El Juliana is a spacious old building, with flagged stones on the ground floor, wide imposing staircase, and huge polished hardwood floorboards over a foot wide in the bedrooms, which would be worth a fortune anywhere outside the Philippines. The building itself is almost completely hidden from outside by high brick walls, with "no brown out" displayed as prominently as the hotel’s name. An enormous wooden gate, with a smaller door cut out of it, makes it feel like a European mediaeval palace, or at least a Spanish parador. The hotel is conveniently situated just on the edge of the historic centre of Vigan, within easy walking distance of anywhere you’d want to go, although it feels more appropriate t
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My bedroom was large and spacious too, with noisy but effective air conditioning (the only options are on and off), and satellite TV with the best range of channels from four continents that I’ve ever met. There was even hot water in the en suite shower room. In fact, they are so proud of the hot water that there isn’t any cold water tap at all – make sure you’re well stocked with bottled water unless you enjoy brushing your teeth in hot water. My room overlooked the pool on one side, and a small shared veranda with table and chairs, on the other, but as the curtains are firmly nailed shut I didn’t get any benefit from the view. The furnishings are plain, shabby and clean, and do not do justice to the building.
The main attraction must be the pool, which will cost you, as a resident, 40 peso a day to use, and is also open to outsiders for 50 peso. It seemed very popular with the local youth in the evenings, and at weekends. The restaurant (a large gloomy room) seems to have given up, but they’ll serve you a plate of something hot and savoury in your room for around 50 peso, if you can’t be bothered to go out.
I paid 765 peso ($14) a night for single use of double room, and thoroughly enjoyed a relaxing and pleasant stay.
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