Our Visitors' Reviews and Comments

Vacation In the Island of Constant Sales Pitches

by Jessie Gonzalez
(Antipolo, Rizal )

In August 2011, my family and I went on our third and last trip to Boracay. During our first trip in 2004, we found the island to be everything as advertised. This last trip however the island paradise was nearly gone, having been used to death.

Upon arrival at the airport, I noticed a huge number of tricycles, smoke belching vehicles, and squatter shanties that were not there on previous trips. Previously the area was clean, now it is littered with trash and you can see the sewage in the waterfront.

The ferry boats were much more numerous than before, although they now use the boat dock instead of landing on the beach which was a much more exotic and memorable way of landing on the island of Boracay.

On arrival and travel to the resort area to look for a hotel, we were accosted by several self appointed fixers that attempted to steer us rather forcefully into hotels that they got commissions from. It was not a pleasant experience as those hotels were either dirty, or in the case of one had a large pool of sewage water one had to walk past to go to the beach.

After finding a mid-range hotel which, I might add, was half as nice as the one we had on our first visit at double the cost. As we walked along the foot path looking for something to eat, we were constantly accosted by people selling bootleg DVD's, fake watches, fake wallets, laser pointers, tours, and massages. It was not a pleasant experience at all.


Food selection, however, was much more varied than before although the prices were higher than in 2004.

I tried to take a nap on the beach under the palm trees in front of my hotel room, but was bothered every 10-15 minutes by someone trying to sell me something. I just wanted to recover from my hangover and nap under a palm tree. Was that too much to ask?

Surprisingly enough, I saw only one American, a couple Brits, and a couple NZ people there. Previously the resort area had a larger number of western tourists.

My children and I built a sand castle on the beach, then colored it with drink powder. It came out very nice. Later that day some of the professional sand castle builders who charge money for your photo to be taken in front of their sand castle, came along and destroyed our sand castle because tourists were posing for pictures in front of ours for free.

The beach sand is no longer white. It is kind of a tan color now, stained by the pollution and the large amount of trash on the beach. Most of it scattered by the local construction workers and some thrown by the Chinese tourists. Even the reefs are now full of discarded soda cans and other trash.

All in all it was not a pleasant trip. Next time around we will be driving up to Pagudpud in Ilocos Norte and pitching a tent on the beach there, or flying to Coron in Palawan where the area is less developed.