My girlfriend and I stayed at the Mandala for 4 nights over Christmas 2011. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The place is a real heaven from the noise of Borocay’s white beach and it is extremely well run. Led by the charming and helpful general manager Jov Schrottmann, the staff of Mandala were very professional and the service were slick. The spa treatments (and spa area) were of a very high standard. The rooms were very nice and spacious (although more about calm and tranquillity then brightness and vistas, which they do lack). The very few negatives (not even really worth mentioning) were attributable to the fact that this place does overall more about rustic charm rather than ultra modern perfection, which we would say is a good thing.
Overall, good value and we would recommend.

My stay in Mandala Spa and Villas was most relaxing and rejuvenating! I had my quiet time with nature and an exquisite villa to relax my tired body from all the work during the busy season!

My wife and I included a couple of nights here on our honeymoon, and it was our favourite stay in the Philippines. The villas are luxurious, private and create a real sense of sanctuary.

The staff are great - very helpful and happy. Always felt we were in good hands.

The spa here is fantastic, but then, that's what they do and you can tell. Every massage from anywhere else just didn't compare.

It was only a two day stay and we were sorry not to have booked longer.

We stayed in Mandala 5 nights in mid December 2011. The first impression and the whole philosophy is very nice but there are some secrets to be discovered. Stayed in villa #5.

The Good:
- Location - some may not like it but the location is wonderful. Ca. 10 mins. walk to the beach where you can find anything, located on top far from the noise. But still you can hear bits :)
- Setting and atmosphere - is very calm, relaxing, wonderful garden.
- Room - the living room is very nice and big. Big bed (but not very comfy), setting and appearance, big TV with good choice of channels.
- Massages / Spa - perfect therapists, perfect place, perfect music. Really experience, fantastic!
- Transfer to Caticlan - we were leaving around 5:15 a.m. to catch our flight. The service was perfectly arranged, had our own car + boat, everything on time.

The Bad:
- Bathroom - setting very nice but there it ends. Not much pressure, and the water was staying in the sink / shower and took forever to go where it belongs. Ugly containers for soap / shampoo, very old looking shower as well as bathtub. The shower cover was just awful. See pictures for details.
- Overall conditions - the bathroom and other areas needs serious maintenance! The hotel would be a gem but this is No. 1 drawback by far.
- No restaurant - during our stay, the restaurant was undergoing reconstruction. We were offered a service instead - Japanese, Indian and Greek restaurants would bring it to you room. Maybe nice but that does not compare to sit in a nice restaurant getting some real food (not a fan of either Jap or ind food) in a beautiful garden. By the way, during our 6 day stay nobody worked on fixing the restaurant. I do not recall either to be warned in advance.
- Breakfast - probably due to the rest. closed, it was held in a "tent". Not too bad for us but not too much space if hotel was a bit more full. However, the biggest drawback was the fact that they missed items on menu - 3 days they had no "Spa breakfast" which included muesli, yogurt, milk etc. which is exactly what we like to eat. They claimed they were drying the fruits. Also, they did not have 2 more breakfasts which my girlfriend wanted to order. Taking that into consideration, we could have or pancakes or toast with jam, nothing that we really enjoy for breakfast plus the hotel is very nature+health oriented...so why don`t you guys have the most healthy food which can be stored for months? As well, the only fruit we were given was mango, the first day also banana, not so the following days.
- Cleanlines - first sight good but the corners did not see vaccuum cleaner for some time. The blankets, sheets should also check what WHITE color means :)
- Service - 3 times we ordered tea to our room. 2 times it was not delivered, although reminding reception 1 time...and of course twice promised to be delivered. To be fair - once the tea was brought without any reminder.
- Wi-Fi speed - simply terrible, like 15 yrs. ago. I know this is not major issue on a vacation but even in Bohol plus other places of Boracay (restaurants, other hotels...) there was much faster connection speeds. The download rate was as low as 5 kB/s.
- The bed - both me and my girflriend were waking up sore, with aches. Maybe it was just the two of us but this never happened to us before, just to mention this was something really unusual.

The hotel would be really excellent, especially if the maintenance took place - both of the villa and service. It has a great potential also thanks to its philosophy, nature approach and similar but it is ruined with so many details that bother!
The above issues cannot make our stay bad but it does not help either. We payed +/- 200 USD per night which is a pretty good rate for the hotel but I must say I was not even 10% happy to pay comparing it to 300 USD experience in Bohol. That much of a difference!
I am unhappy to write such review as I like Mandala`s things around but I consider this fair.