Spot Stays: Here's What's It Like to Stay at Coron's Top-Rated Boutique Hotel

The Funny Lion Coron
Sitio Jolo, Poblacion 5, Coron, Palawan
Rates start at P9,150

At a Glance
Rooms: Mix of industrial-modern interiors
Food and drinks: Great local coffee and weekend buffets
Staff: Sincere, friendly, and accommodating
Why you should stay: It's a sanctuary within a sanctuary

(SPOT.ph) When in places like Coron, places known for exciting island tours, most travelers don’t put too much thought into where they stay. The principle often goes, “The cheaper, the better.” But if presented with a claim as striking as “The Number One Hotel Brand in Palawan,” specifically in Coron, it begs the question: "Why shouldn't I go all out for my well-deserved vacation?" 

The short answer is: You should. Here's our own non-TripAdvisor review of the boutique hotel.

Here's everything you need to know about The Funny Lion in Coron, Palawan

We got to stay in the Mara room. This is a 36-square meter room with sliding doors leading to a long pool. The design of the room has a raw concrete finish, both on the walls and floor, and is complemented by harmonious dark wood accent walls, white linen sheets on the king-sized bed, and warm dim lights to set a more relaxing vibe.

There are two entryways on opposite sides of the room which leads to the spacious bathroom—and when we mean spacious, we mean there's enough room to try different yoga poses or even a quick zumba session with your roommates. There's a rack to hang robes and wet clothes, a sink that can fit all your 10-step skincare routine, and a hair dryer.

What we love about The Funny Lion's bathrooms include the bidet with A+ pressure, but more than that, the toiletries inside the shower area were sooo good that you'd want to bring them home. The body wash, specifically, caught our attention for its unique lemongrass scent and thick lather that's great after swimming and sweating under the sun all day.

Luckily, the hotel has a small souvenir shop in the restaurant where they sell the same shower gel—and not really that surprising, it's one of their bestselling products. The shop has The Funny Lion-branded shirts, tote bags, headwear, waterproof bags, and other items you can physically bring home to remember the experience.

But if we were to play favorites, we made sure to make the most of the pool access from the Mara room. You only need less than 10 steps from the sliding doors until you reach the edge of the pool, and then take a plunge. The pool is lined with tall bamboo trees making you entirely forget the chaos that is Metro Manila. And at night, the stars shine so brightly that you don't need a professional camera with an amazing camera zoom feature for it to show up in your photos. Just look at the photo we took using our mobile phone:

What to Do at The Funny Lion Coron

Aside from the pool located beside the Mara room (that's located in the Coron Grove building), you can also take a very short walk to the hotel's Hunt Restaurant and take a dip in the pool right beside it. Albeit this pool is more open, what you'll we love about this other swimming pool is that it's bigger and you have a view of the forest on one side, and the restaurant is well within your access if you want to order food and drinks. 

Another way to relax at The Funny Lion is at the Sea Tree Spa. One of the rooms is transformed into a tranquil spa where you can have the most relaxing massage using massage oils that use locally sourced natural ingredients. Your choices include eucalyptus, ylang-ylang, lemongrass, lavender, and peppermint.

What to Eat and Drink at The Funny Lion Coron

The Funny Lion's Hunt Restaurant has an impressive menu highlighting fusion cuisine. From their soup menu, what stood out for us was the Tomato Roast (P350) which comes in this gigantic bowl filled with a thick, tangy tomato soup with a tinge of roasted flavors as an aftertaste. This is served with grilled cheese croutons and garnished with fried basil leaves and sundried tomatoes.

We also got to try the Hot Crab Fettucini (P465) which is, needless to say, packed with flavor because of the crab meat and tomato sambal sauce—that we were tempted and determined to finish every last drop and bit. It doesn't help that there's an addicting (tolerable, don't worry!) spiciness to it from the added chili  flakes, a bit of crunch from cashew nuts, more umami from parmesan.

For the mains, albeit we weren't able to try everything, the Peri-Peri Chicken (P625) was definitely a winner among the crowd. This hefty dish stars an African-style grilled boness chicken served with dirty fried rice and chimichurri sauce on the side. But if you want to request a dish from the hotel's chef, another winner is the sizzling Bistek. This dish perfected the marination time that made the meat soft and flavorful, a soy sauce to compliment the tartness, andrings of white onion to add more sharpness in every bite.

As far as refreshments go, whatever you get from the breakfast buffet should be paired with a cup of Tagbanua coffee. This uses coffee beans that are manually ground by the local tribe in Coron, the Tagbanuas, which are the same locals seen as you trek the steps to Kayangan Lake. 

As much as it's tempting to go out and check out the nightlife, you don't need to when they have the likes of the Maldita (P350), a simple cocktail that has the consistency of a slushy margarita but uses gin and calamansi, within the comforts of your room. You can also have this during happy hour by the hotel's rooftop bar or when you're stargazing by the pool. 

Activities you can do near The Funny Lion Coron

The Funny Lion can set up the island tours for guests. Of course, the tours, if private, can be tweaked depending on the places you and your group want to go to. During our island tour, we were able to go see the sunken ship, Kayangan Lake, vibrant coral reefs in hues of lavender with rainbow fishes swimming around it.

Here are a few snapshots we took—at least the ones we remembered to take while in awe:

The island tours are typically good for one whole day, so if you're looking for other activities to fill up your itinerary that don't include eating, drinking, and island hopping: You should trek the 720 steps to Mount Tapyas. It would be best to leave around 5 a.m. from the hotel to catch the "CORON" signage lit up. 

How to get to The Funny Lion?

The Funny Lion Coron is around 30 minutes away from the Francisco B. Reyes Airport (commonly known as the Busuanga Airport) by car. Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines are the only airlines that charter flights to the island. 

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