Boracay adventure

Boracay is one of the best summer destinations in the Philippines. Very well known for its white sand, clear water beach. This week i had a chance to visit and experience this wonderful place. I’d like to share my experience in Boracay for the people who are planning to visit Boracay for them to get informed and know what to expect when they get there.

How to get there: There are 2 airport options to go.

• Option 1 is the nearest which is Caticlan airport. From there you only need to ride tricycle to get to boat terminal going to Boracay. It will only take few minutes.

 

• Option 2 is the Kalibo airport. From there you will need to ride a van to get to boat terminal. It will take approximately 1 hr and 30 mins to get to boat terminal. From the boat terminal you will need to pay terminal fee of Php 100.00 and an environmental fee of Php 75.00 and also a boat ticket fare of Php 25.00.

 

 

When you get to boracay, you will need to ride tricycle to get to your hotel. Fare is around Php100.

Food cost: There’s a lot of food choices there, for budget friendly there is Mcdonalds, Mang Inasal, Tapa King, and some small canteen that will only cost around Php 60 per meal. But if you really want a quality food, go for buffet. The cheapest buffet I saw cost  Php 250.00. You can also find variety of food like Korean food, Japanese, etc.

Activities –  Boracay adventure . There are plenty of activities to choose there. You cannot appreciate Boracay without experiencing some activities. There are many locals there that offer those activities like island hopping, escuva diving, helmet diving, banana boat ride,  sailing, fishing, paragliding, and many more. We are able to negotiate to one of the agents there and gave us a package for only php1800 /pax we will experience sailing boat, island hopping, fishing, banana boat ride, helmet diving, and snorkeling. I can only give you the ideas of the above activity because that is the only activities we experience.

•  Island hopping – sounds like fun, well its more like a boat tour or maybe we just availed the cheaper type. There is a more expensive Island hopping package where there’s an included buffet lunch.  At the same time you will experience snorkeling on 2 sites and fishing. This activity is very relaxing, to inhale fresh air, and see the beautiful sea and island of boracay. The big and nice white house below is the said house of Manny Paquiao in Boracay. Below is the most expensive hotel in Boracay. Shangrila hotels

 

• Helmet diving – this allows you to walk on sea floor at around 10ft deep by wearing an very heavy helmet to prevent it from floating. This enables you to see the fish very near. But be warned that the helmet is so heavy that will cause pain on your shoulder after wearing. You will also experience pain on your ears because of the high pressure of the air coming in. This air pressure that causing pain in your ears can’t be removed because they need to maintain equal pressure against the water so that the water will not come in inside the helmet. They will limit your stay there because it is dangerous especially for your ears. This is a great adventure, but will I repeat it? Probably not, because of the pain on your shoulders due to heavy helmet and pain in your ears due to high air pressure.

 

 

• Banana boat ride – this was exciting before but now they limit the speed for safety reasons. Still it is a nice ride.

 

 

• Sail boat – This is the most relaxing for me. Riding in a silent boat, feel the breeze of the wind in a afternoon sunset.

 

 

 

• Snorkeling – This is one of the most enjoying activity for me, to see the fish and corals live. But this is not the best place for snorkeling comparing it to Laiya, Batangas. Or maybe we are just on a place where there is lesser fish and corals.

 

• Fishing – This is included on our “cheap” activity package that’s why the included fishing tool is also cheap. This is made of soda bottle with a rolled string on it and at the end of the string there’s a 2 fish hook and a big bolt screw to make it sink. We didn’t have the luck to catch a big fish.

 

 

• Other activities that we never tried unfortunately because of budget limitations. -Scuba diving -Glass Bottom boat -Day trip to Carabao Island -ATV and Buggy Car -Zipline -Reverse Bungy -Go Kart -Jet ski -Parasailing -Flyfish Etc…

 

 

Night Life There’s a lot of bar and resto to hang out for your boracay adventure at night. At night, boracay is so crowded, it feels like you are in a night market.

There are a lot of live bands playing and even “KPOP” dancers, and fire dancers playing in many bar and resto there. You have a lot of choices.

The sand castle below is built by the locals there to earn money. They will ask you to pay php20/pax for picture taking. You can also ask them to take a picture of you. Don’t worry if you are using DSLR because they also know how to use it even in manual mode. 🙂

Market
If you are looking for items to buy for your souvenir or “pasalubong” , there are plenty of stores there which offer goods at a very affordable price.

 Friendly Reminders for those who will go there

• It is best to have a waterproof camera for worry free picture taking especially when at the beach. It is also great to take picture of the fish there.
• You can never enjoy boracay without trying any activity there, so better have more budget when you go there.
• There are some people who would invite you to a free lunch or dinner at ASTORIA hotel, this sounds nice but it’s too good to be true. In this world nothings goes for free unless its from your friends and family. Just try to google “Astoria scam” and you will see a lot of answers there why they are offering a free lunch or dinner buffet.