RETURN TO PARADISE

Known to provide guests with “barefoot luxury”, Siargao’s Nay Palad Hideaway returns refreshed and recharged this year

- Maritess Garcia Reyes

“Eighty per cent was destroyed,” recalls Herve Lampert, one of the founders of Nay Palad Hideaway, a breathtaking resort tucked in picturesque General Luna in Siargao. Imagine the chaos and the ordeal Herve and his brother Vince had to go through before arriving at an important decision for the property: to start anew, as if taking a blank piece of paper and drawing everything from scratch. “Instead of just rebuilding what was there before, what we did was we started to reimagine the whole concept of ‘barefoot luxury’ and try to bring it to a new level,” he adds, speaking of the signature concept the resort is known for since it opened in 2012. “In the first months post-typhoon, we focused on our people and the community to help as much as possible. The first three to four months [we spent] re-building homes, finishing about 50 of them before anything else,” shares Vince, general manager of Nay Palad Hideaway.