Boracay is under ten square kilometres, and you can still put together a list here that does not fit into your days without even trying. Boat trips, watersports, viewpoints, beaches you supposedly have to see. The good news is that you do not have to work through that list, because this is an island where doing nothing counts as a plan for the day.
A few things really belong on it: the sunset, that long stretch of white sand, one day on the water. Others are on the board of every beach vendor and give you fifteen minutes of fun for about €25. On the most expensive island in the Philippines, it helps to know in advance where your budget goes.
So where do your two or three days on Boracay go, and what do you save for next time?
Where to sleep, how to get around and how many days to plan in are all on our Boracay page.
Sunset from a paraw
White Beach is on the west side, so it faces exactly the right way. Every evening the paraws glide past, the traditional sailing boats with outriggers, and that silhouette against an orange sky is the picture this island is famous for all over the world. You can watch it from the sand, but you can also just sail along.
A trip costs about €8 and you board straight from the beach, shortly before the sun goes down. If you want a whole evening rather than an hour, the sunset cruise on the party yacht is the social version: music, drinks and plenty of other backpackers on board.
Do not save this for your last night. Do it on your first, and for the rest of your stay you know where to wander at around five.
Our verdict: absolutely, and ideally on your first night
White Beach from Station 1 to Station 3
Four kilometres of powder white sand, and it really is as soft as everyone says: it stays cool under your feet, even in the middle of the day. The beach is split into three stations and they are quite different from each other, so walking the whole length is the best thing you can do on your first day.
Station 1 in the north is the widest, the quietest and the most expensive. Station 2 is the centre, with the restaurants, the bars and most of the tour desks. Station 3 in the south is cheaper and more local, and it is where a lot of the hostels are. It costs you nothing, White Beach is car free, and you can walk the whole stretch in about an hour.
Know the rules. Smoking, drinking and eating on the sand are banned, so are sandcastles and fires, and you take your rubbish with you. That sounds strict, and it is, but it is exactly why the beach looks the way it does since the clean up of 2018.
Our verdict: a must, and do it on foot rather than by trike
Ilig-Iligan Beach early in the morning
On the north east side there is a small beach that hardly any visitor finds, tucked away between the hills. While half of Boracay lies on White Beach, this is clear water with barely anyone about. With a bit of luck you share it with a few local fishermen.
Take an e-trike and go early in the morning. A ride costs about a euro, which makes this the cheapest outing of your whole stay.
Do not expect the same row of beach bars you find on White Beach, because that is exactly what makes it special. Go early, stay a few hours and be back before the hottest part of the day.
Our verdict: our favourite morning on Boracay
Island hopping with snorkelling
The standard boat trip takes half a day and stops at Crystal Cove, Crocodile Island and Puka Shell Beach. You cruise along the coast, jump into the water a few times and see, in one morning, the side of the island you would never reach on foot. Snorkelling is usually included.
It is one of the most popular things to do on the island and the boats leave from Station 2, so there is very little to organise. If you would rather go to Puka Shell Beach on its own, you can do that yourself too: it is fifteen minutes from Station 1 by e-trike and entry is free.
Puka is the calm opposite of White Beach: coarser sand, far fewer people and a lot less going on, which is exactly what you come for.
Our verdict: the best way to spend half a day here
Pick your own fish at the talipapa
Boracay is the most touristed island in the Philippines, and the prices along the waterline show it. The talipapa, the fish market at D’Talipapa, is the answer: you buy your fish fresh at the stall and have one of the restaurants next door put it on the grill.
You pay for the fish by the kilo and for the cooking separately, so ask both prices before you point at anything. A few streets inland, around D’Mall and in the village, you eat for a fraction of what you pay on the beach anyway: reckon on about €3 for a meal and €1.50 for a beer.
Order lechon or adobo with it if you have never had Filipino food, and finish with a halo-halo. That is shaved ice with all sorts of things mixed in, and it is better than it sounds.
Our verdict: go, even if it is just for one night
Mount Luho
The highest point on Boracay, and the only place where you can see both coasts at once: White Beach on one side, Bulabog on the other. Only from up there do you realise how small this island actually is.
Entry is about €1.50 and the viewpoint is open during daylight hours. You get there by e-trike for about a euro a ride, because it is not a walk.
Go early in the morning if you are up anyway, when it is still empty. Reckon on an hour, not half a day: you come for the view, and the view is exactly what is there.
Our verdict: the cheapest view on the island, and an hour is just right
Bulabog Beach in the habagat
On the east side, ten minutes’ walk from White Beach, is the beach that gets the wind from June to October. In those months Bulabog is one of the better kitesurfing spots in Asia and the water is full of kites, while White Beach on the other side is rough.
Watching costs nothing, and it is a good spot for the sunset when you have had enough of the crowds for a bit. If you want to try it yourself, this is where the schools are that teach you to kitesurf in a few days.
If you come in the amihan, between December and April, it is quiet on this side and there is little going on. Then White Beach is the right side of the island to be on.
Our verdict: made for the habagat, and if you are here then, go straight away
Got time to spare on Boracay?
Parasailing over White Beach
From about €25 a person you hang from a parachute behind a boat for fifteen minutes, with the whole island below you. That is a big bite out of your daily budget, so do it if you have the money and you fancy that one shot. Always book with a registered operator, never with someone who approaches you on the beach. Want a similar view for €1.50? Head up Mount Luho.
Helmet diving across the seabed
Walking along the seabed with a helmet on is an unusual experience, and you get the photos thrown in. You see roughly what you see when snorkelling on the island hopping trip, so this one is for when you have the days and the budget. If it gives you a taste for properly going under without a certificate, a dive spot further along your Philippines route may be even more beautiful for the same money.
Eating at the waterline once
The restaurants with tables right on the beach charge beach prices, so do it once for the atmosphere and eat inland for the rest of your stay. On a daily budget of €25 that can easily save you a third, and you are not allowed to eat or drink on the sand itself anyway.
Boracay in the habagat
Between June and October the wind blows hard onto the west side, seaweed washes up on White Beach and there is proper surf. Prices are at their lowest and the island is wonderfully quiet, so if you are mostly coming for the atmosphere and the food, it is a fine time. If you are coming to kitesurf, this is exactly your season. If you want that wide white beach at its best, pick the months outside it.
Our top five on Boracay
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Sunset from a paraw, ideally on your first night
- Walking the whole of White Beach, from Station 1 to Station 3
- The boat trip to Crystal Cove, Crocodile Island and Puka Shell Beach
- Ilig-Iligan Beach early in the morning, by trike
- Picking your own fish at the talipapa and having it grilled next door
Still got time after that? Mount Luho, at €1.50, is the cheapest view you can buy here. And if you are here between June and October, walk the ten minutes to Bulabog Beach to watch the kitesurfers make the most of exactly the wind the rest of the island is putting up with.
So what do you really have to do on Boracay?
Everything on this list is worth it, but Boracay is not about ticking things off: it is about that one long white beach and the sunset above it. The travellers who got the most out of it let go of their plans after the first morning and simply stayed lying on the sand.
If we had to pick just one thing: walk White Beach to the very end and sit down there until the sun goes down. It costs you nothing and it is exactly what this island became famous for. The boat trips and the watersports are fun, but none of them is the reason you will still remember Boracay a year from now.
And get up early one morning. Take a trike to the north east side, sit on that empty little beach with your feet in the water and think about the rest of the island, still asleep at that moment. That is the side of Boracay almost nobody takes home with them.
