I went to Boracay last week to attend a dinner hosted by Snake River Farms. Curious to find out what Boracay is like now in 2019? Please watch the video!
Boracay 2019
It’s actually my first time to go to Boracay! I know, almost everyone else has gone to Boracay except me… but I don’t like getting sunburned 😀 I’ve spent too many summers with peeling, sunburned skin in my youth to actively seek out the experience again 😀 Our family beach vacations were always fun, but I just never sought out the beach anymore after I grew up.
Still, I have been meaning to go to Boracay just because everybody else has been there. Years ago, I even did a lot of research on Boracay: where to stay, where to eat… But a trip there just never materialized, and then later, reports started coming out about how dirty Boracay had gotten.
But last week, I had an opportunity to finally visit Boracay! It was only an overnight trip, but I tried to see as much as I could.
GETTING THERE AND BACK, GETTING AROUND BORACAY + TIPS!
Transportation was easier than I expected
We took an Air Asia flight to Caticlan. We didn’t have to pay any terminal fee in Manila (Terminal 4). The Caticlan airport was small but decent, and baggage handling was manual (there was no baggage carousel).
We were picked up by our hotel service outside the Caticlan (Boracay) airport. The shuttle took us to a nice waiting shed. At first, I thought that we had already arrived at the resort so quickly, but it turns out that it was a place to wait to get on a speedboat to Boracay island. We were welcomed with drinks/water. I think this place is exclusive to the Henann hotels.
Next, we were led to the speedboat outside. The boat ride took maybe 10-15 minutes, then we reached some sort of pier where we disembarked. We took another shuttle ride to the hotel, dropping off other guests in their respective Henann hotels before reaching ours.
Going back to Manila, it was the same thing but in reverse. Just confirm with the front desk what time the shuttle service will pick you up to take you to the airport. There is also a P100 Terminal Fee before taking the boat to Caticlan, but we didn’t have to pay out of pocket because it was already included in our hotel transfer fee.
The roundtrip hotel transfer costs P1,475 per person (airport to hotel, hotel back to airport).
My old research led me to believe that getting to Boracay involved a bit of hassle with old, rundown airports, taking ferries, etc… so this was easier than I expected 🙂 I’ve been to a domestic airport that had no roof and crumbling walls, so my expectations were low.
Do online check-in
You can skip the long check-in lines and just have your boarding pass printed at a kiosk.
Do not bring heavy luggage
With all the transfers from one form of transportation to another, having to carry a heavy bag was troublesome. The staff helped us carry our luggage to and from the boats, etc… but carrying my heavy bags up and down the plane, through airport check-in, etc… that was all on me, and I really wished that I had just left my laptop at home.
It was very windy at the airport!
I quickly regretted wearing a dress because I had to hold it down while going up the stairs to the plane, while carrying heavy luggage, while my hair was flying around and slapping my face. Next time, I’ll remember to not wear a skirt, to tie my hair, and to pack lighter. I don’t take that many domestic flights so having to walk up the plane just completely slipped my mind. Most of the flights I’ve taken recently were where the plane was connected to the airport gate and we just walked through the tunnel to the plane.
Getting around Boracay
The main mode of public transportation was the tricycle. If you walk to the main road and hail a regular tricycle (which you share with other commuters), the rate is around P20-25/person, I was told.
If you request for a “special” tricycle ride that takes you from where you are and drops you off exactly where you want to go, and will not pick up other passengers along the way, the rate is P100 (station 2 to station 1) to hire the entire tricycle. You can negotiate with the tricycle driver but I think P100 was the generally accepted rate. I thought it was kind of expensive for a short ride, but that’s what most of the hotel staff told us was the rate for special.
Traffic in Boracay
I did not expect to experience traffic in Boracay! Well, I guess it was inevitable since there is only one main road and a lot of people, plus all the construction going on.
OUR HOTEL – HENANN GARDEN RESORT
We stayed at Henann Garden Resort in Station 2.
Our hotel was very nice on the inside!
It was located on a tiny alley, more like an access road, and had construction all around that road. Several hotels and resorts were being built across and beside our hotel.
On our way to the hotel, we dropped off other guests at other Henann hotels. Apparently, Henann has seven hotels in Boracay (I’m not sure about this number, it’s just what the tricycle driver told me).
When we went inside the hotel, I was surprised to see such a nice resort. It was totally unexpected based on what it looked like from outside. I will be writing a review of the hotel soon.
While the hotel was really nice, I felt like it cut me off from the beach. I don’t know what I was expecting to see in Boracay – maybe beach huts? If Boracay wasn’t a place where you *had* to go to the beach, because that’s what everyone was there for, I’d be totally content to stay inside this resort. It feels very insulated from the outside, which was actually a good thing, especially with all the construction going on.
The hotel was also only a 5-minute walk to the beach via the access road, so that was very convenient.
THE BEACH
I expected to see a lot more people at the beach. I guess it’s the off season (February 2019) so there aren’t that many people, which is nice. The beach isn’t crowded and I actually enjoyed dipping in the cool water, with very few other people in the water, too. Yes, we all had our own space! 🙂
The beach is clean. The water was clean and clear, the sand was as powdery as claimed, and I could safely walk even a hundred feet out to sea and the water level was only up to my chest. The waves were gentle so I didn’t have any fear of being swept away. I also didn’t see any trash on the beach, nor on the sand 🙂
I expected the beach to have more beachfront. I just thought that the shops and restaurants were too close to the beach, but what do I know.
Sorry, no pics. I didn’t bring any camera equipment because there was no place to safely leave it while I was in the water. I just left everything secured in my room, and then left my room keycard with the frontdesk to claim when I got back from the beach.
I didn’t wander too far from the hotel, and stayed mostly in the Station 2 area.
There were a few ladies offering legit-looking massage services with their signboards. There were some restaurants and souvenir shops along the strip.
I saw old photos of Boracay where cabanas and loungers were set up on the beach – I didn’t see any of those. The beach looked uncluttered and free from any of those.
I heard that Boracay was a “party” place, where they had loud parties and events all the time. That was also one of the things that turned me off from visiting Boracay in the past. I’m in that point in my life where I just want to enjoy a serene resort / beach and not do the party scene 😀 But seeing Boracay as it is now, with its calm, laid-back atmosphere, I feel like I am going to enjoy it more on my next visit. Yeah, I’m already thinking about going back for a longer, less hectic stay.
OTHER OBSERVATIONS
I enjoyed my short trip to Boracay. It was cleaner and calmer than I expected, especially after hearing from the news about how dirty it had gotten. What I saw was a very clean beach, where people were respectful of each other – no one was pushy (no pushy vendors trying to sell things), no one was invading anyone’s personal space, no one was loud.
We were looking for “paluto” places but we couldn’t find any nearby. There were a few men trying to get us to follow them to restaurants at the back, but after walking with them for about 5 minutes, through very narrow alleys beside local residences, we felt like we were going too far away from the beach and those places they led us to had no customers, so we declined and went back to the beach area. We were expecting to eat fresh seafood but since we couldn’t find any legit-looking paluto joint, we ended up having lunch at Cha Cha’s. It was the nicest-looking place we saw in our walk, and also as expensive as it looks, but it had many customers so we felt safer eating there. The food was delicious, I especially loved the Crab Cakes 🙂
I do feel bad for the other local businesses (budget-looking resorts and homey restaurants) that we saw out in the back with barely any customers. It’s my first time in Boracay so I have no idea if they were the original Boracay restaurants that just got edged out by newer businesses with more budget. But we were hungry, on a schedule, and didn’t have time to Google where to eat. My old research was not applicable anymore, and I only saw a few places whose names I recognized from my old research.
Speaking of newer businesses, I noticed a lot of construction going on everywhere (please watch the video). So many new resorts and hotels were being built. Frankly, in my mind, I thought Boracay was a small island. I don’t even know how it can fit this many hotels/resorts! Somehow, I feel there are way too many establishments milking this little strip of sand – from the beachfront resorts and restaurants, to the stores and resorts further back. There are even more storefronts and buildings being built. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, I leave that up to you. On one hand, it looks like Boracay will have better roads and infrastructure in the future, on the other hand, it’s looking too commercialized that it is losing its beach-y appeal. Also, I know that the shops need to cater to foreign tourists, but it was starting to look like China 😉 Majority of the tourists seem to be from China.
I also felt safe in Boracay. I didn’t get the feeling that the locals were out to rip us off. This was because everyone seemed helpful, friendly, but also busy doing their own thing. I didn’t see any beggars. People were either enjoying the beach as tourists or busy working as staff for the various establishments there, doing construction work, taking people around as drivers, minding their shops, going to school, etc…
The people that we met in Boracay were all very nice. The hotel staff were very helpful, and on our way back from dinner at Discovery Shores, the guard there even tried to make “tawad” for us for our tricycle ride back to Henann even if we didn’t ask him to. This was such a pleasant trip! I actually can’t remember any major trip where we did not notice any form of rudeness at all, not even from other tourists 🙂 even the tourists here were so well-behaved!
