Boracay rocks!
Thought I share my experiences - I went to Boracay last year. One of the very best beaches I have been too! And I have been to many many beaches...
Crystal clear blue water, very shallow and fine white powdery sand, spectacular sunsets!
My trip:
Air tix - Cebu Pacific (SIN-MNL-CATICLAN) (need to transfer to domestic terminal)
Hotel - Discovery Shores (at Station 1, very exp but very nice, about $400 a night)
Ferry - 5min ferry from Caticlan (if you fly into Kalibo, you need to take a 1.4 hr car ride to caticlan to catch ferry. Caticlan airport is right next to the ferry pier). You will either arrive at the main ferry pier at Borocay and then take a van to your hotel, or some boats actually drop you off the beach (you wade to shore yourself with your luggage, quite fun
)
Most of the hotels are along White Beach. If you want quiet and nice hotels, stay at Station1 (there are moderate to luxe digs there). If you want to be right in the middle of the cafes, restuarnts, shops, stay at Station 2. If you want rustic and cheaper hotels, stay at Station 3. Btw, you can walk along the beach to reach stations 1, 2, 3 quite easily.
Everything there is quite cheap, food, shopping etc by SG standards. However, do note that their resorts are not very cheap, meaning you need to spend quite a lot to get luxe. Not like in Thailand, MY or indonesia, where if you spent say $150-200 a night, you can get pretty nice hotels. Check out tripadvisor for actual photos of hotels taken by travelers to see what i mean.
Tips:
Book your own airtixs online, it's very easy, cheaper and you select exactly which flight you want. I booked my hotel on agoda.com, good rates.
On your trip back to SG, make sure you allow about 3-4hrs gap between your arrival at manila and your departure from manila. The transfer from the domestic terminal and intl terminal takes time, it also takes time to get into the intl terminal and a ton of time lining up to check in (it took me 1.5hrs just to check in at Cebu pacific).
Expect your flights to be delayed. ALL my flights ended up delayed. So have loads of patience and smile a lot...
Cebu Pacific
I had a bad experience with them. My flights there went without a hitch. However, my flights back were a nightmare. Flight from Caticlan to Manila (propeller planes) was delayed 1.5hrs. After arriving at Manila domestic terminal, no one transfered us to the intl terminal (they were supposed to) for 1 hr. It took another 30mins to drive through abt 1KM of road because of crazy traffic. At the intl terminal, we queued up to check in for 1.5 hrs! Luckily, we had allowed 4 hrs gap to transit. When we finally get to gate, the flight has been delayed.
2 hrs later, we finally boarded the flight thinking that FINALLY we are heading home. 1 hr into the flight, the pilot came on to announce that they are having aircon problems and Manila airport has instructed the plane to return to Manila. It was a scary experience. We waited at manila for another hr before we got another plane. By the time we got back to SG, it was 6+am. We were supposed to have arrived at 12mn.
I don't think I'll take Cebu Pacific again. At least for the SG-MNL leg.
But Boracay is totally beautiful, hope they have direct flights to Caticlan soon!
