Aklan, Philippines as a Travel Destination

Aklan is almost synonymous to "Boracay" but there is more to the province than the said world-famous beach. People who were born and raised in Aklan speak a version of the Ilonggo language, which they call 'Kinaray-a' (if I remember it right). I first came to this island after an overnight trip on a huge boat that started Manila Port early evening before. The next day, we soon realized we didn't have a pier where our boat supposedly should be docking. All of us passengers were fetched by smaller banca boats that were then encircling the ship and were being run by the locals. It's a good way of providing employment to everybody while visitors show up to spend their hard-earned money in the island. Boracay's lovely white beach beckoned as we waited for our respective turn to be brought to the bancas. I remember the experience to be totally fun.

We booked and stayed in a hostel that's way inside the residential areas of Boracay. We had to trek a bit just to get into the seashore, which was still OK. No one's supposed to own the beachfront, so I thought it's still a great idea to just stay in a lodging place that's located in one of the interior streets.

Then I saw the rest of Aklan after we took a drive from Boracay to Iloilo City, which is on the other side of the island. If I remember it right, it must have taken us at least a day or so in the bus to reach the city. I saw newly built houses, farms, local people in communities - the scene looked peaceful and very slow paced in my mind. I saw how Aklan looked like while on the road, which had some bumpy parts. It was still much fun, nevertheless.

Include Boracay and its nearby attractions in your future travel plans. Start your trip in other locations in Aklan as well as those others in the whole Panay Island itself. Then, cap your trip in Boracay itself. Here's the article I wrote about Aklan as another must-see travel destination in the Philippines.

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