Top 10 Things to do in Boracay

Being just a stone throw away from Singapore, Boracay acts as a great family/couple holiday destination away from the city life with pristine beaches and Sunsets to die for. It acts as a great substitute to the more touristy beaches places such as Phuket, Bali etc, with the only set back being the difficulty in getting there. But on the flip side, it’s the very fact that the journey there can be abit of a hassle that has been keeping Boracay from getting overly touristy and their beaches and corals in good condition.

So if you & your traveling partners can learn to enjoy the troublesome journey of getting there (Read How to get to Boracay), we assure you that Boracay would return your effort in ten folds with sights that is well worth the trip. Here’s our suggestions of the top 10 things to do in Boracay once you do eventually get there:

1. Superman Zipline

There’s two Ziplines in Boracay, you can either do it sitting down or you can do it in a lying down on a kinda Superman stance. If you even know us, you would know what we have personally opted for, the Superman!

The Zipline package would have driven you on top of a mountain where they would hoist you with a full body harness and zipline you from one mountain to another, before taking their open air cable car back (2:23~2:35 of the video). The entire zipline journey probably last less than 90secs, but throughout that short span of time, it gives you a spectacular birds eye view of the entire island and the golf course below. The only scary bit is probably when you first step up to the platform but that quickly goes away after they harness you up. Because the harness is tight and wraps around your full body, the experience really isn’t as scary as one would make it up to be in your mind.

Recommended for: Adults, Families, Everyone

Tip: If you have a GoPro or an action camera, do bring one along but secure it tightly so you’ll be able to document your trip. For those who don’t, they offer Gopro rental services.

2. Scuba Diving

For those who have their diving certs, Boracay offers one of the clearest turquoise waters I’ve personally seen. When you take pictures underwater, it kinda feels like you’re in Maldives yet without the hefty price tag. On top of that, during the right seasons, Boracay is one of the few places in the world where you can dive/snorkel with a real life Whale Shark. Sadly, neither of us have a diving license so we couldn’t do this, but from the friends that did, it’s an amazing sight!

Recommended for: People who have the license to dive, People who love wildlife

Tips: Get your diving license

3. Helmet Diving

For those like us who do not have a diving license, or is traveling on a tighter budget, you can always opt for Helmet diving. Helmet diving is well, basically putting a fishbowl over your head (kinda like Sandy from Spongebob) that’s constantly pumping oxygen in so you can walk on the seabed and still enjoy the waters without drowning.
Their experience guides would also be around to facilitate and would even provide bread to help draw the fishes towards you for a better experience and picture. The entire experience last about 15mins but feels much longer when you are underwater.

Recommended for: Everybody!

Tips: When you are trying to feed the fish with the bread, they do occasionally bite your fingers. It isn’t exactly very painful. But do lookout for it

4. Cliff Diving

For the young and brave, Boracay offers cliff diving at the popular Ariel’s point! The exact height varies with the tide of the sea, but in generally, they have a range of boards you can dive from ranging from 3ms to 15ms above sea level. Personally, Ariel Point was sadly closed for renovations when we were there so we went over to Magic Island instead.

Recommended for: Young adults, the brave and courageous

Tips: It can get pretty scary when you first step on the board and look down. Also, do not forget to either hold your nose or exhale through your nose at the point you enter the water to prevent water from gushing up.

5. Fly Fish

For the extremist, forget about banana boating and all that nonsense cause Fly Fish is the new black. It’s kinda like a sick hybrid of banana boating and rodeo bull riding, only that the bull is on steroids and has wings. I’m not trying to boast, but I like to think Im a pretty strong guy but still the Fly Fish still got the better of me. My arms were lactic acid filled and for the only time in my whole Boracay trip, I was hoping the activity would end soon. It felt like I was holding on for my dear life as the fly fish kept bouncing up and down the waves and occasionally flying almost vertically. It was a good workout and my arms were beat at the end of it.  That probably has something to do with us not mounting the Fly fish the right way, but still it was “intense” fun. We did a quick research after we came back and apparently, this is how you are actually suppose to mount it (note the lady and how high it flew).

Recommended for: The adventurous

Tips: To save time, they might try to ask you if you would want to do it together with other people in line if you are an odd number group, but you can insist on just having the fly fish to your own group

6. D’talipapa Seafood

After a long day of activities, refuel with the freshest seafood at D’Talipapa! D’Talipapa is their local market where you can purchase fresh LIVE seafood and cook it on the spot. Simply head to the market, buy whatever you feel like eating, and then bring it to the shops just opposite which would charge you a fee to cook it any way you want it.

Recommended: Everybody

Tips: BARGAIN! Always start with half price of what they are offering you, and because there are so many stores selling the same crab, lobster etc, do NOT be afraid to walk away, where ideally, the shop owner would pull you back with a better offer OR at the worst case, you know the price range and can offer that much more at the next shop you stop at. Also, do NOT be drawn in or afraid when they shove live seafood in your face or aggressively try to physically pull u to their shop. You can always walk away and say NO!

7. Jonah’s Fruit Shake

Do not ask me why, but Jonah’s has one of the best fruit shakes anywhere around! It’s just nice, different and well… nice! So you would just have to take our word for it and just try it 😉

8. Parasailing

Parasailing is always a fun activity no matter where in the world you do it. It provides you with a certain degree of serenity being that high up from everyone and everything else. The good thing about Parasailing in Boracay is that aside from the great view, is that you get to do it with a partner, unlike certain countries where they only offer single flyer. If your boat driver is as fun as ours, he might even let you fall and dip your legs in the water before pulling you back up to the sky (3:45~3:58 of the video)

Recommended for: Everyone

Tips: Talk to your diver and see if he can let you dip your feet in the water

9. Massage & Spa

What’s better to top off your relaxing beach Holiday than massages and spas. They have quite a number of cheap massages along the stations and by the beach. But if you want to go for the slightly more premium ones, you can head to Mandala, which has won multiple awards for their spa treatments. We tried both the one at Mandala and at Boracay Regency, but personally preferred Mandala’s.

Tips: For the roadside massages, unlike most of the other countries that use female masseuse, note that some of them offer a guy masseuse for male customers. Depending on your comfort level, you may ask for a female therapist.

10. Sunset Cruise

Boracay has these beautiful beautiful sunsets and there’s no better way to enjoy these sunsets than to take one of their Sunset cruises where they take you out to sea on this sail boat, away from the crowd and allow you to just soak in the beauty of the sunset.

Other activities that you can consider are:

• Nightlife : Boracay is also famous for their nightlife
• Roasted Pig: One of Boracay’s famous dishes
• Stand up paddle boarding: It was a different experience, but we personally got bored 20mins in
• Muay Thai/MMA/Boxing: Boracay is home to K-1/MMA legend Ole Laursen who runs the Legacy gym in Boracay

When all else fails and/or you are traveling on a tight budget, simply just lay by the beach and watch life go by. Boracay has beautiful fine white sand and turquoise clear water that would whisk away all your troubles.

This post is coming in as a way way way overdued post as it has been almost half a year ago since our Singapore Travel Blog team visited Boracay. It’s one of those places that we have been dying to share about but have been tied down with backdating articles about countries we have been to before we started our Travel Blog. But Boracay till date is still one of our fav places and you can count on us going back there again someday.

*What NOT to Try

Snorkeling! And no we are not talking about the Whale shark snorkeling experience we mentioned earlier, we are talking about the normal snorkeling experience within Boracay itself. We were initially drawn in by the idea of the clear waters and pretty corals that would make a perfect snorkeling experience so we signed up for that. But how it works is that the boat takes you out to a designated area near crocodile island for you to snorkel. The catch comes when the driver tells you that because the current is so strong, you would have to hold on to the ropes on the boat, which means that essentially, you are just going up and down the boat and your view is just whatever thats around the boat. We personally reckon that you would have more fun purchasing a snorkeling mask and doing so on your own near the beach.

Read also:

• How to get to Boracay
• Top 3 places to stay in Boracay