If you want to have good memories of your Camsur trip, never make the mistake of getting the package at CMC Villa Caramoan! My boyfriend and I were duped by this resort! We were charged P11,200 for 2 persons inclusive of 3day island hopping tour with tour guide, island transfers and full board and lodging. Note: accommodation is not included on the above mentioned amount coz we get it thru Agoda so if overall it will cost us almost 20k for just the 2 of us, very expensive for the service they gave us.
My disappointments:
(1) The website was deceiving the beautiful beach pictures are nowhere near the resort which was located in a secluded area (beside ricefields and far from the town called Paniman). The resort was not impressive at all!! (
2) The food - we arrived at the resort around 1:30pm and were served for lunch tinolang manok, 2 crabs, veggies, rice, and fresh bananas! Not bad at all, since it’s semi-buffet our first lunch is quite impressive, but food in the succeeding days turned out lame, we noticed that they repeat food all over again, like reheating it, fried fish is hard as a rock that u can’t even bite and chew it, since my boyfriend is a foreigner first day I warned them about his food cravings, and the management (Mayora the caramoan Mayor’s wife which is the owner of the resort and Kim assistant of miss. colleen assured us about the food that’s why we get their package) but what we got is the unsatisfactory every day with the food, they put a lot of rice for 2 people, 1st day and 2nd day lunch only that we had a banana but the rest of the days no desert at all, just to different dishes a chicken and a vegetable and a bunch of rice. No breads in the morning just plain rice. The cost of our entire mean including the water from the dispenser could not have gone over P300.00 or more for 2 adults but the cost of the package for each person is P5600/3 = 1870/person P1870x2 = P3740 per day for meal and tour only coz the accommodation we paid separately. Too expensive for 2 kinds of dish and a bunch of rice.
(3) The island hopping – they said tour starts at 7am but it never happened, tour guide is late because they prepare breakfast late also. Then the unforgettable island hopping (yup...but in a negative way) - they did not have any concrete plans on where to bring us. We were on the sea for more than an hour to get to our first white sand beach. Then the second island is where we’re taking out lunch, lunch at 10am to a beach full of seaweeds! And because of the tide we’re stucked there for 3hrs coz the boat can’t get thru because of the rocks and seaweeds! The boatman said that the mayora (wife of mayor who incidentally owns cmc villa caramoan) told them to bring us there - the mayor's/mayora's beach! The trip was unsalvageable at this point. Note: staying overnight in Bosdak beach with buko juice and bonefire is included In the package but we never experience, they never even offered us. We stayed longer stuck in an island for lunch and more time on the boat than swimming and seeing beautiful island. We asked some other boats and guides we had encountered they said they did 5-7 island per day, but with CMC villa 2-3 island per day and they don’t even care taking us to one of those numbers of island without us asking them. SUCKS!! I remember our tour guide is Ate nena and the boatman is her husband. I even heard the boatman telling our tour guide about the gas of the boat. It even stopped in the middle of the sea. Damn right!?
(4) island transfer - after a disappointment from a tour we’ve waited for the villa’s service to pick us up from Paniman shore to the resort. Damn! They made us wait for more than 2 hours in a dark and lots of mosquitoes sea shore, with our wet clothes dried of waiting. I’m afraid about my boyfriends safety, it’s getting dark in a place where we don’t know anyone, (though people in camsur are nice we’ll never know) we’re tired and hungry, by the time that we reached the resort staffed said they lose communication. Damn! How can u forget that u have a guest and responsibility???
(5) CMC staff – they don’t know what to do without instructing them. They barely speak and understand English which is not good for such a tourist place. I don’t remember they checked our room for cleaning or if we need towels or anything that we need. They have a lot of staff at a time for like more than 10 people and with only few guest but not attended well, everyone is sitting in a couch talking their business, not even asked us if we need anything. Bread, bananas, desert always not available when in fact they have their own transportation service which they can use in going to centro town proper to buy us, it’s around 10-15mins from CMC. They don’t care unless they are commanded with person in charge but the thing is, we only saw Mayora and Kim on our first day and then rest of the stay front desk is empty. Staff needs more training! We only heard Sorry 50times, we didn’t paid for their sorry in the first place. On our last day we’re having breakfast Mayor and Mayora came in the resort and just say “hi” without saying something, like nothing happened! I won’t give this resort not even 2 for the ratings, the only good thing I remembered is the Security Guard which picked us up in the Centro in the middle of the night by just 1 text and he accommodated us well even if he’s not the tricycle’s driver coz he said driver is sleeping so he just get the key and drive for us, and the Jacuzzi room which we paid for of course.
My advise: go to Camsur because it has a lot to offer but run as far away as possible from CMC Villa Caramoan! If you can refund your deposit, do so...unless you are prepared to ruin your vacation!
• Stayed May 2012 (couple vacation)
