Saturday, February 20, 2016

Boracay Island - Travel on a tight budget

Thoughts: reminiscing paradise

 Albeit it's a little late, just wanted to share a little bout my sweet escape to paradise...


I bet most people think going to Boracay is quite expensive and would mean draining your pockets. Well, I proved it otherwise. It's a good thing there's Cebu Pacific airlines that constantly offers cheap promo flights so might as well take advantage of it. My sister and I booked our flights 3 months earlier and got a really good discounted price. We thought it would be an awesome birthday gift to our mom and to our aunt -- well, err I guess to ourselves. With the daily stress from work and the busy urban life, we all deserve to getaway right? Alas Boracay is just the perfect place to unwind.



Preparations: there's really not much

  • read blogs/reviews about Bora
  • checked hotel tariff rates
  • compared water activities to try out
  • familiarized ourselves with the vicinity maps
  • checked out affordable restaurants

Fast forward to 3 months later...

Hooray! It's time to go but wait, we didn't have any hotel reservations. We figured there's going to be a lot of cheaper deals we can find once we get there. To our delight there were a lot of friendly locals who approached us when we arrived. They asked if we have hotel reservations and offered us pretty good deals which was really hard to say no. They took us to Jerome's Lounge which I may say was a very decent place to stay. It was neat and very light on your budget (fyi: room rates starts at Php 1500.00). Plus, it is located in Station 2 which is the life of the party. To top it off, it's prolly just a minute or two walk to the seafront.



Where to Dine?

Contrary to public notions, you can find affordable and cheap places to eat. I sure was surprised to see Mcdonald's and Andok's chicken at the d'mall. Yup, we ate there when we arrived... haha! We also tried other inexpensive restos where you can have a meal for Php 95.00 per person and a dinner buffet at La Carmella Boracay Hotel that only costs around Php 350.00/pax. We also bought food, chips, and other provisions from budget mart convenient store since it was cheaper compared to other commercial establishments there.



Water Activities:

There were a lot of fun activities to choose from depending on your budget though. I like the idea that they were offering cheaper prices to locals. We had parasailing for Php 1,100.00/pax while foreign tourists were charged Php 2500-3000 for the same water activity. Isn't that great? here are some activities you can try.

note: we didn't get to try all of them due to time and budget constraints. haha!

  • helmet diving
  • parasailing
  • banana boat ride
  • fly fish
  • island hopping
  • atv and buggy car
  • scuba diving





Verdict:

Ooooommmmggeee!!! I sure love it there. I Will definitely visit the place again one day. The people were very friendly and accommodating. I call it a happy place. It's a party where people from different parts of the globe meet and get to interact with one another at the same time enjoying the beautiful white sandy shores and crystal clear waters of Boracay.