Villa Hontomin Hotel Stay and Casa Napoli in Basco, Batanes

We stayed at the newly opened Villa Hontomin in Basco, Batanes just this month (December 2015). It's close to the airport (around 5-10 minutes) and has a beach out front (after crossing the road, Chanarian Beach). It's a nice sunset area with a view of the Basco Lighthouse to its right and a good plane watching site! ;)

Batanes Provincial Hall near the hotel with my Transitions XTRActive lenses! #LifeintheBestLightPH

We arrived from an early Skyjet flight and headed straight here to have breakfast. It took a while for them to arrange our rooms but I was able to get around an hour of rest before our 10:30am tour started.

 

 

They gave me a key to Room 204. There were only stairs so the 2nd floor was good enough. I stayed at a room with 2 single beds. There was airconditioning, TV with around 15 channels and an outlet beside the bed. The room amenities were pretty basic with just a towel and soap. I was happy that they have a clean working toilet with flush, bidet, toothbrush sink, a big mirror and a hot and cold shower. They ran out of water though during the next morning and resolved it by night. Since it's close to the road, you could hear the cars passing by and the waves but I barely heard these from exhaustion haha.

 

 

 

They said that there are restaurants (and other hotels like Bernardo's Hotel) nearby like Casa Napoli with their Mataw (local dried fish) pizza and Jollibee chicken. Just make sure to bring a flashlight. If the weather's clear at night like during our day 1, you'd also be able to see a sky full of stars while walking! I think Batanes is one of the best places to stargaze so far in my travels aside from my last stay in Palawan ;)

 

 

The hotel had WiFi in the ground floor but it was very weak and close to nothing like the rest of Batanes. There was also no mobile and internet signal inside (had to sit out front or in the beach hut for Globe signal but close to no mobile data also). Give up any expectations of being on social media for your whole Batanes trip coz it's the same in all the places we went to in Batan (where Basco is) and Sabtang. I refused to accept the situation at first but after about a day (detox haha), I soon settled to a rythym and calmness that's been serenading me to stop and just smell the flowers in this place. I chose to give in to that in the end in Batanes for a day more in our short 3D2N trip and I have the Transitions Lenses team to thank for this reminder in life... This is truly #LifeintheBestLight :)

 

 

 

 

Villa Hontomin is still a new player and on soft opening so I think they just need time to correct some stuff like surprise early check-in, cleaning faster, cable load expiring and not collecting enough water in their water tank. This small hotel was able to resolve them (and give an official receipt) during our 3D2N stay except maybe for the lack of phone signal and WiFi. I had more than enough good rest when we go back in the afternoons to rest before dinner. The proximity to the Basco airport also meant that we didn't have to rush to our 7:45 am Skyjet departure. Of course, there are other options for accommodations like a homestay experience and a luxurious stay at Fundacion Pacita also ;)

Hotel Details:
Villa Hontomin Hotel
Chanarian, Basco, Batanes
09985678654 / 09278712157
Facebook (they respond here)
Deluxe room rate is at P4800/night as of March 2016.