First Timer in Boracay Day 1

I'm not much of a traveler and if I do I always go with my family. My parents never allowed us to travel or go out without them. Growing up I was afraid of going to unfamiliar places without my family, my mom to be exact. But my mom had to leave for us to live. She needed to work overseas because the income here in the Philippines is no longer enough. Being separated with my mom helped me mature through a not so good way. But those mistakes I've done in the past taught me how to be independent and responsible enough.

My fear of travelling has long been gone since I went to Cebu, a part of my black sheep days. That trip to Cebu became an eye opener on how fun it is to travel and I told myself that someday I will go to different places here in the Philippines and abroad. Among all other destinations, Boracay has been my top choice. Who wouldn't want to go to Boracay? Even Mr. Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet said "Boracay is one of the places that you should visit in the Philippines before you die." And of course, Boracay is my first travel destination.

Let me start this trip by sharing with you how we went to Boracay. I was able to get a promo fare from Cebu Pacific going to Caticlan and from Boracay we got Tiger Airways from Kalibo to Manila. From my experience, Caticlan is the best option if going to Boracay. It's easier and less time consuming.

From the terminal gate in the airport we had a short ride on this Cebu Pacific bus going to the plane that will bring us to Caticlan. This plane is small and if you're having a Kalibo flight, most probably the plane is bigger.

Don't forget to take a selfie in the plane, it's a must. lol

Take a photo of the view as well. Correct me if I'm wrong but is this Taal Volcano I see?

I barely saw any view on our way to Caticlan. It was cloudy, everything was covered with clouds. Also I was not able to take photos from Boracay Airport to Boracay Island because it was raining heavily when we got off the plane. All I wanted was to reach the hotel and change clothes.

Here's what we did from the airport to our hotel:

1. Outside the airport, just in front of the exit door is a tricycle terminal. Cross the street get a ticket and ride. Tricycle and boat costs P150 for 2 peson. We had the tricycle all to ourselves.  (But I think I only paid P130, I'm confused. lol)

2. Since it was raining heavily, Caticlan Jetty was closed. We were brought to Tabon Port. Since it was my first time to visit Boracay, I already had a bad impression of it because of the port. No shelter going to boats, the bridge made was scary to walk on to. I'm a huge person and it felt like every step I might fall. And there were a lot of trash in the water

3. Got down from the boat walked a little and there are a lot of tricycles waiting already. We told the driver where we were headed to and he said it costs P100. Since it was raining and I can't wait to reach our hotel I didn't  haggle anymore and just agreed to pay P100.

4. Le Soleil de Boracay doesn't have entrance from the main road so the tricycle brought us to Boracay Regency, we got down beside Mcdonald's and from there we walked until we reached the beach path walk, turned right walked a little bit more, passed by Boracay Mandarin and there it was, our home for 4 days.

We left Manila at 8:25am and reached our hotel around 10:30am. Check-in was fast and smooth but we we're informed that our room is still being cleaned and will be available after an hour. We left our stuff in the concierge and the receptionist said that he'll just text us once the room is available.

We went out and looked for Real Coffee and Tea Cafe. We walked through the path walk to the beach and back to the path walk, enjoying the walk in the sand while searching for the calamansi muffin place in Boracay.  Upon reaching the place, calamansi muffin were not available. Boo.

We were about to order food when the receptionist from Le Soleil texted us that our room was already available. We were in a rush while having our late breakfast.

Banana Walnut and Carrot Muffin

After our very fast breakfast we went back to Le Soleil, checked the room saw minor problems and asked the bell boy to fix it, which I will share with you in a different post, we then changed to our swimwear and headed to the beach.

We had 2 queen sized beds just for the two of us. I'm supposed to be sharing this room with a friend but an unfortunate event happened, so I brought Kevin with me instead.

The waves were so huge. It felt like I was in La Union than in Boracay. We were able to swim for a while until it rained again and the waves got bigger. We then decided to stroll along the beach. I told Kevin to just walk wherever our feet brings us but I have a destination in mind, Discovery Shores, which is in the far end of Station 1. Long walk it is.

You'll know you're in station 1 once the sand gets finer. Look how shiny the beach looks. Really the finest sand.

Willy's rock

One of the most photographed attraction in Boracay. We wouldn't miss to have photo op there.

We walked until we reached Discovery Shores. I actually didn't know we were in Discovery Shores until I saw one of the resort building behind. From the beach it looks like the resort is closed. Or maybe it's their way of protecting the guests from the strong winds.

It's didn't feel like I was able to find the place I wanted to see so we just decided to go back. But since we were in station 1 and we're famished because of all the walking we decided to have lunch. Because of too much reading from other blogs, I decided that we eat at The Boracay Crab House in Escondido Resort which is in the other side of the main road.

From Discovery Shores, we walked back towards Willy's Resort, passed through an alley reached the main road crossed it walked towards a street and found Escondido Resort but we were directed to a different resort when we said we're looking for the Boracay Crab House, I will talk about this in a different post. :)

The food was great, or maybe we're just hungry. I'm not really sure. I can't remember how good it was so i'll say it good but you won't remember how good it was after dining in the different restaurants in White Beach.

After our late lunch we headed back to Le Soleil. Kevin slept until dinner time while I was busy curling my hair. We wen't out for dinner but it was raining and windy. We walked towards D'Mall but decided to go back and just have dinner in the resort. We had their buffet which is just so-so. Nothing to share about. I didn't even took photos. haha

Stay tuned for our Day 2 in Boracay