Inside The Reimagined Lagen Island Resort, El Nido

After a year-long renovation, Lagen Island Resort—El Nido’s most intimate private island retreat—has just unveiled a reimagination that weaves Filipino heritage, indigenous craft, and conscious luxury into one of Palawan’s most extraordinary island experiences.

The boat we are on cuts through Bacuit Bay, Palawan, rocking gently, and we move with it. That’s what the sea and the waves, the sky and the wind, teach us, if we let it. Not in any language we can name, but in the movement of the current. We are never still. We are always, already, part of something in motion. Lagen Island, El Nido’s most intimate resort, reopened earlier in 2026 after a year-long renovation. It can be said that the eco-luxury resort is also something in motion, a story with chapters still being written. And it’s into this that the reimagined Lagen has been designed.

Lifestyle Asia was invited to experience it all firsthand.

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The Philosophy Behind Lagen’s Reimagining

After the boat dock, we were greeted at the arrival hall by Paloma Urquijo Zobel de Ayala, Creative Director of Ayala Land Hospitality. She has led the creative transformation of Lagen through a multidisciplinary collaboration between WATG, Wimberly Interiors Studio, Henning Larsen, and the Ayala Land Hospitality Creative Team. What they have made, beyond a redesigned resort, is a love letter to Filipino craft, written in wood and thread and clay, and addressed to the island itself.

“The new era of Lagen is designed to be rooted in authenticity,” she says. “Local artisans from across the archipelago have answered the call to bring Lagen reimagined to life; where enduring traditional craftsmanship outweighs easy ornamentation, every surface presents us with an opportunity to celebrate the rich Filipino aesthetic and cultural heritage.”

The arrival hall itself is the first encounter with that declaration. It is shaped in homage to the paraw, an iconic Visayan sailing boat designed to move entirely by wind, powered by its relationship with nature rather than against it. It opens with hand-carved wood details, ceramic beadwork, and walls threaded with indigenous patterns. Every surface is in cultural conversation with one another, over and under, the way a weave works, the way a tide behaves.

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Inside The Rooms At Lagen

Lagen’s 42 keys are fewer than what the island once held, a deliberate reduction that gave back beach. They are divided between Water Villas—perched above the lagoon on stilts and inspired by the bahay kubo—and Forest Rooms. The rooms are a study in Filipino design and details, from the Giyangganan weaving pattern of the Batak tribe that runs through the wall partitions to the indigenous motifs of the Tagbanua, Tausug, and Maranao people that surface throughout the interiors.

The Dining Options Available At Lagen

Dining at Lagen is equally thoughtful. Both The Clubhouse Restaurant and The Beach Club offer al fresco dining with sea and resort views. Executive Chef Ric Ramos lets the island lead here too, building his plates around fresh, local ingredients for Filipino and international flavors. For one evening, we had dinner on the beach, a glimpse of the bespoke private dining available across the island. Whether in caves, on secluded coves, the sun-kissed sandbar, or the private deck, each setting lets the island tell its own story.

The Guest Experiences That Await

Beyond the beds and the tables, the island offers what it has always offered, the resort providing thoughtful framing. Signature experiences include guided hikes, nighttime stargazing, and watersports. Cultural immersions run deep still, from the Kiminawit Village Tour, traditional Pangangawil fishing, and artisanal finds at Kalye Artisano. 

Meanwhile, the Lagen Wellness Sanctuary anchors quieter hours as a premier retreat with a tranquil garden, plunge pools, sauna, steam room, and private spa rooms for total rejuvenation.The Dive Centre and Marine and Biodiversity Conservation Center extend the island’s commitment beneath the surface, into the coral and the current, into the part of Lagen that needs no redesign and asks only to be protected.

What Lagen Island Teaches Us

On the last morning, we sat watching the water from the shore. The lagoon was as still as it ever allows itself to be, the tide ebbing and flowing, its surface catching the early light; the scene has nothing to do with us yet everything to teach us. 

Paloma had said it throughout our stay: the island is the main character. Every design choice was made in service of that truth. This is what three days on Lagen taught us: there’s a particular grace in not being the centre of the story. There’s a longer story of Filipino lineage, culture and craftsmanship, featured in the details. There’s an even longer story of the natural beauty and wonder of the island itself.

You arrive carrying everything you always carry, and Lagen makes you part of something larger than yourself. Even after the boat pulls away from the dock and Bacuit Bay has folded itself back into the horizon, the feeling stays. You carry it home in the body, the way a weave holds its pattern long after it leaves the loom.

For more information and bookings visit elnidoresorts.com, or check out facebook.com/elnidoresorts and @elnidoresorts and @lagen.elnido on Instagram.

Photos courtesy of Ayala Land Hospitality