Find hotels near Kaputian District - Samal Island in Davao City, Philippines

We loved Pearl Farm! The staff members are always smiling and seem eager to please, and the amenities and facilities were awesome. The only "issue" we had was when the airconditioner in the room we stayed in, Samal House 3, broke down after dinnertime. The Front Office quickly sent someone to check on it; the unit turned on again, but turned off by itself after a few minutes. The Front Office then called us to say that they will have to transfer us to another Samal House (#1) - good thing it was available and they weren't fully booked that time. Samal House 1 was smaller, but that was perfectly fine because the amenities were almost the same. I just noticed that the toilet/bathroom area had one or two small cockroaches - maybe they need to beef up the extermination services a bit. The food in the restaurant was awesome, especially the seafood items! The ebi tempura was the freshest (and sweetest) I've tasted in my life; same with the squid tempura. Service staff are very courteous, always smiling and are very knowledgeable about their resort. We will definitely go back to Pearl Farm, and highly recommend it to others who are planning to go to Samal Island, Davao!

My partner and I stayed at Hof Gorei (www.hofgorei-resortdavao.com), Samal Island for 4 nites/5 days. For the first night, we stayed at one of the Round Huts, which are small, private, and charming. For the next 3 nites, we stayed at the amazing Pinzgau Chalet, which is located on the top of the resort and has large rooms and best views of the Davao Gulf and Mt Apo National Park. All rooms have a great low price, too. As a biologist and teacher, I love interacting and learning about nature. At the resort, they have beautiful gardens, cool tropical animals, and a lovely beach. I went scuba diving in the gulf seeing many corals and fish and thoroughly enjoyed it despite the highest cost I paid for diving in the Philippines. We took the Samal Island tour, which included touring the largest colony of fruit bats (about 2.3 million), swimming in Hagimit Falls and Nature Park, and taking the exciting ride down the waterslide at Maxima Aquafun. All activities are reasonably priced, but have a 10% service charge. We ate the resort's delicious meals at the Gorei Terrace, Stone hut (private), and the Pinzgao chalet (private). There's also dining in your room, on the beach and by the pool. We also had drinks at the Sepp bar in the lush garden. All meals were made to order, very good, expensive and had a 10% service charge. Throughout our entire stay, we had a butler, Moman, who took good care of us, got our meals, took our photos, arranged our activities and transportation. It was our first experience with butler service and Moman was perfect. He took care of all our requests with enthusiasm and charm and even anticipated our needs. The owner/host is April, who amused us with her stories, amazed us with her resort, and made sure our stay was wonderful and rated 5 stars! I've been to Davao, Mt Apo, and Samal Island, but at Hof Gorei, I experienced the charm and grace of its people, natural beauty, breath-taking views, and both lively fun and blissful peace.

GETTING THERE: From the nearest port (Kaputian), the resort is a 15-20 minute ride on rocky roads that snake up and down mountainous terrain (there are some serious angles on this road). If you have enough funds (and a possible heart condition), better pay for the resort's transport service. Otherwise, you'll need to make do with hiring local motorbike services (thrill seekers will get a kick out of this). LOCATION: Located on the other side of Samal Island facing away from Davao City, with no commercial establishments nearby. Naturally, the drawback is that there are no dining or entertainment options around other than what's offered in the resort. Nonetheless, I absolutely LOVED that it's isolated from the rest of the world. No competing sound systems, no noisy crowds, you have the beach all to yourself. FOOD & SUPPLIES: As I said, you're limited to what they have in the menu (and pantry). You'll either need to call in advance to check what they have in stock (and maybe request for some items off-menu), or bring some of your own stash and pay a small corkage fee. The food we had was okay, nothing exotic or out of this world. It would be great if they have more choices though. Their dessert/sweets page (consisting primarily of ice cream and fruit shakes) was marked NOT AVAILABLE through it because of periodic power interruptions which made cold storage difficult. "TECH" AMENITIES: The only television in the resort is a large flat screen with cable programming, located inside the restaurant. You either compete or agree with other resort patrons regarding which channel to watch. Their WiFi spot is in their gazebo area near the beach, with connectivity getting spotty in the farther cottages and rooms. OTHERS: The staff is quite friendly, and there are very little distractions from your relaxation time. Value for money is good. I wouldn't mind going back here and I highly recommend this place.

If you want to go to the Pearl Farm and stay at a structured luxury resort, do that. The Red Parrot in is a completely relaxing do whatever you want get away that caters to families, couples, single travelers and large parties. In fact we made friends from China, Switzerland, Lithuania, and Canada, and of course the Philippines during our stay. Kaputian is a small community on the south end of Samal Island. It has a nice beach, many amenities, and super friendly people and is the location of the Red Parrot Inn. Other reviews have said that this place is Isolated. Not even close in my opinion, it is just off the beaten path enough to be awesome. There is a large boat from Davao to Kaputian and back 3 times a day. This is an easy way for travelers to get to the Inn. We were a family of 14 and stayed 7 nights. We took boat trips to Talicud Island where they have good beaches and some of the best snorkeling I have done in the Philippines. We rented motorcycles and explored the beaches on the south end and east side of Samal Island. Some days we just sat back l drank beer and listened to the waves lap at the base of the large covered patio while others swam in the clean blue ocean. The food at the bar was good and I thought reasonable. The drinks where affordable and if you wanted to save 10 pesos you could go across the street and get your own drinks. The Inn has cooking facilities for the guests if they want to walk one block to the local market and buy food to cook. The staff at the Red Parrot Inn are truly fantastic people! We had the pleasure of meeting Cleo Hook. We would like to thank her and her family for their exceptional hospitality!