Just Back From ...

Boracay Island, Philippines

By Lee Franks

Boracay Island has long been hailed as having one of the most beautiful beaches in the World and my first glimpse of the gleaming long sliver of 'White Beach' from a small outrigger boat putt-putting through spectacularly clear ice-blue water confirmed it!

Part of the charm of Boracay (for me anyway) is that it is relatively hard to get to, but then the journey is part of the 'experience' and boy is it worth it when you get there!

Boracay is a small butterfly shaped island 15 mins by outrigger boat off the coast of Panay Island. So your journey from Australia will most likely involve a flight into Manila and an overnight here because of flight schedules. Manila has some extremely good value high quality hotels so it's a fine way to freshen up after your flight, crash out for the night and get up relaxed and recharged ready to start your holiday! A domestic flight of just over an hour will get you from Manila to Kalibo, then a 1 hour bus journey will take you through some beautiful tropical scenery to Caticlan. Here you clamber aboard a small outrigger hugging your luggage for a short boat ride to Boracay ... by now you should be getting really excited! The water's a stunning, clear turquoise with tantalising glimpses of tropical fishes and the approaching beach is so white it hurts your eyes to look at it.

You land on the sand, well they call it sand, it would be better described (if it wasn't such a cliche) as talc ... or maybe I should say 'dusting powder', there that's something different! Whatever, it's so fine you have to have a very thorough shower to remove it all.

For a small island Boracay has a huge range of accommodation with most of it fringing the looooog White Beach. Accommodation options range from native so-called nipa huts (cottage made out of wood, bamboo and nipa-palm leaves), to spacious cottages with two rooms, kitchen and huge verandahs, to modern resorts and hotels with air-conditioning and swimming pools. We stayed at mid-range Sea Wind at the Northern (and quieter) end of White Beach and had a wonderful stay. It's a small, friendly place and absolute beach front!

Now you could come to Boracay and do nothing but lie on the stunning beach all day, but if you have the willpower to get off your beach towel, the Scuba diving is sensational! For fair-weather divers like myself the main advantage is that most dive sites are about 15 mins by outrigger boat offshore, the water's usually as calm as a millpond and the visibility is incredible. Dive sites cover the whole range catering from shallow 10m dives, and some really speedy drift-dives around the other side of the island to the renowned Yapak - a huge wall starting at 40 metres and dense with reef sharks! There are many dive operations on the island, many are PADI accredited, so just rock up and take your pick!

Another beautiful aspect of Boracay is sunset - every night's a winner! White Beach is, of course, on the sunset side of the island and the combination of a stunning coloured sky reflected in the calm lagoon like waters, attractively broken-up by several silhouetted yachts and catamarans ... well, you'll think you're the world's best photographer.

And after dark ... Boracay comes alive with all the usual beach-resort style bars, beach cafes and restaurants. Try Cocomangas' famous Jam-Jar cocktails. Yes, they ARE served in Jam-Jars, and they're a darn site tastier than orange marmalade! But don't drink more than 5, and definitely not if you're going diving the next day at 7am, that's my hot tip!