Sol Alma · Liwa, Zambales · Philippines ● Opening Spring 2027 — waitlist now open

Where the sun meets
the soul of the sea.

Six villas. One farm. A two-kilometer stretch of black-sand coast. A retreat being built slowly, by hand, on the edge of the West Philippine Sea.

15°15′N · 119°55′E Liwa Bay
Discover Reserve a villa
01 — The Story

A retreat shaped by the tide, the field, and the long Zambales horizon.

Sol Alma — "sun soul" — is a small luxury retreat rising on a quiet bend of coast in Liwa, Zambales. Six villas, a working farm, and a kitchen that cooks only what the land and sea offer that morning.

We are building Sol Alma slowly, with local craftsmen and materials drawn from the region: capiz, narra, lava stone, and hand-troweled lime. Every villa faces the water; every meal is rooted in the soil it came from.

When we open in spring 2027, you'll find a place to do less, eat better, and remember the sound of the surf at four in the morning.

6
Private villas
2km
Of black-sand coast
14ha
Of farm and forest
Liwa Bay · 06:14, December
Where
Liwa, Cabangan · Zambales
From Manila
3 hr 20 · by road
From Clark
1 hr 40 · CRK
Best season
Nov — May · dry
02 — The Villas

Six houses on the dune. No two alike.

03 — Kusina

A kitchen that cooks what the morning brought.

Open · Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
From the farm,
from the bay.
Chef Maria Santos · Bigan-trained
A daily
menu of seven
plates.
Photograph
food · in production

A Filipino soul, a Spanish accent.

Our kitchen is small and seasonal. The menu changes with what the fishermen bring in at first light and what the farm has ready to pull from the soil that morning. Most things are cooked slowly, mostly over wood — kinilaw cured in coconut vinegar, whole grouper salt-crusted on banana leaf, suckling-pig adobo three days in the making.

We name the farms and the fishermen on the card. Nothing arrives by truck. We try to keep it under seven plates, so each one gets the attention it deserves.

Hours Breakfast · Lunch · Dinner
Style Daily tasting · 5–7 plates
Open to Guests & reservations
04 — Experiences

Days made by hand.

05 — The Founders

Built by two people, in love with one place.

April and Austin, the founders of Sol Alma
April & Austin · Liwa, Zambales

Sol Alma began as a long walk on a quiet stretch of beach, a few kilometers from where April grew up.

April was born and raised in Zambales — the salt and the mango trees and the long tide-lines were her first language. Austin came from the other side of the Pacific: a software executive from Florida who, on a trip to meet April's family, fell hard for the country, the food, the slowness of the afternoons, and — in the way these things tend to go — for April herself.

Years later, after a long career building software companies, Austin traded one kind of building for another. April brought him home to Liwa, and together they began assembling Sol Alma — six villas, a working farm, a kitchen, and a single shared idea: that hospitality is, at its quietest, the act of bringing someone into your family for a few days.

They live on the property, with their dogs and a rotating cast of visiting cousins. If you stay with us, you'll likely meet them at breakfast.

April & Austin Founders, Sol Alma
"Mabuhay —
welcome to the family."
06 — Reserve

Hold a villa. Spring 2027 bookings now open.

Reservations are mocked here, but the form is real — pick dates, a villa, and any add-ons, and we'll hold the night for you. A deposit of ₱20,000 secures your stay; refundable until 30 days prior.

Pre-opening · Limited list
No. 20
The first twenty guests Spring 2027 · Liwa, Zambales Hand-written notes only

A letter, at the end.

If you've made it this far, you're the kind of guest we're building Sol Alma for — slow, curious, here for the long quiet of the bay.

We're inviting twenty people to come first, before we open formally. Stays on the house. Honest feedback in exchange. Leave your address below and we'll write — quietly, when there's something worth saying.

No spam · three or four notes a year, until we open.

April & Austin · Founders