The Reef Resort is open
A floating resort off Samal Island opened to guests in September 2025. Here is what is actually on the water, and what it costs to visit for a day.
For most of the last decade, seasteading has been a thing people write about rather than a thing people stay in. That changed in September 2025, when the Reef Resort opened to guests off Kaputian on Samal Island, near Davao City in the Philippines.
It is not a prototype and it is not a rendering. The Seasteading Institute describes it as open and hosting guests, events and owner stays.
What is on the water
The resort is built on a floating aquaculture platform rather than on piles driven into the seabed. Two kinds of accommodation sit on it.
- Glamphouses — 14 units, 290 square feet each.
- ArkPad units — 2 units, 490 square feet each.
Both are listed as available on the resort's own booking site, though ownership of the ArkPad units is shown as sold out.
Power comes from solar. The platform underneath the accommodation is a working fish and lobster farm, which is the part that makes the arithmetic different from an ordinary resort: the structure earns from aquaculture whether or not a guest is staying on it.
Going for the day
You do not have to stay overnight. A day pass is ₱249 per person on weekdays with a referral, and ₱300 otherwise, with no promotional rate at weekends. That includes the boat transfer out, swimming above the reef, and the water activities on the platform — paddleboards, kayaks and water bikes.
For anyone assessing this as an investment rather than a holiday, the day pass is the cheapest possible due diligence. It is a couple of hundred pesos to stand on the thing and decide for yourself whether it floats.
One thing that does not add up
Worth stating plainly, because this site is meant to be checkable: ArkPad's own website still describes the Reef Resort as under construction. The Seasteading Institute reports it open. The booking platform takes reservations.
Three sources, two answers. The resort is evidently operating — you can book a room tonight — but the company's own front page is the one saying otherwise. That is a content problem rather than a construction problem, and it is being fixed.
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