El Nido is already pretty good at making people slow down. There’s the sea, the trees, the warm tropical air, and that general feeling that you don’t really need to be anywhere else for the next few hours.

So when Lihim Resorts El Nido joined this year’s World Wellness Weekend, the setting was almost half the program.

From September 18 to 20, the resort held the World Wellness Weekend 2026—three days of activities centered around wellness, bringing together guests, local communities, practitioners, advocates, and Lihim’s own staff. There was yoga, sound healing, conversations, and, fittingly for a resort surrounded by nature, plenty of time spent outdoors.

 

 

SUNRISE YOGA AT LIHIM RESORTS

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The main Wellness Day started in the morning with a sunrise yoga session led by Donnela Mabbayad.

It was a fairly simple way to start the day. Participants gathered, rolled out their mats, and went through the session while the morning light slowly took over the landscape.

The rest of the day was less about structured exercise and more about talking.

Wellgather, a social wellness platform, brought together local people, advocates, and community initiatives for conversations on sustainability, community projects, wellness practices, and other work being done for both people and the environment.

Which makes sense here. In a place like El Nido, taking care of your own wellbeing and taking care of the place around you are difficult things to separate.

 

 

MORE THAN JUST A SPA DAY

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Panari Spa, Lihim’s signature wellness sanctuary, was also part of the weekend’s program. The spa has previously been recognized by Travel + Leisure as the Best Spa in the Philippines.

But the weekend wasn’t really confined to the spa.

The forest, the sea, the breeze, the morning light—pretty much everything outside the treatment rooms became part of the experience. That’s one advantage of holding something like this in El Nido. You don’t have to manufacture the atmosphere.

Andrew Walsh, Deputy General Manager of Lihim Resorts, put it this way. “Wellness becomes more meaningful when we experience it together.”

For him, the gathering was also about bringing nature, people, and purpose into the same space.

 

 

SOUND HEALING AT SUNSET

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By the end of the day, the pace slowed down again.

Participants gathered for a sunset sound healing session led by Marla Ramos, bringing the Wellness Day to a close as the sun went down over the El Nido landscape.

From yoga at sunrise to sound healing at sunset, it made for a fairly fitting bookend to the day.

 

 

A WELLNESS DAY FOR THE LIHIM TEAM, TOO

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The celebration wasn’t limited to resort guests.

Lihim also held a separate wellness activity for its staff, giving the people working behind the scenes their own time to step away from their usual routines and take part in the weekend.

It’s an easy group to overlook when talking about hotels and resorts. Guests arrive, rooms are prepared, meals are served, activities happen—and there are always people behind all of that making things work.

For Lihim, the staff activity was a way of turning some of that attention back toward them.

 

 

WORLD WELLNESS WEEKEND IN THE PHILIPPINES

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The El Nido gathering was part of World Wellness Weekend Philippines 2026, a larger celebration held around the country during the third weekend of September.

The global initiative marked its 10th anniversary this year, reaching 185 countries, 1,626 cities, and 11,992 participating venues.

In the Philippines, the celebration was supported by the Department of Tourism, Department of Health, and Wellness Tourism Association of the Philippines (WeTAP).

Leading the local celebration were co-ambassadors Marla Mae Ramos, founder of Wellgather, and Cybille Barcebal, Corporate Wellness Manager and CSR Champion of Araw Hospitality Group.

For three days in El Nido, though, the idea was a little less complicated: get people together, spend some time outside, move around a bit, have a few conversations, and eventually watch the sun go down.