Spacious room with a nice view. Very hot day with limited electricity at night, just a solar fan. Good food and great pancakes in the morning. Prepare to be woken up early by the animals or the scent of burning leaves. That is the norm for most of the island I found. Decent snorkeling on the island, but nothing special. Best sunset ever.
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Date of stay: November 2016Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Get the room up top with a view.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
We stayed at Mario's for about a week. We had great interactions with other guests and made several new friends from various countries. Mario was a fascinating, gracious host who would come and chat with us and the other guests, telling stories about the history of the island and his experiences growing up there. It was a wonderful place to stay and a great experience.
The diving was really beautiful and our divemaster (Mac) was very friendly, professional and careful with us. We went on dives in amazing places all around the island.
The facilities at Mario's are not luxury hotel suites, but that is exactly the reason we chose the place. We had our own bathroom and shower and a bed covered with a mosquito net (necessary). The power is both solar and generator-based, turns on at 6 PM and shuts off at around 9:30 or 10 PM. It's good to have some sort of flashlight or battery-powered reading light and a good book or two. They have a wonderful, sheltered, outdoor eating area where we could have three meals per day, along with coffee at all times for those of us with jetlag. They also had a steady supply of cold beer and soft drinks available. The prepared food was quite good, especially the grilled chicken. They always made accommodations for people who missed a meal due to being on a dive during mealtime. Be prepared for the fact that it does get a bit warm at night. Also, the island dogs and roosters make their share of noise during the night, so bring earplugs.
Staying on an island with limited power and no vehicles is a wonderful experience. It is like traveling back in time. Everyone has chickens and roosters, which make a racket at all hours of the night. In certain ways, this is probably what life was like 300+ years ago in small villages. People on the island are very friendly when you say hello or good morning. I highly recommend taking walks around the island neighborhood villages and buying snacks from the various sellers. It's a small town atmosphere and you are a guest, so smile and be friendly. You will get a positive response.
I will definitely return.
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Date of stay: March 2018Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:Upstairs rooms with a cross-breeze are good, as are rooms with a bathroom.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Everything about this place is good. We had the big room, but if you get the top floor you really have an awesome view. There is also a lot of cheaper accommodation then these at Mario’s. The rooms are clean and nice. The food is good with vegetarian options on the board to choose from daily for every meal. They try to switch the menus around everyday and with the limited options of the veggies they have available they do a good job. The staff is friendly and we met the greatest people there. The diving is amazing. Hubby did three dives with Jed including a drift and a night dive and all were awesome. Me and my ear infection tagged along for snorkeling free of charge. The reef at Apo is beautiful as well. No brainer, go here!
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Date of stay: November 2018Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Great homestay for divers. I always prefer staying with local families if possible. Mario and his dive guides are very professional and I had 10 great dives on Apo Island. The family and staff were always so cheerful and friendly, I had a good room and diving was made so fun and easy - everything runs very smoothly and I like how they organized they are. Value for money simply could not be any better, and I prefer Apo Island diving to the mainland coast around Dauin area where the operators can be a bit pricey.
I did all the Apo dives once and some of them twice or three times. The coral gardens are incredible and there are other cool things like bubbles coming out of the ocean floor.
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Date of stay: May 2014Trip type: Traveled solo
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
I booked the big room here four months in advance and again confirmed my arrival a week in advance. When I arrived, after a 5-hour wait at Malatapy and a very choppy boat journey over to Apo, I was assigned to the worst room in the place (Room 2 - don't take it if offered). Apparently, they had made a 'double-boooking'. I suspect that since I was the last person to arrive that day, they had just bumped me out. No apology - nothing.The room was horrible - dirty and noisy, being right next to the communal area. The bathroom was particualy bad. I had one meal there which was OK, then moved out the next day to to the far superior (and cheaper!) Liberty Lodge. Not sure why this place has got such good reviews previously - I would avoid it at all costs. There were some friendly cats here though.
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Date of stay: July 2016Trip type: Traveled solo
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
