Tablas Island Hotel Tips by sirenna

Rencio's, Odiongan: Sleepless Nights

We arrived at Rencio's exhausted after a day's travel, and just wanted a place to get a good night's sleep. As we were looking for affordable rooms, we were quite surprised at the P1300 price tag - steep by local standards, especially given the level of facilities.
The small room was clean, had air conditioning and a relatively comfortable bed, but aside from that was pretty basic. The lightbulbs were very dim and it was hard to read a book. The TV picture was so fuzzy it was hardly worth watching and it had no remote. There was no hot shower, the toilet was broken and they didn't provide us with towels.
The food in the restaurant was not bad, but service was slow and staff inattentive. It was possible to order San Miguel Beer, but not a lot else, not even a local rum and coke on the menu.
There's a small swimming pool (we didn't try this) and the hotel is surrounded by sludgy green-coloured fish ponds, which emitted a strong swampy odour.
The worst thing, for us, was the incredibly loud videoke in the bar/restaurant area, which not only ruined our dinner but also our night's sleep - totally unacceptable in a hotel.
We did notice another new-looking hotel in the Baywalk area of town, though sadly we'd already checked into Rencio's by that stage and didn't have time to tour the new one. There are nice ocean views at Baywalk, and a cosy little resto called Pearl's Cafe, so next time we're in town we'll choose that area instead.

Address: Odiongan, Tablas Island

Comparison: more expensive than average

Price: US$20-40

Theme: Hotel

Angelique Inn: Tablas Stopover

We stayed at this cosy little inn during our one-night stopover in Looc, Tablas Island. It is run by a nice friendly family, and rooms are reasonably priced - our small aircon room was P500 per night, and was basic but clean (and it's not often you come across a TV older than yourself!).
The restaurant serves passable Filipino food and it is better to stick with this than any attempts to recreate western style dishes.
We enjoyed the pork chops and fried chicken, and for breakfast, try a big plate of beefsteak tagalog with fried rice and egg.

Address: Next to the town plaza.

Comparison: about average

Price: less than US$20

Theme: Inn