After an brief overnight stop in Manila we flew into Boracay. Caticlan airport is not on the island itself and so you get to take a short bus ride to a jetty, board a boat for a sea crossing and then take a final bus ride to your hotel on Boracay itself.

The island of Boracay is relatively small, its long and thin in shape and takes around 40mins to drive from top to bottom, at points its a short walk from one side to the other.

Most of the transport on the island is electric, making for some slow uphill journeys at times until they hit the ‘turbo’ button.

This was our first visit to Boracay and to the Philippines too. Boracay has been voted as a leading travel destination for years so we were excited to see it.

Pre covid they had shut down tourism on the island intending to provide some respite and recovery from the over development, and a chance to upgrade some of the infrastructure, with covid pausing things further.

Now there are limits set on how many people can visit the island to try to control things better.

However, its still a stunning place with wonderful beaches and a great night life. The main beach White Beach runs for 4 km, with fine powder like white sand and calm crystal blue sea water.

Its now quite built up although much is hidden behind the lines of the palm trees that stretch along the beach front.

Up towards station 1 on White beach there is a small catholic shrine set on Willy’s rock.

We took a boat trip to visit some of the other beaches and nearby islands. You get to see the lovely Puka beach on the tour but it can get busy there with other tours landing at the same time. Its called Puka due to the Puka shells found on it.

On Magic Island you get the option to jump into the sea from the cliff side at various levels! They have options from 3 to 10 metres high. I opted for 7 meters and you certainly feel the impact as you hit the water!

They do have guys in the water to ensure you get back in ok and have a medic on hand too!

Some of the roads are a bit rough and there is lots of work happening to improve them!

Our hotel was set in the Newcoast area, a new development with its own beaches nearby which were lovely and much quieter than the main ones in town.

Our final evening was spent watching the sun go down from Diniwid beach and a meal afterwards in the lovely Dinibeach Restaurant.

Boracay has been lovely and a great introduction to our Philippines journey, lets hope the rest of our planned locations are as nice!