For a typical vacationer, a trip to Boracay entails an expensive budget. But that actually isn’t always the case. One can still book a trip to the most celebrated beach in the Philippines without breaking the bank. Of course, you’d have to cross out posh resorts and expensive restaurants off your list, but you’d still have that world-famous sand and azure waters right at your feet.

During my first outing to Boracay, the first thing we looked for was an affordable accommodation. Browsing through Journeying James’ budget-travel blog and some tips from ThePinaySoloBackpacker, we narrowed down our list to the resorts lining the Station Three of the beach.

According to regular Boracay beach bums partygoers, the most expensive resorts can be found at Station One, with the regular-priced ones at Station Two and the cheapest ones at Station Three.

From our list, we singled out the Boracay Tree House Resort. It is at the farthest end of Station Three so I guess the generalization on Boracay stations hold true.

The cheapest room at Boracay Tree House Resort is priced at Php200.00 per person. It is a small dorm-type room with regular bunk beds that seems more fitting to military camps than beach-side resorts. The room has two double-deckers that can accommodate four persons with a single wooden cabinet for your things. The rooms share a common bathroom.

For the price, we did not expect it to be air-conditioned and of course it isn’t. The whole room is ventilated by a single rotating ceiling fan that adequately does the job of cooling us and shooing away mosquitoes.

I was okay with everything since we really wouldn’t be spending too much time inside; I mean, we are in Boracay, and unless you’re honeymooners, who stays indoors when you’re at Boracay? Right? Right.

The only thing I didn’t like about the room was the security. We were given keys to the room, but the door can easily be unlocked through a missing glass pane from the adjacent window. I argued with the management about this and the reason they say why that is, is for the other dormers who need to get access to the rooms. I mean, what the heck, haven’t they heard of duplicate keys?

The owner says that there’s zero incident of theft in their resort and promptly ended the conversation. That was supposed to comfort me, but I don’t want to be theft incident #1, so I hid my laptop below the bed mattress before going.

The next order of business was food. Boracay is filled to brimming by interesting restaurants lining its boulevard. But those food places can also put an interesting ding to your wallets, so we passed those by and checked out the sidestreets.

We found our lunch at a small carinderia inside D’Mall. There are the usual fastfood joints like Mang Inasal and Andok’s but they’re packed during lunchtime, so we settled for Tsikiting by Rosa Foods.
Tsikiting can be found at one of the narrow alleys inside Station Two’s D’Mall. They serve home-cooked Filipino dishes that are priced within our budget, by that; it means less than a hundred pesos. So we’re good to go.

I ordered their longsilog and added a bottle of softdrinks which totaled at Php72.00. The serving size while not over-the-top-huge is good enough for my not-so-small stomach. Not bad at all.

For water replenishment, I always have my own water bottle when traveling. Not only does it help lower my travel cost, it also helps reduce wasted plastic mineral bottles. There are numerous water refilling stations along Boracay’s alleys and I had my bottle refilled for only Php8.00.

Dinner arrived and we decided to try out the various barbeque stalls lining the beach of Station Three.

We picked one with tables set up along the beach and checked the menu. Well, there really isn’t a formal menu, what you get is a tableful of raw fish and pork meats on metal trays.
I picked a stick of longanisa and pork barbeque which I promptly popped at their coal-powered grill. Paired with a cup of rice, a plastic of chicharon and a bottle of softdrinks, my dinner checked in at Php79.00. It was more expensive than lunch but we were dining under palm trees right beside the beach, so that Php7.00 difference was definitely worth it.

My total overnight stay in Boracay totaled at Php359.00 including both accommodation and food expenses. Note however that we only had lunch and dinner at Boracay, but still, it’s a very affordable stay that any traveler, they be backpackers or vacationers, can afford. Boracay can be a budget-friendly place if you chose it to be. And like any tourist destination, the cost of a vacation always boils down to personal choice.

Boracay Tree House Resort
Address: Station 3, Boracay Island | Room Rates
Telephone: (036) 288-3601 | (0929) 293-8477

Tsikiting
Address: D’Mall, Station 2, Boracay Island
Telephone: (036) 260-2076

Barbeque Grills
Address: Somewhere along Station 3, Boracay