Review of Mandala Spa & Villas in Boracay, Philippines

Where other spas pay lip service to communion with nature, the Mandala Spa & Villas in Boracay, Philippines walks the talk.

Consider the location: the Mandala sits on top of a forested hill overlooking Boracay's sunny beaches. The trees, wind, and sunlight complement the Mandala Spa's natural ingredients and award-winning therapies.

Day spa dilettantes are welcome at the Mandala Spa - as are avid spa enthusiasts who want to sample more than one of the Mandala's many offerings, stopping only to relax on canopied beds in the Mandala's cushy resort villas overlooking the hillside and the sea beyond.

Given Boracay's reputation as a hard-partying beach island, it's surprising how well the Mandala Spa manages to insulate itself from the hurly-burly closer to shore.

It's accomplished partly by elevation, partly by the size of the compound, and partly by the insulating properties of the trees that envelop it. While Boracay's party central is only ten minutes away by motorized tricycle, the buildings in the Mandala Spa's 2.5 hectare hilltop compound are set at a blissful remove from the action.

Despite its bucolic isolation, it's very easy to get into Mandala Spa from the resorts along the beach. Tricycle drivers know Mandala Spa by name, and will gladly take you up to Angol in Barangay Manoc-Manoc, past the town proper up the hill and right into Mandala Spa's tree-lined driveway.

At the end of the driveway, you'll walk onto a circular gravel path directly in front of the spa's open-air reception office. To the right of the driveway, a paved walkway leads off to the building that houses the Mandala Spa's resort reception and the Prana Restaurant, and beyond it, the Mandala's twelve spacious resort villas perched on the hillside.

The building layout allows staying guests to enjoy the facilities without being disturbed by day visitors, who troop in from the beaches to get some pampering done in between the scuba diving and sunbathing.

It also lets staying guests visit the spa without too much trouble - just don't stop to think about the uphill climb from the further villas to the spa at the other end of the path.

The Mandala Spa's twelve resort villas are set around the looping path that leads from the reception office. The villas are built to maximize the view from the top of the hill; your guide was placed in Resort Villa 12, which looks over the Angol hillside with the sea facing White Beach on the horizon.

Guests get full views of the trees and sea from both the bathroom and the bedroom, as both rooms have the benefit of ceiling-to-floor glass doors leading out to an ample balcony.

The villa's bath area is a spacious stone-floored haven with a lovely bathtub that provides a view of the hillside. Behind the bathtub, an outdoor shower lets guests bathe while the sunlight streams in through the skylight.

The bath can be transformed into an extension of the spa, should you order one of the bath treatments that spa attendants can draw for you in the privacy of your own villa. The bath preparations use fresh flowers and oils to create a variety of effects, from healing to relaxation.

The building materials throughout Mandala Spa are meant to evoke luxury in the service of close communion with nature. Warm off-whites and earth colors predominate, and the surfaces - when not open to the elements - are sheathed in natural fabrics, polished wood, and roughly-finished stone.

The hexagon and the circle are recurring architectural elements throughout Mandala Spa, and it's readily apparent in the resort villas' design. The villas' hexagonal shape creates the impression of a pocket universe where you can commune with nature, or relax after a strenuous yoga class or massage session.

Mandala Spa's accommodations will not please everybody - they're not meant to. The twelve resort villas are designed for guests pursuing a holistic refuge from the stresses of the outside world, and every effort is made to facilitate that goal. Which precludes perks like cable television and the pool bar. The morning yoga classes, though, are a worthy replacement to such distractions.

Yoga classes are free for resort guests, and are held at Resort Villa 8 from Monday to Saturday at 9:30am. Villa 8 is a resort villa, only stripped of all its furniture except for several mats on the bare floor.

Yoga at Mandala Spa is based specifically on the Hatha Yoga system, incorporating Sivananda, Iyengar and Ashtanga Vinyasa. The classes involve a series of asanas (physical postures) that tone the body, calm the emotions, and reduce stress.

Nika, our yoga instructor for the day, patiently demonstrated the Sivananda asanas for her novice students and permitted workarounds for less flexible folk. Nika began the class with sun salutation warmups, and proceeded to rehearse a wide range of postures within the space of forty minutes - balancing poses, downward facing dog, cobra poses, and pranavama breathing exercises.

The morning classes are meant to accommodate yoga novices, but more advanced yoga practitioners might benefit from private yoga classes, which can be arranged with the Mandala Spa's yoga instructors.

Day spa guests can sign up at the spa reception desk to join the Mandala Spa's yoga classes and retreats.

The Mandala's Prana Restaurant boasts that its fare satisfies even non-vegetarians, and they largely live up to their promise.

The Prana is located at the second floor of the Mandala's villa reception building. Its décor takes cues from traditional Philippine architecture to evoke a bucolic feel, as indicated by its rattan seats and capiz-shell windows. The restaurant is sunny and well-ventilated - the windows on either side of the restaurant slide open to welcome wind and light.

Resort guests have access to the Prana Restaurant's breakfast buffet, a spread of muffins, sliced bread, jams, muesli, yogurt, and coffee. The buffet also includes a choice of one hot dish and one fruit drink.

The hot dishes include standard breakfast fare like potato pancakes, scrambled eggs, and eggs Florentine (just like eggs Benedict, except spinach is substituted for ham). Cold drinks include yogurt-based fruit lassis and fruit juices.

The Prana's ala carte menu includes soups, salads, light dishes and desserts. I tried the triple cheese sandwich (PHP 280, or US$6): the sandwich itself was fine, but the mango side salad was incredibly flavorful - juicy morsels of mango in sweet vinaigrette over lettuce.

The calamansi mint slush (PHP 120, or US$2.50) is another must-try; the tart calamansi makes an interesting contrast with the mint accents, and the double cooling effect of the mint and iced citrus provide a relaxing, refrigerating come-down from a morning yoga class or an afternoon spa session.

To read a review of the Mandala Spa & Villas' spa facilities, proceed to the next page.

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