I have just spent at week in Boracay. It's a well-known place, but thought I'd just record some practical things that might help someone decide whether to go there or not.
First of all, it was not what I expected! I was thinking of a beach with a few noisy bars, like for instance Ko Samui in Thailand. Boracay is both a much better beach - miles of really fine, broad sand - and much, much more developed. It's a family holiday destination par excellence. The beach is calm and shallow, which is quite nice as it means firstly you can go for long swims, in very clean water and lovely sand (absolutely no stones), and secondly there are lots of Filipino families bathing and playing on the beach (the girls with all their clothes on) which is fun to watch.
I would say the holiday population is about 60% Korean (which might include some Japanese, as maybe I can't always tell), 30% Filipino and 10% everybody else. The Koreans are sophisticated and well-dressed, totally harmless, all taking pictures all tht time, but someone forgot to teach them how to smile. So, so many Korean girls who looked nearly the same, young, slim, small breasts, elegant, impassive, hard to imagine them being sexy in any context! Not one of them would I take seriously in a bar lineup.
Lots and lots of lovely Filipinas to look at and chat to, both working and on holiday, and only very few of them with a Western boyfriend. But absolutely no sign of any possible pickups, at least not to my inexperienced eyes. I got a very strong impression of just how reserved and shy the normal Filipina is (even one from AC when she's out of that context), and realised again that I haven't the slightest chance of scoring on the "free market" without a bar system, which doesn't exist there. Absolutely no obvious sign of any freelancers or pickup activity at all. I hear it is there, but you would really have to look. Like at the clubs after I have gone to bed!
The beach scene is not, as I thought, a lot of party bars, just an endless row of family-oriented restaurants, bars and shops stretching for miles, some with live music in the evenings, but very, very low key. You walk along the broadwalk, or along the water's edge depending on your mood, looking for a place to eat, and honestly you could walk a different section of the beach every night and never repeat. Lots of cosmopolitan food, but also lots of very reasonably-priced Filipino dishes as well. In general not too expensive.
Lots and lots of market stalls packed into small areas, mostly the shopping malls D'Mall and D'Talipapa, again not at all as expensive as one might have feared. Also more restaurants in these areas.
Finding a hotel takes time as always, if one wants the right one, but there are hundreds and hundreds to choose from, both on the beach front and packed together on the small alleys that connect the beach (which is free of traffic) to the very busy and crowded main road. I did my usual thing of reserving one for 2 nights and then finding the perfect place for the remaining time by walking the beach. The first one was a great nipa hut place (with aircon!) called Melindas Garden, perfectly fine but not on the beach. And it took some finding because the trike driver didn't know where it was. The one I eventually settled for was an Italian place called Azzurro, with rooms opening onto a garden area leading directly through the restaurant to the beach. Both were 2500 a night, but at Azzurro this included breakfast, which was great because you could sit in the restaurant and watch the passing scene, and you can use the hote's beach loungers. You could easily get it down to 1500 by living 5 minutes walk away form the beach, but I like to be right there. Wifi at Azzurro worked (usually) in the restaurant but never in the room.
There were two rather expensive things about Boracay. The first is getting there and back. It's quite cheap to fly by TigerAir from Clark to Kalibo, but all flights back are well over 3500. Plus the endless string of extras, airport shuttle, airport tax, bus fare, boat fare, terminal fee, environmental fee etc. In Kalibo airport there are lots of companies selling transport to Boracay. I made the mistake of buying one which included the boat fare. This turned out to be for a big boat, which I ended up waiting nearly an hour for, while everyone else just got onto the first bangka for the very short trip. If I go again I think I would take the ferry from Batangas to Caticlan, which is really cheap, and saves you a hotel room for the night out too. (The return trip is by day).
The other thing with a crazy price tag is motorbikes. Even though you walk a lot in Boracay I do like to have a bike as it stops me getting hot and sweaty and means I'm just that much more free. The daily price in AC is 250, in Subic 500, in Puerto Galera I paid 450, but in Boracay they wanted 2500! One company even asked for 3500! By really hard bargaining I got it down to 6500 for 6 days, still a ridiculous amount.
What is there to do? First and foremost just stroll the beach. There are lots of boat trips advertised but they're really expensive and didn't look that spectacular, so I never went on one. There are also snorkelling trips but as I've read that snorkelling around Boracay is basically shit, and I'd just come from Puerto Galera with magnificent corals, I skipped that too. You can go by motorbike to the interior of the island, which has a great lookout point, and watch the kite surfing on Balabog beach on the other side of the island (which has ONLY surfing, not a single cafe - just too windy I suppose). There are also other beaches to visit. And masses of water sports if you're into that. Not a lot I admit, but time just flies away in such a relaxing place. So perhaps it would be more logical to must rent a bike for a day at at time.
All in all a great place to relax for a few days, though a hassle to get there, but not really longer. Nothing to do with P4P!
