Voted as one of the top islands to visit in the world by Condé Nast Traveler magazine and the Best Island in the World by Travel + Leisure magazine, Boracay has come a long way since I first visited in 2008.

Before this more recent time, the last time I visited Boracay was in 2018 during its 6-month long closure to the public (thankfully, my dad is building a lodge there, so we were able to visit the island during a time when no tourists were around) and boy did the closure create a much more modern and accessible island! Though there are still many of the same old relics (D Mall; the stand-alone island with the Virgin Mary statue; and the clear water with white sandy beaches home to tons of vendors, just to name a few), the closure really helped to give a serious facelift to the island, so much so that it’s now a place I could see myself spending a lot more time visiting in the future.

Goodbye gasoline, the tricycles are all now electric-powered (aka. E-Trikes); goodbye dirt roads, most of the roads are now paved and many more are still being paved; goodbye a complete disconnection from the internet, they now have fibre optic cables and even Starlink; goodbye a total detachment from Western media, they now have a movie theatre located inside City Mall; Boracay 2.0 has much more to see and do as compared to before!

One of my personal favourite spots to visit in Boracay 2.0 is “Station X”; a neo-futuristic South Korean part of Boracay (you can tell the foreign investment in this area is plentiful). This Korean-pocket of Boracay comes complete with a Korean tour guide office, offering Korean guides who also speak the local language, and delicious (authentic) Korean restaurants run by actual Koreans (so you know the food is on point)! One thing that definitely makes me chuckle about this spot, though, is its high-end fashion corner shop “Boracay Selly”. The shop sells various Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Prada, and Goyard products at ridiculously low prices. When asking the attendant if the prices were in USD, she let us know it was all in pesos, so we were admittedly pretty confused. Turns out they are actually (as she put it) “Korean copy—not Chinese copy” so the quality is nearly identical to the original. This certainly explains why you see so many foreigners rocking their LVs and Guccis despite the salt water and sand; the idea (as she said) is to “keep your originals at home,” and “use your copies at the beach.” 

Seen here: miscellaneous shots take during our various outings in Boracay.

Fun Fact: One thing I was pretty unimpressed by the most the last time I was in the Philippines (especially Boracay) was the food (more specifically, the pizza). However, when I said Boracay upgraded, this goes far beyond aesthetics—they even upgraded their restaurants to be more authentic to their home countries. How do I know? I overheard a restaurant patron at Aria Cucina Italiana one night who actually told her server to give her complements to the chef; turns out she grew up in Italy, eating the same pasta she ordered, and the pasta that the restaurant served was identical to what she used to eat all the time as a kid! You know what the true test of how good the food has actually gotten since its closure will be? Seeing what Tara Rawana thinks the next time we visit (hopefully this winter) because she is quite picky when it comes to “good” food. Though, seeing how far it’s come since 2018—she definitely has nothing to worry about.

-the rise of the East.

Bonus: below is a shot I captured (which has actually become my desktop wallpaper ever since then) of the white sand beach during the 2018 closure with no tourists around.