Things you need to know about Boracay

22
Sep
2015

Things you need to know about Boracay

I just came back from Boracay last month. Not the best month to travel to Boracay but I do have some tips for you all. Hope it helps.

1. Best month to go to Boracay will be the whole year except July and August where it rains almost everyday and most of the activities like cliff jumping and extreme water sports will be closed.

2. Boracay is quite pocket friendly. A 5D4N trip including shopping, food, alcohol, flight and accommodation cost less than RM 2k per person.

3. I’ll recommend to go at least 5 days because the travel time is very long. Flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kalibo is around 4 hours, another 3 hours to transit from Kalibo Airport to the Jetty and from Jetty by speedboat to Boracay Island and depends where you stay you might need 10 to 30 minutes to reach your hotel. So overall, 7 hours for travelling. I am using a company called “My Boracay Guide” to arrange the transport. Back and return from Kalibo Airport to our hotel which cost 1400 peso per person. Save you a lot of trouble.

4. Transportation within Boracay Island is by Tricycle. Unless you rented a bike or a bicyle. But tricycle is convenient and cheap as well. Per trip is around 100 to 150 peso if you stay at hilltop like us. But if you are staying along the beach. 100 peso or less. If you are charged 200 peso and above, its cut throat already.

5. Ideal place to stay is at Station 2 where the whole stretch of beach (White Beach) is lining up with malls, restaurants and bar. Night Life as well. We are travelling in a group of 7 so we booked a suite at the hilltop. Our suite is fabulous, minus the location which is a lil bit too troublesome.

6. Food wise is not as impressive as other part of Philippines but do try out their grilled chicken. One of the famous local food in Boracay. Another one will be the calamansi muffin at a coffee cafe called Real Coffee. Located just along the white beach.

7. Theres two main shopping area in Boracay, D’mall and D’talipapa. If you want to buy some souvenirs for your friends, go to D’Talipapa. The price can easily lesser by half. Better deal at D’talipapa. Dried Mango is one of their specialty but it came from Cebu. haha!

8. Activities in Boracay : Water Sports like Scuba Diving (1600 Peso) Helmet diving (700 – 1500 peso) Fly Fish Ride (600 peso) Paraw Sailing (1000 peso), Massage and spa (300-500 peso), Ariel Point Cliff Jumping (1000 peso), ATV rides (800-1000 peso), Sunset Party Cruise Booty, Island Hopping (1500 peso), Cable car and Zipline, Go Kart, Mermaid Course, and of coz Mount Luho, However, most of the activites are best carried out during good weathers. So, pick your travel time wisely.

9. Bar hoping. Theres a lot of bars or places to hangout throughout the beaches. If you want to experience the luxurious, go to The Spider House Resort. If you feel challenging and wanted to try out something dangerous, go to Cocomangas Shooter’s Bar (Station 2). They are famous for their 15 shots of liquor. Challenge the 15 shots and if you are still sober, your photo will be put at the Hall of Fame. Hahahhaa. (Too bad we dont have time to do it). Apart from that, Exit bar and Guilly’s Island is a good place to chill as well.

10. Try out their freshly cooked seafood. You can buy your own seafood at D’Talipapa wet market and the restaurant around will cook for you. Remember, BARGAIN. Because the price will really shocked you.

11. Dogs are fat and cute in Boracay.

12. Change enough peso or you can get some USD with you. The rate in Boracay money changer is not too good.

13. Beer is cheap. Go ahead

HOWEVER, if you happen to go during the Monsoon season like me, you can still follow our free and easy itinerary. Basically, you cant do much because its raining everyday and all you need to do is to relax and chill and play under the rain. This is our day 1 :

Our flight was 1030am.. after a 4 hours whole journey sleeping flight, we finally arrived in Kalibo Airport. It was 2.30pm by then and after some of them got their sim card at the airport and a waiting time for the transportation arrangement, we are finally set to go! I used My Boracay Guide for the transportation. They are good and efficient. It only cost us like 1400 peso for both ways. No hassle for the troublesome transit anymore!

They even gave us some information booklet but we are only there for 4D3N so we dint even used any of the vouchers or coupons inside.

From Kalibo Airport to Caticlan Jetty is a 90 – 100 minutes drive in the bus. There’s nothing to eat at the Kalibo Airport, which means, we had our breakfast at 9am before our flight and we are starving with no food.

The journey from Kalibo Airport to Caticlan Jetty is a beautiful one but as usual, end up everyone slept through it. Hahaha!

It was 4.30 pm when we reached the Jetty. Cant help it so we bought some snacks to munch on and surprisingly, it was so good we bought a few packs back to Malaysia!

They arranged the boat to send us directly to Boracay Island. Duration = 20 minutes.

And finally!! Welcome to Boracay!!! The jetty was located at Station 3, and our villa is at Yapak which is further up a bit from Station 1, means… another half an hour travel time.

Boracay Island is quite a busy place.. so many mini vans picking up and dropping travellers. We waited for another half and hour before we got our arranged mini van. At the mean time..

We spot this little doggy we named it the Mayor because it was loitering at the canopy and just looking at us. So cute!

This is the mini van that took us to the villa. Its fun. And we had a very hardcore but skilful driver it like going on a roller coaster but with style. Hahahaha! I duno how many times we clapped and cheers for his driving skill while doing the cornering. Hahaha!

Hello Boracay!

So somehow we reached our villa at around 630pm. One day gone. And we were all so exhausted to explore the island now. Took our sweet time exploring our villa instead. You will just fall in love with the Villa.

Its a hilltop villa — Diniview Villa. Its a double storey villa with three rooms. Come let me show you.

The reception. Welcome drinks for us after the long and tiring day.

So this is our common area. Where you have a very nice living room, dining room and of coz.. pantry!

So spacious and beautiful. We just cant stop walking around.

And a very big balcony with magnificent view of the island and the sea. Show you in Day 2!

Lower floor consist of 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. One of the bathroom is like open concept means you can just walked around the compound while you are showering. Hahaha!