I stayed at the Movenpick back in January of 2020 before the Covid pandemic but was unable to write a review. I have now just come back from a pleasant 8 night stay over the New Year.

One of the main reasons we have chosen the Movenpick is for the location and the grounds. The resort is located in Station 0 which is essentially a private beach shared between the Movenpick, Crimson, and the Shangri-la. This beach is not connected to the main Boracay beach which makes it a perfect way to experience Boracay sands without all the hustle and bustle of the main beach (although you can get a shuttle/trike to the main beach should you wish).

The grounds themselves are also very nice with a huge pool at the very center of the resort. With the pool being so large it means that there are usually plenty of sun loungers for guests. The resort has three restaurants although two were essentially closed and as such the menu was much more limited than usual. You can walk freely between Movenpick, Shangri-la, and Crimson so if you fancy a spot of lunch or dinner at one of those resorts then it is easy enough to walk down the beach for five minutes to them.

We stayed in a Junior Suite on this occasion and despite the room décor looking a little tired the room was spacious and in a very nice location near the beach and Sol beach bar. The bathroom in these suites is huge with two sinks and a bathtub. I wasn’t particularly impressed with the shower which seemed to have issues with both pressure and temperature control. I did however find the bed very comfortable and the hotel decorated our room and provided a cake for our birthday which was a nice touch.

On our previous visit we stayed in the premier room which is located in the main area of the hotel and requires a bit of a walk down to the bar and the restaurants so if you have the cash to upgrade to the junior suite than it is preferred.

The resort Spa was closed which was a big shame as it was very relaxing last year when I was able to use it and slightly surprising considering health spas in Manila and elsewhere on the island are now operating. The Sol bar closes a little earlier than I would like with last orders being around 9:30pm. I appreciate this is also being dictated by the island curfew and the need for staff to travel home. Shout out to Emil who was always greeting us with a smile and did everything he could to make our stay in and around the bar special. In fact, the staff were great in general with them going out of their way to know your name as you walk around the grounds and many helping me out with an emergency purchase I needed to make as we were checking out.

The New Year Eve celebrations was well handled with the staff doing a great job of having to move the festivities in and out of the restaurant to the beach front due to rain. The general manager, Franck came to each table and wished everyone happy new year which was a nice gesture.

In my opinion the Movenpick is great value for money so it makes sense to stay in the rooms here, enjoy the large pool and beach, and then just head over to Crimson or Shangri-la should you wish for arguably a better menu and drinks that tend to flow much later into the night. I will certainly be coming back to the Movenpick for future breaks.

We experienced great & friendly service at Movenpick from check in throughout our stay and it was a very safe environment during the COVID period from both a cleanliness and protocol perspective. Everyone was ready to be of assistance. I can unfortunately not remember names well, but it was absolutely awesome to receive the coffee at the table every morning because they already knew how we have it. Not to mention every time to be greeted and wished a lovely day by the janitor with a super friendly smile while he carries on his business of sweeping and off course also the towel man providing beach towels just too happy to give you clean towels and lay them out on the lounger if you wished. Understandable some small limitations on the variety of the menu due to covid circumstance, but more than enough and very sufficient still to choose from. On top of that we were spoilt with a New Year’s party which was totally a surprise and loads of fun. Being in a secluded area makes the hotel perfect for security and safety which was just perfect for what we needed and being adjacent to two other hotels does provide flexibility for grabbing a lunch or dinner as an alternative.