Boracay

[South-east boy]

Am visiting Philippines in February and after arriving in Manila will go down to Iligan, then had been thinking of flying to Boracay, then Palawan after. Now I know that Boracay has recently re-opened after getting in a bit of a state, but I've read that some things won't be open/back to normal yet and also they are limiting the visitors to the island. Also it says that you have to stay at a department of tourism accredited hotel or you won't be allowed to leave the airport. :NoNo:

https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/philippines-to-re-open-cesspool-boracay-after-clean-up

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/26/party-island-of-boracay-reopens-minus-drinking-smoking-and-raw-sewage

I have been looking at many places to stay including guest houses and condos etc. Does anyone know how these relate to this new department of tourism rule? I've heard that many hotels have been closed down also. I have seen some places say that they are department of tourism accredited, but most don't even mention it. Of course I can ask them before booking, but I am a bit worried if they are not truthful or if I then have some problem when I arrive at the airport. :cwm25:

Is it best to stay near the stations or maybe a little further away?

[Ako Si Jamie]

To get to Boracay from Iligan either take two flights via Cebu or fly to Iloilo and travel overland to Caticlan and then take the short boat trip to Boracay.

There are direct flights to Palawan from Caticlan with Air Juan that goes to Coron and Air Swift that goes to El Nido.

For more info on Boracay go onto the Trip Advisor forum for the Philippines. One regular called leftovertoo actually lives there.

[fred]

Don`t bother going..You could be arrested there for building a sand castle.. Stay away IMO.

[grahamw48]

I look forward to seeing the new sewage treatment plant. :cwm25:

I believe it is also forbidden to drink a beer, etc, on the beach (lest you just toss it on to the ground and walk away, as the locals are prone to doing, everywhere in the Phils ?).

Basically it's all the fault of those dirty foreigner tourists, who will now need to be herded like sheep, and constantly watched.

Well, that's my impression anyway.

What fun. :NoNo:

[South-east boy]

Don`t bother going..You could be arrested there for building a sand castle.. Stay away IMO.

:icon_lol:

[South-east boy]

To get to Boracay from Iligan either take two flights via Cebu or fly to Iloilo and travel overland to Caticlan and then take the short boat trip to Boracay.

There are direct flights to Palawan from Caticlan with Air Juan that goes to Coron and Air Swift that goes to El Nido.

For more info on Boracay go onto the Trip Advisor forum for the Philippines. One regular called leftovertoo actually lives there.


Thanks. Yeah, had thought about taking the Ceres bus overland from Iloilo and then Airswift to El nido.

I saw a few recent videos on youtube about Boracay. There seems to be advantage and disadvantages of going now/soon. Advantages are that it should be quieter without as many visitors as not fully open/finished yet and the beach area mostly looks good, but the disadvantages are the road building and demolition work won't be finished for around a year or longer, so there will be some noise and mess more inland. How their limit of daily visitors will compare to the pre closure amount of daily visitors I don't know. Just a shame that something wasn't done a while back-it grew too quickly with no regulations on anything that was being built or done. As some people have said, it really needed to be closed for a year or more to sort everything out, but it wasn't possible for everything to be closed for that long as most businesses there rely on the tourism and of course people need to earn a living to get by.