This was the second time my hubby and I spent a weekend at Mandala Spa and Villas. If you love to be spoiled and live a pampered lifestyle, this is the place to be. Own villa to yourselves, simply gorgeous .... and the sexy bathrooms want to make me scream. It’s away from the noisy crowd but within 15 minutes you can be right were the action is. I always come back from Boracay as a different person.

If you love to spa, this is the place to stay. The treatments and massages have won many international awards and they even have a spa kitchen that prepares the ingredients fresh for you. Yoga in the morning, massage before lunch, after siesta a sailing trip with a native outrigger boat i (bring sun-block), light diners and a super romantic bath before bedtime, I am sure you get my drift. A word of caution: vegetarian food is great and I may have lost a bit of weight over the weekend, but hubby had to get beer from the outside. (they only serve organic wines and champagne – fine with me) and hubby could not watch sports and business news--- (dvd collection only--- and hubby more time with me). Not for everybody, but moi will surely be back.

For my wife and I, it seemed very over-priced and only mediocre quality. The bungalows have a nice enough design, but they appeared wanting of upkeep and could have been cleaner. The location is pleasant, but not convenient because its not near to anything else, and you need to go to the road and hail a tricycle to get anywhere at all, including the restaurants and beach. This can be a bloody bore if its raining. It wouldn’t be so bad if they had a pool, but they don’t.

The rooms had wood interiors, which gave a certain warmth, but they didn’t have a homely feeling (or homey, as the Americans say). The interiors are distinctly not luxurious, but Mandala describes them as such. For my taste, they are a bit drab with sparse, plain furnishings, and skimpy and cheap on the amenities: no TV, no hot water, tea, or coffee, and a fairly empty minibar! The soap and shampoo were in cheap-looking plastic pump bottles. Don’t know about the other rooms, but we only had 1 chair on our veranda.

The restaurant was also sparse, but pleasant enough with a pleasant view. The food was fine, but is vegetarian only, and no beer. The room service is limited and is only available until 10 PM.

We have friends living in Boracay, and what concerned me the most was when they told me that they heard Mandala had quite a few thefts, and apparently some of those robberies happened when the guest s were in their rooms, asleep. That was not comforting, to say the least! (What would have happened if they woke up with a robbery in-progrress?!)

In fairness, I think their location makes security very challenging. Presumably, times may have changed, and there was probably a time in Boracay, not too long ago, when one need not be concerned about robberies.

On a good note, the staff are very pleasant and my wife said that the spa was ok (she didn't rave, however), but I didn’t try it, so can’t comment further.

All in all, it was certainly not the best value (actually, not even good value) for the money. We prefer Nami and Fridays, and anyway, this year we noticed that there are a lot of new spas in Boracay. Next year, Shangri-la and Chi Spa will open, and I’m sure it will be gargantuan and an utter anomaly in Boracay – but I’m looking forward to trying it! ;-P

This place was really great. We didn't have a place to stay when we got to Boracay (we were backpacking and wanted to see some places first before choosing one). We decided to go luxury and tried the Mandala Spa. Fortunately they had a room, though not available for our whole stay in Boracay. Anyway, it was excellent! In my mind this is without a doubt the luxury place to stay in Boracay if for singles/couples if you have a little money. Extremely relaxing... large rooms very well designed with a great bathroom, cool outdoor shower, lots of windows. The exterior is very well designed as well. No complaints! It's a ten minute walk from the beach... which was acutally kind of fun... and it's close to a quieter part of the beach. And a free yoga class every morning!

First of all, let me first say that we were not there for the Spa treatments... because booked late for the Christmas season, almost all hotels were fully booked so we decided to stay at this high end spa resort.

The resort: The bungalow where we stayed was quite charming, excellent showers and quite large room. We had nice sunset views every night. It was clean but not up to the cleanliness you would expect from one of the most expensive resorts in Boracay.

Service: Staff was very courteous, friendly and really helpful.

Room: We had difficulty getting hot water ( we stayed one week) and although there is a great bath, we could not really use it because the water was not warm enough to make the experience interesting. As well water pressure was somewhat weak, it took quite a while to fill the tub.

The outdoor shower is superb... a little more hot water and better pressure would have made the shower fabulous!

Incense available to burn in the rooms was a nice touch but a mini bar with more choice would be a good idea.

Location: very easy to get to all island destinations. However, the resort is not very close to the beach, you have to walk up and down a long path that takes you to a part of the beach that is average for the Boracay beach. If you want to have a beach experience, better to stay at Friday's if you are going to pay the same rates where there is a wonderful beach, no crowds and wonderful water.

Restaurant: We didn't use the restaurant at lunch or in the evenings so cannot comment on this. Breakfast was ok... nothing more and nothing less. The venue for breakfast is quiet and nice but has nothing special for a high priced resort. Food was very healthy and the same every morning.... quality food but nothing that stood out for a high price resort (more choice and variety would be a good idea). One morning, there were not enough tables for everyone to sit ( in a resort that has only about a dozen bungalows) and if you ordered a la carte, it could be a bit long before you were served possibly because the very polite and friendly young lady serving us was on her own and had to run up and down to serve the hot meals.

Spa: We used the spa service and I thoroughly enjoyed my facial but my wife found her massage a bit hard... she might be a bit sensitive and could have asked her masseuse to soften her touch.

Overall we enjoyed our time in Boracay but for the same price would suggest Nami Resort or Friday's if you are more there for the beach than a spa.

Last note: when we did mention about the hot water to the staff they did react immediately and it improved slightly. As mentioned before the bungalows are super... but the windows could be cleaner since they are large and expansive with a wonderful view. Having them not that clean hampers the effect. Remember this is not a budget place...

We'll go back to Boracay but I'll do my homework and book ahead so we can be closer to the beach.