A little piece of heaven
Before I arrived in Boracay I had been warned and told a lot of different things: it's very commercial, it's all about sales, you will even be approached when going for a swim in the sea and people only go there to get hammered.
Well, like most places it is what you make it to. My experience differed quite a lot from the "warnings" I received beforehand. Yes, it is commercial but not at all like say Kuta, Bali and many other tourist 'hot spots', yes, the beachfront is crowded with slightly overprized restaurants and bars but then just walked around the corner and we are back to being cheap as chips again.
Yes, people will try and sell you things but not in an annoying way, the majority of the time you just say no thanks and they wish you a nice day. The only time I was sold to in the sea was when they asked if I wanted to rent their paddle board for an hour.
Yes, there are plenty of places to drink and a fair amount of bars but if that's not your scenetthen there is so much more. I stayed in the cheapest place in the island, paying 250P (46 SEK/€4.60) per night, located on the beach front but at the very end of the 4km beach stretch and therefore also away from the noisy bars yet within 10 minutes walk.
As I have a thing for diving that's the activity I went for, paying 1800P (335 SEK/€34). But there is so much more to do: para sailing, windsurfing, para boarding, paddle boarding, yoga, helmet diving, sailing trips around the island, zip lining etc. The list goes on and on. Alot of the excursions run across to the mainland island though but I stayed put on the Boracay island.
The best part: people are super friendly and being a solo traveller here is not a problem. I became friends with my dive master and the other instructors at the dive shop and they invited me for dinner and lunch with them. My room mate invited me to come see him play music in a bar, where as I was sitting in the bar became friends with the entire bar staff who then gave me shots of some Philippine specialty and invited me to a birthday party.
If that's not enough to convince you to not believe everything you hear and come here for a visit to experience it all yourself then maybe this sunset picture from White beach will convince you:
Well, like most places it is what you make it to. My experience differed quite a lot from the "warnings" I received beforehand. Yes, it is commercial but not at all like say Kuta, Bali and many other tourist 'hot spots', yes, the beachfront is crowded with slightly overprized restaurants and bars but then just walked around the corner and we are back to being cheap as chips again.
Yes, people will try and sell you things but not in an annoying way, the majority of the time you just say no thanks and they wish you a nice day. The only time I was sold to in the sea was when they asked if I wanted to rent their paddle board for an hour.
Yes, there are plenty of places to drink and a fair amount of bars but if that's not your scenetthen there is so much more. I stayed in the cheapest place in the island, paying 250P (46 SEK/€4.60) per night, located on the beach front but at the very end of the 4km beach stretch and therefore also away from the noisy bars yet within 10 minutes walk.
As I have a thing for diving that's the activity I went for, paying 1800P (335 SEK/€34). But there is so much more to do: para sailing, windsurfing, para boarding, paddle boarding, yoga, helmet diving, sailing trips around the island, zip lining etc. The list goes on and on. Alot of the excursions run across to the mainland island though but I stayed put on the Boracay island.
The best part: people are super friendly and being a solo traveller here is not a problem. I became friends with my dive master and the other instructors at the dive shop and they invited me for dinner and lunch with them. My room mate invited me to come see him play music in a bar, where as I was sitting in the bar became friends with the entire bar staff who then gave me shots of some Philippine specialty and invited me to a birthday party.
If that's not enough to convince you to not believe everything you hear and come here for a visit to experience it all yourself then maybe this sunset picture from White beach will convince you:
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