We always knew we wanted to open a resort — we just didn’t know where. After months of traveling across the Philippines, one day we stepped onto the land where Casalay now stands, we felt an overwhelming sense of stillness and calm — unlike anything we had experienced in any of the places before. There was something in the way the trees leaned toward the water, how the wind carried through the hills, the quietness of it all. It just felt right.

The name came naturally after that. I decided to call it Casalay — Casa, the Spanish word for home, paired with our family name, Lay. It reflects my family’s deep-rooted value of hospitality — a value that inspired me to create Casalay Boutique Villas & Dive as a place to extend that warmth to every guest and every colleague.

As you wander through this special part of the world, we hope your time here brings you what it brought us: serenity, perspective, and clarity.

Thank you,
Alfred Lay
Owner