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Hiraya Cove
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Hiraya Cove
Check availabilityhello@hirayacove.ph
A stone-edged pool and weathered timber deck in the foreground, a thatched villa either side with warm lantern-lit interiors, calm lagoon and limestone karst islands beyond, golden-hour sky, a rattan lounger with a linen throw at right.

El Nido, Palawan42 keys

Island time, kept.

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An adults-first, 42-key boutique resort on the Bacuit Bay side of El Nido. Barefoot luxury without the performance: no lobby music, no scheduled fun anyone has to join, no upsell at breakfast. Direct-booking led by design — we would rather know a guest before they arrive than pay a commission to meet them at the door.

Hiraya Cove began as a fishing family's beach lot on the Corong-Corong side of the bay, bought back one parcel at a time over eleven years. The first structure was a single nipa hut with a good roof and a bad kitchen. Everything since has grown the way the wind takes things here — low, shaded, facing the water, never taller than the coconuts. Forty-two keys is where it stopped, because forty-three would have meant clearing another line of trees. Most of the crew grew up within twenty minutes of the gate, and hiraya is the old word for the thing you finally get after wanting it a long time.

A weathered teak deck with two rattan planter's chairs facing the sea, a low table on a woven mat, linen throws, palms and timber posts framing a karst headland, warm dappled light.
  • The Bacuit Pool
  • Hilom Spa
  • Dagat Dive & Watersports Centre
  • The Aklatan
  • The Sunrise Deck
  • The Open Gym
  • Tindahan
  • The Bangka Fleet
  • Starlink across the property
  • Laundry and pressing

From the trees to the water

42 keys in four classes, ordered as they sit on the property — the suites set back under old frangipani, the residences at the far northern end.

Lime-plaster walls in soft sage, capiz-shell panelled doors open onto a walled tropical garden, a teak writing desk and chair with folded towels, a ceiling fan above, karst and turquoise water beyond.

Garden Suite

The quiet middle of the property, under old frangipani.

Keys
18
Sleeps
2
Floor
46 m²
Looks at
Frangipani garden, with the limestone ridge behind it

₱9,800from, per night

A low timber bed with turned-down white linen under a gathered mosquito net, timber louvred doors folded open to white sand and a turquoise lagoon, a rattan chair, wide-plank teak floor, morning light.

Lagoon Villa

Wake to the lagoon changing colour four times before breakfast.

Keys
12
Sleeps
3
Floor
62 m²
Looks at
Bacuit Bay, framed between two karst islets

₱12,600from, per night

A thatched-eaved terrace with a woven hammock strung between timber posts, two timber loungers with linen cushions, a shell-inlaid plaster parapet, white sand and a karst-framed cove a step beyond.

Beachfront Casita

Ten steps of raked sand between your door and the water.

Keys
8
Sleeps
4
Floor
88 m²
Looks at
Sand, then water. Nothing in between.

₱15,400from, per night

A private plunge pool with lime-plaster coping, two loungers on a timber deck, a thatched residence with open timber doors and a capiz-shell window, heliconia planting, karst and bay beyond, late afternoon.

Hiraya Pool Residence

A two-bedroom house with its own pool, its own cove and its own gate.

Keys
4
Sleeps
6
Floor
140 m²
Looks at
A private cove, facing west into the sunset

₱19,800from, per night

All four in full, with seasonal rates

What a day here can be

All 8 experiences
  1. A single wooden kayak on glassy jade water leaving concentric ripples, karst islands in dawn mist, palms and a thatched structure onshore, a lounger with a linen throw in the foreground.

    Kayak at First Light

    Departs 5:20 AM daily

    Out at 5:20, when the bay has not been touched yet and there is no engine anywhere in it.

    ₱1,800Per guest · included for Pool Residence guests

  2. An empty wooden bangka seen head-on from the water, bamboo outrigger arms spread wide, a bamboo canopy frame over linen-cushioned benches, clear turquoise shallows, sheer karst walls either side.

    Tour A · The Lagoons

    Departs 8:30 AM daily, weather permitting

    The one everybody comes for, run the way it should be.

    ₱3,400Per guest · minimum of four, or charter the boat

  3. A table for two on white sand: white linen cloth, two place settings, wine glasses and a lit candle, two empty cane-backed armchairs, turquoise water and karst pinnacles, golden hour.

    Table for Two on the Sand

    Nightly by arrangement · two tables maximum

    One table, set on the sand below the casitas at the hour the light goes, with lanterns dug in around it and nobody else within fifty metres.

    ₱9,800Per couple · wine pairing a further ₱4,800

The board gets written after the boats come in, not before.

A long timber table set for eight with linen runners, glassware and small vases, cane-backed chairs, under a thatched pavilion on a timber deck, karst headlands, palms and turquoise sea.
A ceramic plate lined with banana leaf holding grilled fish and a grilled prawn with halved calamansi and pieces of young coconut, on a woven mat on weathered timber, beach and karst behind.

Alon

Palawan seafood and Filipino heirloom cooking

Alon is the room everything else happens around — open on three sides, roofed in nipa, twenty steps from the water. Breakfast runs long here on purpose. The kitchen buys at the Corong-Corong landing at first light and writes the board afterwards, so the menu is short and it moves; if a guest wants something that is not on it, the chef would much rather be asked than not.

  • Kinilaw of the morning's catch, coconut vinegar, green mango, sili
  • Adobong pusit cooked in its own ink, with garlic rice
  • Grilled lapu-lapu in banana leaf, calamansi butter
  • Ginataang langka with smoked tinapa flakes

6:30 AM – 10:00 PM · Barefoot is fine. A shirt at dinner, please.

Sulo

Fire cooking, and a fourteen-seat kusina counter

Sulo means torch, and there is one at each end of the deck because there is very little other light. Fourteen seats face the fire at a counter cut from a single narra beam; the rest of the deck looks west, which is the entire point between five and half past six. The counter runs two seatings and it is the one thing at Hiraya Cove worth setting an alarm to reserve.

  • Whole tuna belly over coconut husk
  • Sugpo grilled in the shell, calamansi and patis butter
  • Charred talong salad, salted egg, native tomato
  • Latik and muscovado ice cream, burnt in the pan

4:00 PM – 11:00 PM · counter seatings at 6:30 and 8:30 · Smart barefoot. No wet swimwear after six.

A small timber-topped bar on a lime-plaster base under thatch, three rattan stools, unlabelled glassware and a bottle catching low sun, a lantern, palms and flowering shrubs, karst at left.
We came for the lagoons and ended up doing almost nothing for four days. Nobody tried to sell us a single thing, and by the last morning the boat captain already knew how we take our coffee.

A guest, Beachfront Casita

Written for this demonstration. Hiraya Cove is a fictional property with no real guests.

Fifty-five minutes, then a coast road

Fly Manila to Lio Airport (ENI) — fifty-five minutes, twice daily — and we will meet you at the strip; the gate is twenty-five minutes down the coast road. From Puerto Princesa (PPS) it is a five-hour van transfer up the highway, which we book for you and which stops for lunch in Roxas. Every arrival is met, whatever the hour, and there is always somebody at the boat landing on the days the seas move an arrival onto the water.

Nearest airport
Lio Airport (ENI), El Nido — twenty-five minutes by road
Transfers
Private transfer from Lio is included in every Pool Residence and Beachfront Casita rate, and is ₱1,600 each way for Villas and Suites. Puerto Princesa transfers are arranged at cost and stop for lunch in Roxas.
Address
Sitio Hiraya, Barangay Corong-Corong, El Nido, Palawan 5313, Philippines
Coordinates
11.1737° N, 119.3961° E
A high aerial over turquoise shallows and limestone karst islets, a white sand spit, one outrigger anchored off the point, coconut palms and a timber deck with daybeds at the shoreline.

What booking direct gets you

A 50% deposit confirms the booking and the balance is due on arrival.

See what is on at the moment
Kayak at First Light
Per guest · included for Pool Residence guests
After check-out
You are welcome to stay on the property, shower at the Dagat Centre and eat at Alon until your flight, at no charge.
Changing your mind
Free cancellation up to 14 days before arrival.
Weather
If PAGASA raises Signal No. 2 or higher over Palawan, or the Coast Guard suspends sea travel to El Nido within 48 hours of your arrival, you may move your dates once with no fee within twelve months, or take a full refund.
A bare weathered timber bangka outrigger with bamboo arms drawn up on white sand, turquoise shallows and karst cliffs behind, a timber lounger and rattan lantern at left, warm morning light.

Mabuhay.

Tell us the dates you have in mind. Somebody answers, whatever the hour.

Check availabilityhello@hirayacove.ph