Boracay Island – A Love At First Sight!

June 29, 2011 – My first visit at Boracay Islands, the Philippines.

Went here for vacation courtesy of Gran Prix Hotels and Suites. I’m being accompanied by Gran Prix’s marketing manager, Ms. Rhina Villagracia and her cool family (her mother, brother/sister Mhie Villagracia and niece Cherry Dayondon) and fiance Mark Lester Ambrosio. Our flight at Sea Air Philippines was delayed for more than an hour. We’re supposed to leave around 11am but we ended up reaching Boracay around past 2:00pm already. It is advisable that you book a hotel and ask for service/transpo in transferring from the airport to the hotel because there’s so much hassle if you do it on your own.

We stayed at Gran Prix Boracay Hideaway in Station 1. The place is good enough especially if you are looking for a budgeted hotel. And the best thing about it is it is near the beachfront and serves free breakfast. They also have friendly and accommodating staffs that assisted us all through out.

For our check-in, they gave us a complimentary drink (mango juice), explained some procedures, assisted us in my hotel room. All this served with a smile.

Gran Prix Boracay Hideaway is almost near at DMall where we had our lunch at Andoks and Talipapa Bukid (Station 3) where we bought fresh seafoods. Just a reminder though that everything here is expensive. Even a Selecta ice cream worth Php10 in Manila is Php30 here!

Boracay is actually not your typical island/province. It is now civilized and now offers Starbucks, Yellow Cab, Iced Monster, Pancake House, Gerry’s Grill, Mang Inasal, Andok’s Lechon Manok, NYF, and even Master Siomai! But their prize is almost double the price compared to Manila’s.

We don’t have much itinerary for our first day aside from walking from Station 1 to Station 2 and bought some souvenir items already. I bought myself a Boracay sleeveless shirt, board short and that reggae-head band to complete my Boracay look.

We had dinner at (forgot the name, will fill it up later) at DMall where we ate Iloilo Style Bulalo and some grilled chicken, porkchop and isaw-isaw. The waitress here is not friendly and even served us bottomless iced tea that tastes like water already. Ever heard of Nestea Icea Tea for P10 only???

Since I didn’t prepared much for this vacation (I actually woke up late, prepared my stuff that morning, and worse part forgot my 2 memory card!), I managed to bought a spare 2GB memory card here at Boracay. I wonder why airports don’t sell memory cards there. :-/

June 30, 2011 – 2nd Day at Boracay Islands, the Philippines.

Although I went back at my hotel room past 10pm (after walking the beachfront watching some fire dancers last night) I stayed up late (until 3:00am) watching some cable shows and playing Smurfs’ Village, Plants vs. Zombies, I woke up around 7:00am for my free hotel breakfast. I ordered the American Breakfast (toast, mushroom and cheese omelet, and hot choco).

Our itinerary this day is to do island hopping around 9:00am. We rode a boat and toured us from one island to another. Although we were not allowed to step in to those islands because it’s supposed to be a private area. Damn! I got contended taking pictures, zooming in, just to get a good shot of the caves, the breathtaking mountains like crocodile islands and the turtle islands where we did some snorkling, The tide is high so we didn’t enjoyed much the underwater experience. And I can’t breath with this snorkling gadgets! Urgh!

We also managed to see Manny Pacquaio‘s said-to-be house in Boracay. It was huge! Although I didn’t like its interior design. But he is rich, so who cares!?

Last stop is the Puca Beach. This place is amazing! I love everything here (except for some trash you will found along the beach front). They also have a market here selling shells (accessories and for home display) and bough myself the famous poca shells as souvenir.

We went back to Gran Prix boracay Hideaway and had our lunch there. We rest a little and since I don’t like sun that much, I content myself taking pictures of every people I see at the beach. Around 5:00pm, we decided to visit the other hotel owned by Grand Prix Hotels and Suites: The Sitio Boracay in Balabag in Station 1 (it’s near balabag Church). This one is lovely and best for honeymooners! Although it is 5 minutes away from the beach front, I would still love to try this hotel. They have spacious rooms and even a private swimming pool.

My blogger friend, Ryan Joson, suggested I try the Chori Burger, Calamansi Muffin and the shakes at Jonah’s. Since the Jonah’s is near the Sitio Boracay, we tried it and I ordered myself a Pineapple Milkshake worth P90.00. Not bad though it tastes weird because Pineapple is mixed with Milk. I still enjoyed it though.

We also checked out the famous Boracay Grotto. I’ve been seeing this a lot in some Pinoy movies and I want to see it too. It looks amazing for me. And I only wish the people here put lights to it at night time to make it more attracting to the tourist. And I wish people who’s taking pictures at Mama Mary’s sculpture are not in their swimwear like the Koreans I saw who’s in their bikini and trunks! :-/

We had a lovely dinner at Gran Prix Boracay Hideaway. We decided to just eat at our hotel (they only serve breakfast though) instead of eating outside where the price are ridiculously high. We bought some fresh seafoods at the Talipapa Bukid and asked the hotel’s chef a favor of cooking it for us. Ask properly and your request might be granted. ;-)

I also bought myself a mug from Starbucks here. I didn’t enjoy though how they prepared my chocolate frappucino. And they are expensive too! A grande sized drink here is the same price of a Venti in Manila. :-/ And their staff is more accommodating to foreign tourists.

To end the night, we had some drinks at Club Paraw. They have good DJ music here. But their drinks are way too expensive! I asked for a Vodka Cruiser and they charged me Php200.00! We decided to drink in front of our hotel instead (the staff set up a table for us fronting the beach). We managed to bought 4 vodka cruiser for that P200 and even bought some of BBQs and that Chori Burger which costs P45.00! It is small but heck, it tastes good anyways.

Got drunk with my 3rd bottle and decided to sleep around 1:00am. Tomorrow, we will be doing a land tour and hopefully, our 3rd day in Boracay will be as memorable as my 2nd day.

Day 3 and Day 4 to follow…

For the meantime, please visit my full vacation photo album at