Nay Palad Hideaway

Nay Palad is small enough to be described in a sentence: 10 villas on Siargao, between a mangrove forest and the beach, made with local craft and run all-inclusive, so that nothing on the island is ever a transaction. Daniel Pouzet and Bobby Dekeyser designed it, and their taste for woven, carved and living materials gives the place the air of an extremely comfortable craft village.

Eight of the villas have two bedrooms and face either the ocean or the garden; the two signature villas, Perlah and Coral, have four bedrooms and pools of their own. There is no set menu. The kitchen buys from Siargao’s farmers and fishermen, cooks to the guest and will as happily lay dinner in a cove on a neighbouring island as at the table. It is the antidote to the large resort, and it knows it.

Woven, carved and grown

The design is the first thing that separates Nay Palad from the island resorts of the brochure. Pouzet and Dekeyser built with weaving, carving and local craft rather than imported marble, and the villas and their shared pavilions seem to have grown out of the mangroves and palms around them. Texture does the work that gilt does elsewhere. It is playful without being twee, and it photographs less well than it lives, which is generally the mark of a serious place.

Eight villas, then Perlah and Coral

The arithmetic is simple and the choice is real. Four Ocean View villas and four Garden View villas each have two bedrooms and a private living space, sized for a couple who like room or a family who like each other. Beyond them stand the two signature villas, Perlah and Coral, with four bedrooms apiece and private pools, made for a party that intends to take the whole island week together. With 10 villas in all, the resort never feels populated; the pools, the outdoor cinema and the beach are shared with a handful of others at most.

A kitchen without a menu

Food at Nay Palad is decided by the day rather than the card. The kitchen works with Siargao’s farmers and fishermen, grows some of what it serves and cooks to each guest, so that the same request rarely produces the same dish twice. Dinner may be at the restaurant, on the beach, or in a cove on a neighbouring island reached by boat; cooking classes teach the local dishes with the unhurried ease the island runs on. Because everything is included, none of this is negotiated, ordered or itemised. It simply happens, which is the definition of a hideaway.