Boracay Island Tourist Traps

Boracay was one of my dream vacation destination until I've been there last year. The beach was indeed a beautiful with its sugar-like white sand but very crowded specially on weekends. So many prostitutes specially gays scattered around every corner, tricycle drivers charges you 10 times and ever more higher than a normal tricycle in other provinces, prices for common goods are also higher. Lots of indigenous children along your way begging for some money- but that's not really a problem, it's only sad to think that they were the original settlers of the island and now have seem to be swept away from where they should be. Activities such as diving, and island hopping aren't really worth its cost.

Unique Suggestions: Never walk alone on the beach at night specially if you are male, some gayboys prostitute will come to you and will force you to take their offer or they will hangout with you while you're outside.

Ask for the trike fare first before the ride.

Fun Alternatives: For my suggestion, Go to Puerto Princesa instead, inform yourselves about the nice beaches there though not as beautiful as boracay. Puerto Princesa is the capital city of Palawan, a province which offers you a vast selection of fantastic places to go. One of the best in Palawan is the Sabang Beach, which located very near to it's world famous underground river. second is the Long Beach of San Vicente, it is not as white as boracay's sands but the clear waters, silence, and purity of the place will let you fall in love with it. next is El Nido, El Nido has a lot of activities to offer, and yet has several white beaches and beautiful islands ready to explore, and finally, my favourite, the Coron Island, this small town offers a unique experience which go beyond your expectations, one of the best places to explore there is the Kayangan Lake, Barracuda Lake, Twin Lagoon, Siete Picados coral garden, Malcapuya and Banana Islands. Coron is also a best place for adventure diving, several japanese shipwrecks of the WWII lies beneath it's sea waters.

Some dishonest tricycle drivers might try to trick you into paying more so before getting into the tricycle, ask how much the fare is or ask the locals first. If you're in doubt just wait for another tricycle or get the tricycle driver's serial number and you can complain about it later.

I felt the whole island let us down. I had high hopes and heard others raving about wonderful beautiful Boracay. I didn't see that.

The beaches and water are second to none, but the rest of the island is a pit. The pinoys living there live in squallor conditions to make room for tourists. No wonder they hate us.

Pretty much every shop/restaurant/vendor I had dealings with treated me like a walking ATM machine. They thought my wife was Pinoy (she's not) and swore at her in Tagalog when I refused their price gouging.

Trikes here cost 5-10 times more than anywhere else in PI. Some guy wanted 300 peso to take me 5-6 km away. I paid 20 peso for the same trip in Tagbiliran.

I got food poisoning. No one took responsibility for it.

There were bothersome touts everywhere I went. They bothered me when I was eating at a restaurant. I got tired of being polite and starting telling them to F off.

The island is truly an ecological disaster. I give it 5 years before it's more polluted than Fukushima.

We did 4 nights in Bohol and 4 nights in Boracay. We considered making it 8 nights in Boracay. I am glad we didn't. After 4 nights in Boracay, I was ready to leave.

Unique Suggestions: Don't tour the island. Just do the beach and pool. It just hurts to be gouged by everyone every 5 metres you walk in any direction.

Fun Alternatives: Go to White Beach in Mindoro.

I saw the bat cave on the map and decided to visit it. Big mistake for 2 major reasons.

1. You have to take a mandatory tour guide with you. He guides you some and then at the end, after it is all done, springs a price on you. Something like 350 pesos per person. I forgot how much, but I felt very cheated. I went down the cave but my wife didn't, but he charged us for her anyways. He has some official form from the local gov't that supposedly makes the price gouging legal.

2. The cave itself is very dangerous. I am a decent climber and I nearly slipped a few times. I gave up before I got all the way down. I estimate from the cave and the location, if someone takes a tumble down there, you're done for. No ambulance or EMT crew would be able to get you out of there.

Unique Suggestions: Confirm the price with the tour guide and the trike driver. Ask if there is a feww for waiting.

A group of children peddling fashion jewelry approached us and offered a bracelet for free. Surprised, we tried to decline the offer and advised them to keep it and sell it to others. However, the children insist that it is a gift and we should take them. After a brief discussion, we decided to take the bracelet (knowing at the back of our minds that there is a catch later). True enough, before we left the island, the same group of children approached us again and insist that we buy items from them, after all they gave us a gift.

Unique Suggestions: Good for them, Christmas is just around the corner so we are a bit more generous. Besides, they have a stuff that caught our fancy and minimally priced, so we decided to buy 2 pieces of bracelet from them.

Fun Alternatives: To avoid falling into this trap, firmly tell the children to keep the item as you are not interested or fond of fashion accessories.

The tricycles cannot bring you to the white beach, so don't bother to ask him to bring you to the actual site of your resort in the beachfront area. He will say yes, but he will drop you off on the Main Road near a pathway leading to the white beach. Depending on where your resort/hotel is located, a pedicab (pedal trike) can take you through the larger paths directly to your resort, or if not accessible, you will be dropped off at the nearest point where you can walk to your destination.

Unique Suggestions: The tricycle drivers usually know the right drop off place for most Boracay resorts/hotels, but just remind/request him to bring you to the nearest point where you can walk to your destination.

Fun Alternatives: If it is your first time to Boracay and you feel insecure walking through the pathway, or you find it difficult to carry your bags, make prior coordination with your resort/hotel to send a staff to meet you at the corner of the main road and the pathway leading to their place.

When you hire someone to take you diving, snorkeling, etc you may ask if it's all inclusive and they nod. However, you take the boat out and suddenly a man in a canoe rows up and demands 20 pesos each. Or perhaps you grab a mask and dive in, when you get back in the boat the driver asks for another 20 pesos for equipment fees. This type of thing happens alot and the initial reaction is to argue. But when I realized that not only was this an extremely poor country, but that 20 pesos was about 40 cents US, I stopped and just handed the money over. 40 cents is nothing to me, but it can feed this mans family.

Fun Alternatives: just give them the 20 pesos. If it's a signifigant amoutn of money I would have argued more.

Charge for hotel transport (by minibus) is 70 times (yes - seventy times!!) higher then normal local bikes with sidecar.

They try to force you to book full board and then you are stuck with a buffet 3 times a day, which they tell you when you check out and none of your restaurant bills can be deducted.

Unique Suggestions: No way to get out of this trap once you´re in...

Fun Alternatives: There a plenty of nice, much, much more economic hotels around. Try e.g. NigiNigi