Bukubaki Eco Surf

A quiet place at night, with nice staff and good tents. Great for a stay with kids. The changing rooms, toilets and showers were good too.

The staff were lovely, easygoing and available, and the public bathrooms were much better than we expected: modern, really clean, and close to every tent. The showers were great too. The pool is small, but does the job. We spent two nights here for a weekend away from the big cities, and it was well worth it. There were vegan choices alongside the usual food, which we really appreciated. We booked a tent and found the bed and pillows amazing. It stayed comfortable overnight and in the morning, neither too cold at night nor too hot in the morning. You can hear the road, so bring earplugs. I did, and slept like a baby. We’ll come back when the high season is over.

The treehouse was charming, and the beds were comfortable during our five days at Bukubaki. But the kitchen was short on basics, with just two teaspoons for four people, very few plates and cutlery, and no oven. The house also wasn’t cleaned during our stay, and there wasn’t even a broom or hoover available. For the nightly price, we expected more. Getting around from the resort was difficult. It sits beside a busy 80km/h road, so walking or cycling away from the property didn’t feel safe. That made the expensive bike rentals seem hard to justify, especially since we didn’t see anyone using a bike. There were plenty of Ubers in the area, though, and we managed to get around easily without a car. Yoga, surfing, and the skate and bike rentals were pricey, and the activities we saw were poor quality. The skate instructor was a real bright spot and was fantastic with our children. I wouldn’t recommend the yoga or surf lessons.

The shared showers and restrooms were really nice, and towels were included. They only provided shower gel. The pool was colder than I’d hoped, and the hot tub wasn’t working. My husband enjoyed a surf lesson at a beach about 15 minutes away by car, and I had an excellent massage. The staff were friendly and helpful. We stayed two nights in a Canadian tent with our one-year-old daughter. The price is pretty high for what you get, but all three of us slept incredibly well. It was May, yet we weren’t cold at all, thanks to the tent’s space heater. I’d read the reviews and brought a white noise machine, or played pink noise on Spotify, to cover the highway sound. There’s a very large skateboarding area. The bikes are on a very busy road, and the route is almost 1.5 hours by bicycle. With the baby, we didn’t feel safe taking them out.