Boracay Travelogue

Navigate: Home - Southeast Asia travel photography - Boracay pictures

Fine beaches are not hard to find in a country with so many island. The number one position is held by Boracay's White Beach, which is also the prime tourist destination in the Philippines. If you want complete seclusion then Boracay is probably not the best option since tourism has definatly arrived in a big way.

Boracay's White Beach is 7Km of white sand so fine it feels like talcum powder. All the development is behind the line of palm trees, so the beach itself is relatively unspoilt apart from a few deckchairs and volleyball nets. The only way to get to Boracay is by boat, and they are quite small. There is no pier on the island, so you will have to jump in the water and then wade on to the beach. What a grand way to arrive in a place like this. Getting there is straightforward if you are coming from Manilla or Cebu since the airport of Kalibo on Panay is very close by.

Even though there are few budget travellers there (most tourists being Philipino, Korean or Japanese) it's still a wonderful place to go on such a vacation. In fact whatever your wishes, you can probably find it: a stunning beach, cheap accomodation (Rainbow Villa for 5$ a night for up to 3 people, foto bottom left), dive shops (Lapu Lapu - map of their dive sites 90KB), good food, lively nights, accommodating for all budgets. There is Bulabog beach is good for windsurfing and kiteboarding and hosts the annual Boracay International Funboard cup.

Boracay has luckily been spared from turning into another overdeveloped tourists destination and still has a lot of charm. The question is of course how long this will last? There have already been reports of algae due to bad water quality (which has since improved) but then the algae have apprently been there on and off for the past 50 years. A very large "hotel with conference rooms" was being built in a very obvious spot when I visited which will probably spoil the view quite a bit. Over development is a tough thing to beat and will depend solely on the honesty of the local politicians.

Boracay is a lazy place and you can spend days on end having a good time, doing very little. My plan was to stay for just a few days and I ended up spending two weeks. There are quite a few hawkers trying to sell you rolex watches, but they are not to pusy and you can have a good laugh talking to them.

The ratio hawkers : tourists is definatly not like in Peurto Galera where we were very outnumbered. Boracay is the perfect place for a beach vacation where you dont have to think to hard and everything is at your disposal. You can have dinner on the beach with a cold beer after a day in the sun and then party to cheesy disco. Somehow, all the bad points about Boracay are just outweighed by the beauty of its beach.

Navigate: Home - Southeast Asia travel photography - Boracay pictures