I am a French entrepreneur who came to Siargao Island in late 2007 for the surf and never left. Since then I have been living 200 metres from the Cloud 9 break — building a resort, opening a French bakery, and watching this island change across nearly two decades. Everything I write about Siargao comes from that ground-level perspective, not from a press trip or a research document, but from daily life on the island.
How I Got Here
Like many people who end up staying in Siargao, I came for the waves and stayed for everything else. I arrived in late 2007, when the island was still largely unknown outside the surfing world and Cloud 9 was a secret kept by a small community of dedicated surfers. The wave is one of the most extraordinary reef breaks in Asia — a powerful, hollow right-hander that breaks over a shallow reef — but the island around it is what made me stay. The pace of life, the warmth of the local community, the extraordinary natural landscape: Siargao gets under your skin in a way that few places do.
In 2008 I acquired the land at Cloud 9 Drive, and began building Kawayan Resort — a small resort with a restaurant, conceived as a place for serious travellers who wanted to be at the best break in the Philippines without sacrificing comfort. The name comes from the Visayan word for bamboo, fitting for a property defined by its lush tropical garden and the bamboo groves that run through it.
The resort and restaurant ran for years, building a loyal following among surfers, adventurers and discerning travellers. Then, after the pandemic, I took the decision to reshape the property entirely — closing the shared resort format and converting it into what it is today: Kawayan Villa Siargao, a fully private sole-occupancy estate available exclusively to one group of guests at a time.
Kawayan Villa Siargao
Kawayan Villa Siargao is a 2,450m² private estate at Cloud 9 Drive, General Luna — the only fully private villa directly at the Cloud 9 surf break. It has two king bedroom suites, each with an open-sky outdoor bathroom, a 220m² open-plan living room with a full-size pool table and a stocked private bar, a private mirror infinity pool, and a team of six staff available daily from 6AM.
Guests at Kawayan Villa Siargao have the entire property exclusively — no shared facilities, no other guests, no compromises on privacy. The villa accommodates up to four guests across two bedrooms, or up to eight when booked as a full estate. It has been rated 9.8/10 on Booking.com across 27 verified reviews — a score I am proud of and that reflects the standard we set for every stay.
What I find guests remember most, long after they leave, are the mornings. The routine of waking up, swimming before breakfast, watching the first surfers paddle out to Cloud 9, and then sitting down to a Kawayan Gourmand breakfast delivered to the pool — it is the kind of morning that recalibrates your sense of what a day can be.
Kawayan Gourmand
In 2016, my friend Pierre and I started working on an idea that had been forming for a while: a proper French bakery on Siargao Island. The observation was simple — the island had extraordinary surf, beautiful nature, a growing international community — but nowhere could you get a properly made croissant. For two French people, this was a significant gap. Kawayan Gourmand opened in 2017, adjacent to the property on Cloud 9 Drive, and became — as far as we know — the first dedicated French viennoiserie bakery on the island.
Kawayan Gourmand serves fresh croissants, sourdough loaves, pain au chocolat, seasonal pastries and specialty coffee from 6AM until 6PM daily. It supplies Kawayan Villa Siargao with its daily breakfast — included in every stay, delivered to the pool at whatever time guests prefer — and is also open to the public throughout the day, with its own following among both island residents and visitors.
What I Write About
The guides on this site are written from nearly two decades of daily life on Siargao. I have watched the island grow from a niche surf destination into one of the most-visited islands in the Philippines, and back again after the damage of Typhoon Odette in 2021 and the subsequent recovery. I have seen Cloud 9 at its most crowded and at its most deserted. I know which months bring the best surf, which activities are worth the trip, and which restaurants have lasted because they are genuinely good.
My aim with these guides is to give you the kind of information you would get from a friend who lives on the island — honest, specific, and based on real experience rather than aggregated opinion. If something has changed since I wrote it, please get in touch and I will update it.
Get in Touch
For enquiries about staying at Kawayan Villa Siargao, the fastest routes are:
- Email: info@kawayanvillasiargao.com
- WhatsApp: +63 939 554 7450
- Booking form: kawayanvillasiargao.com/booking.html
I am based on the island and respond personally to all enquiries.
Private pool, daily Kawayan Gourmand breakfast, dedicated staff. 200 metres from Cloud 9. Rated 9.8/10.