Boracay Budget Trip: Day 1

For someone like us who live in the neighboring island of Negros Occidental, Boracay is a place that we frequent a couple of times a year.

Well, except if we all have hectic work schedules and other activities piling up; wherein such case we would probably get to drop by only once for the year.

So the four of us chose to go before the year ends; claiming the island for our much deserved vacation. 
Boracay Island can either be a very expensive trip or a somewhat cheap one. For us, we choose the latter. We like to go on adventures, backpacking, and explore new places that we pick comfortable but budget trips.


For the 1^st day of our 4-day budget trip to Boracay...

Going there:

RoRo (Roll on, Roll off) Ship 
Basically every hour, starting from 2am, a ship leaves the port of Bacolod for Dumangas, Iloilo. (These are different shipping lines, by the way) So we took the 7am trip aboard the Tri Star RoRo. 

Expenses: Vehicle (+2 passengers included)      : 700 (Php)
                 Extra Passengers (2)                       : 120
                 Terminal Fee                                  : 375.50
                                                              Php 1,195.50
Land Trip to Caticlan

Although others would rent vans for the land trip, in our experience, it is cheaper to bring your own if you could. Hence, we decided to bring our own. During the 5-hour drive from Dumangas to Caticlan, we only had a few stops.
One was at Pengee's Restaurant in Dumarao, Capiz. Where we had our lunch: grilled pork, rice, soup, and softdrinks.

our favorite lunch stop just by the highway.. :)

And second was at a gas station in Kalibo where we got some bottles of energy drink since we were up since the wee hours of the morning...

Expenses: Fuel (about 50L)                  : 2,000 (Php)
                Lunch                                :     400
                Energy Drink (2 bottles)      :       40  
                                                     Php  2,440

To and Arriving at Boracay

the parking space

Arriving at the jetty port of Caticlan, we had to find a secured parking space for our vehicle, and we found one at Elia Sancho Parking just a mere number of steps to the port.

We then got our tickets for the boat to the island. We took the fast craft instead of the usual pumpboat because one of our companions was a new visitor and we figured it would be nice to experience both. So the pumpboat will simply be for going home.
When we reached the port of Boracay, the four of us occupied a tricyle which dropped us off at the nearest point to our hotel, in Boracay's station 2. It dropped us at a small street beside Boracay Regency where we took a short stroll up to our hotel, Boracay DeParis Resort.


Expenses: Environmental Fee ticket (4)         : 200 (Php)
                Terminal Fee (4)                          : 200
                Fast craft (4)                               : 120
                Tricycle (to hotel)                        : 100 
                                                              Php 620


When we arrived at the hotel, it was about 3:30pm and we were so tired. It was so nice, though, that the lady at the front desk, Elvie, who checked us in and confirmed our reservation (which we made a couple of weeks earlier) was so kind, as is Eric, the hotel staff who brought our stuff to our rooms.

We then decided to take a short rest and go out to see the Boracay sunset and have some dinner. Apparently, that didn't happen because we ended up falling asleep and woke up at 9:00pm. So we ended up skipping dinner.

So, total expense for Day 1 Boracay budget trip is Php 4,255.50. (Which of course, is the total for the 4 of us -- it will still be divided per person later).

That's it for Day 1 in Boracay... Tomorrow will be a new day.