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Ala Amid took shape across 2014 and opened in January 2015. A family-run boutique hotel on 4,300 square meters of garden in Puerto Princesa — built by the same people who still answer the door.
Chapter one
Ala Amid began as a family conversation. We had a piece of land on the quiet end of B.M. Road in Barangay San Manuel — 4,300 square meters, shaded by acacia and frangipani — and the slow realization that what we were sitting on was bigger than a single household. Construction began in 2014. The doors opened in January 2015, with six rooms at first and the same family at the front desk that you'll meet today.
The name was deliberate. Ala amid, in our way of reading it, sits close to the idea of in the middle of — amid the garden, amid the city, amid a family. We wanted a word that said you are with us, not apart. A decade in, that's still the contract.
We never set out to build a resort. We built something rarer: a place with room to breathe.
Chapter two
At the very front of the property, between the gate and the garden, is the in-house kitchen — small, run by Sabie and her team. It's where breakfast is laid out for guests, where the cafe opens to the neighborhood, and where every plate of catering for the gatherings next door is prepared. One team, one consistent standard, from the morning longganisa through the evening buffet.
Sharing the same space is Sabie Bakes — an independent bakery brand owned and run by Sabie herself. It started earlier, in 2013, in a four-square-meter kitchen in Cebu, with healthy-choice cupcakes for a new mother to feel good handing out. When the family began building Ala Amid, the bakery moved with us, and Sabie Bakes products have been a featured part of the kitchen here ever since. The cupcakes still come out of the oven most mornings, before the first guest wakes; the line has grown to designer cakes, dessert buffets, Palawan coffee, and the occasional design-studio class. Visit sabiebakes.com for that side of the story.
Sabie Bakes is one of our featured offerings. All meals at Ala Amid — including event catering — are prepared by our in-house kitchen team, for a consistent and well-rounded dining experience.
Chapter three
When we added the function spaces, we didn't give them polite hotel names — the Pearl Room, the Garden Suite, the Mezzanine. We gave them family names. It made the halls feel less like rentals and more like rooms in a house you'd inherited.
The flagship hall
Andrea Garden Hall
Eighty guests, air-conditioned, light-filled, set for weddings and family celebrations.
The function room
Isabel Function Room
Smaller, quieter, boardroom-ready — named for a niece in the family. (Also the namesake of Sabie Bakes.)
The pavilion
Gabe's Pavilion
Air-conditioned for twenty, with accordion doors that fold open to Gabe's Court. The newer of the two Gabe's spaces — built so the principal table could sit indoors while the rest of the party stayed outside.
The open court
Gabe's Court
The outdoor courtyard, under string lights and garden air. For evenings that want to be outside.
We don't make a thing of the names on signage. They're just what we call the rooms. If a guest asks — and they often do — we tell them.
Chapter four
If a boutique hotel is anything more than a paint color and a typeface, it's a set of choices repeated daily. Ours aren't elaborate. They're what we'd want if we were the ones checking in.
Space
Room to breathe.
Seventeen rooms on 4,300 square meters. Tall ceilings, wide hallways, a courtyard you can cross barefoot.
People
The same family.
Family-owned and family-run since the doors opened. The people who built it are the people who'll greet you.
Food
Breakfast in the garden.
Most mornings, 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Brewed coffee, fresh fruit, Filipino classics, and a Sabie Bakes cupcake on the way out. Included with most rates — we'll tell you which when you reserve.
Honesty
Straight rates, direct.
Book direct and it's the best rate we're allowed to publish. No markup, no middleman.
A short timeline
In Cebu, the first batch of Sabie Bakes cupcakes comes out of a four-square-meter kitchen. Healthy-choice, hand-drawn, family-funded. (Sabie Bakes is independently owned and operated.)
Construction begins on Ala Amid — on a 4,300 sqm plot at the quiet end of B.M. Road in Barangay San Manuel, Puerto Princesa.
Ala Amid Bed & Breakfast opens its doors. Six rooms at first, one family at the desk, the in-house kitchen at the front, and Sabie Bakes already operating from the same space.
TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, then again. And again.
Andrea Garden Hall is built — the flagship function space, set for hundred-guest weddings under air-conditioning with full natural light from garden-facing windows. Isabel Function Room and Gabe's Court follow.
Gabe's Pavilion is added beside the court — air-conditioned for twenty, with accordion doors that fold open onto Gabe's Court. One room, three configurations, no transfer between venues.
Four places to gather (Andrea, Isabel, Gabe's Pavilion, Gabe's Court), the kitchen and bakery cafe at the front of the house, and breakfast in the garden from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Still family-run.
Honoured by our guests and the industry
Come see it in person
The gate opens at check-in. Breakfast comes with most rates; airport pickup is available for a fee.
Letters from the garden
A quiet monthly note on Palawan. When to come, what's in season, what we're baking.