Written by RuinMyTrip Editorial from published research and official sources, not from a personal trip. It is not a traveler review and is never counted in the community rating. How we research.
destination · Boracay
Boracay in 2026: the rehabilitation worked, the carrying capacity does not, and the fees keep going up
Review of Boracay
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Share your experienceBoracay is a 10.32 square kilometre island off the northwest coast of Panay, home to 37,802 people at the 2020 census, and famous almost entirely for one four-kilometre stretch of sand called White Beach, split by convention into Stations 1, 2 and 3. Its reputation is genuine: Conde Nast Traveler ranked it the number one island in the world in 2014, and it was named the world's second-best beach in 2012. Its problems are equally documented. Coral cover around the island fell 70.5 percent between 1988 and 2011, a coliform bacteria spike drove a 60 percent drop in tourists as far back as 1997, and in 2018 President Duterte called the island a cesspool and shut it to tourists entirely from April 26 to October 26, 2018. That six-month closure was not cosmetic. The sewage system was overhauled, illegal structures were demolished, a 30-metre buffer zone was established from the waterline, and the beach was cleared of masseuses, vendors and bonfires. It largely worked, and arrivals recovered to 2,077,977 in 2024 and 2,155,217 in 2025. The unresolved part is the cap. During the closure the Department of Environment and Natural Resources set the island's ecological carrying capacity at 19,215 people present at any given time. That number has been breached every Holy Week since 2022, and 2026 was no exception: even with a four percent dip in Semana Santa visitors, arrivals hit 21,252 on April 14 and 22,519 on April 15, 2026, both well past the limit. In other words the island is managed on paper and oversubscribed in practice, at precisely the weeks most people want to go. The other running story is money. Entry now involves a stack of local fees rather than one: the Malay local government charges a terminal fee of P300, an environmental fee of P150 for domestic and P300 for foreign visitors, boat transfer of P50 to P100, land transport from P150 to P700, and assorted activity fees, and on March 1, 2026 it raised the digital-payment convenience fee on the Boracay i-Pass cashless system from P35 to P85, projected to bring in at least P85 million a year from a million tourists. Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla ordered the LGU in February 2025 to cut fees or impose a collection moratorium; as of March 2026 the LGU had publicly refused to budge. Practical arrival is still simple: fly into Caticlan (MPH), take a five to ten minute tricycle or van to the Caticlan Jetty Port for around P75, pay the fees at the terminal windows, and cross by pump boat in five to fifteen minutes for about P50. Environmental management continues, with bans on single-use plastics, restrictions on smoking and drinking on the beach, promotion of reef-safe sunscreen and regulated boat access, and electric tricycles replacing the old two-stroke fleet behind the beach. A proposed bridge to the mainland has drawn public warnings from experts and a counter-request from the local community for a hospital instead.
What was great
White Beach deserves its reputation. Four kilometres of fine white sand with genuinely calm, swimmable water is a rare combination, and the 2018 rehabilitation removed the things that were ruining it, the beachfront structures, the vendors, the masseuses and the bonfires, and imposed a 30-metre buffer from the waterline that has kept the sand itself open. The sewage overhaul addressed the actual cause of the closure rather than the optics of it. The island is also easy and cheap to reach once you know the drill: Caticlan airport to the jetty port runs about P75, and the crossing is a five to fifteen minute pump-boat ride for roughly P50. Stations 1, 2 and 3 give you meaningfully different price and noise levels on the same beach, Bulabog on the other side is a serious kiteboarding and windsurfing spot, and the electric tricycles have taken a real bite out of the noise and fumes behind the beach.
What nearly ruined the trip
The cap is the story. The DENR set the island's carrying capacity at 19,215 people at any given time during the 2018 closure, and it has been breached every Holy Week since 2022, including in 2026 when arrivals hit 21,252 on April 14 and 22,519 on April 15 despite a four percent dip in Semana Santa visitors. A limit that is exceeded every year at the same predictable moment is a limit in name only, and with arrivals at 2,155,217 in 2025 the pressure is not easing. The fee stack is the other complaint, and it is getting worse rather than better. Between a P300 terminal fee, an environmental fee of P150 domestic or P300 foreign, boat transfer, land transport from P150 to P700, activity fees and the digital convenience fee that jumped from P35 to P85 on March 1, 2026, the cost of simply arriving adds up before you have bought anything. The national Interior Secretary ordered the Malay LGU in February 2025 to cut fees or pause collection and the LGU publicly refused, so this is unlikely to resolve soon. On top of that, seasonal green algae blooms hit the beach from February through May, coral cover fell 70.5 percent between 1988 and 2011 and has not been restored, and a proposed bridge to the mainland has drawn expert warnings, with the local community asking for a hospital instead.
Safety
★★★★☆ Mostly fineValue for money
★★★☆☆ FairComments
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