at P22,050 per night, meanwhile, give you a private terrace with a semi-private pool access surrounded by lush, tropical gardens.

For a more spacious option, you can get the Junior Suite at P39,150 per night, which has a private plunge pool with sweeping ocean views, or the Diwata Suite at P41,400 per night, which features a plush king bed, artisan-crafted furniture, and handwoven textiles and illustrations paying homage to the island’s legendary Diwatas.

On the outside, its villas are imbued with Bohol’s vibrant history and showcase paintings based on different themes: the famous Chocolate Hills for the nature theme, local fish for the harvest theme, and tribal tattoos for the culture theme. 

Play time

The resort offers a massive outdoor pool with a stunning ocean view, perfect for a lazy day of floating. Kids will love their own dedicated area, which features a shallow pool with a manta ray slide and a large wooden tarsier play area.

Beyond the pools, the nearby beach is a hub for adventure. You can grab gear from the on-site booth for activities like paddleboarding, fishing, and snorkeling. The resort also organizes other activities, including sunset painting, island hopping, beach volleyball, and dolphin and whale watching tours.

“We wanted to make sure that every family, every individual coming to this resort experiences great activities. People want to take experiences from the resort, from the hotel, and not coming in, eating, sleeping, and checking out and nothing memorable,” said Danish Khan, General Manager at South Palms Resort.

“This resort is full of energy, full of activities, and memorable moments. When our first guests have started coming in, they will all take good memories from the hotel,” he added.

Immersing in Boholano culture

What makes South Palms Resort more special, however, is how you can get a renewed appreciation for nature through their working farm experience.

A five-minute journey will take you to South Farm, where you can engage with all sorts of organic farming practices that will give you a hands-on connection to the land that nourishes the resort.

During our tour, we didn't just see the farm animals from a distance—we got to feed and interact with them. We visited a lively bunch of pigs, goats, sheep, and rabbits, and even came face-to-face with an ostrich.

If the farming experience has got you itching for more culturally rich activities, immerse yourself in the rare art of Asin Tibuok salt-making in Asinan ni Tan Inong. This UNESCO-recognized practice involves slow-cooking high-salinity seawater layer by layer in coconut shells.

The MGallery brand considers this as their so-called “M Moment,” which is a unique experience that is meaningful and memorable to a particular destination.

Our tour guide, Krai, told us, “We can come up with a sunset cruise—beautiful sunset, beautiful yacht, romantic dinner, but that's been done over and over and over again. So the question is, how do we consider M-Moment? It should be meaningful, it should be memorable, and it has its purpose. So the first time we visited the Asin Tibuok, and knowing about the tradition, the heritage, how they pour out the hard work, we said, ‘This is it.’”

The production of Asinan ni Tan Inong is headed by siblings Nestor and Veron, who were bursting with pride at their work, and deservedly so, as they have to go through a painstakingly slow and complex process just to keep the practice going since the 1960s.

“They revived this, not for the product, not for the money, but for the respect to the ancestors because it was given to them,” Krai said. “So that's what we want to bring to our guests, because our hotel, our property, the service that we want to bring is really a Boholano culture. This is tradition. This is heritage.”

For P6,000, guests can add the hour-long experience to their stay. They will be walked through the factory and the process of making Asin Tibuok, and at the end of it all, they can take one home that makes for a savory addition to meals with its distinctive, sharp taste with smoky and fruity undertones.

Rest and relaxation

With all these adventures, it wouldn’t be a surprise if you come home with your muscles and joints all aching, and South Palms Resort has the perfect solution for that.

Set to open this September, Lola's Kitchen Wellness Hub will pamper you with traditional Boholano healing. You can enjoy a hilot massage and body wraps made with local ingredients like coconut oil, turmeric, and honey.

All treatments use herbs, flowers, and vegetables grown on the nearby South Farm. To complete the experience, you'll be served with detox juices and herbal teas made from the same fresh, local ingredients.

South Palms also has not one, but three different food establishments to keep you energized for the day. 

UMA, meaning “farm" in Filipino, highlights progressive local cuisine and offers seafood, fruits, and vegetables fresh from the seas and the South Farm, while MANJA has a wide selection of dishes from across the globe, such as brick oven pizza and toasted sandwiches. 

My taste buds particularly danced from the scrumptious Panglao Crab Cake, the softness of the Charred Eggplant Omelet, and the vivid flavor of the Korean Chicken Popcorn.

SIRENNA, on the other hand, is the resort’s Mediterranean tiki bar where you can fulfill your dreams of daydreaming in front of the ocean with a drink in hand and feet in the sand or sharing stories with friends as you enjoy some BBQ over a firepit.

Chef Bettina Arguelles, who collaborated with the resort to create the menu, told us that she was honored to be able to connect to her roots and to “make Filipino cuisine shine” through the project.

“With UMA... we decided to go hyperlocal. We were focusing on regional ingredients and regional cuisines. This was so important for food culture,” she said.

“Unfortunately, now with modernization and all that, we're slowly starting to forget many things of our history and our past, so I think that's why we're really blessed to be here because we were given the opportunity to reconnect with those ingredients that are starting to be forgotten,” she added.

All in all, South Palms Resort & Spa MGallery can back up its five-star rating with its friendly staff, room amenities, outdoor facilities, and culture-based activities. The experience was more than memorable enough to give me a getaway worth sharing, and a reason to come back.

Disclaimer: The trip was sponsored by South Palms Resort & Spa Panglao MGallery.