Caticlan Jump-Off & Boracay Puka Beach Picnic Day

Boracay's reputation rests entirely on White Beach — and deservedly so. But the same accessibility that makes White Beach the perfect resort beach also means 6,000 sun beds, a constant soundtrack of beach bar dance music, and habal-habal drivers negotiating every 50 metres. For travellers who want Boracay's extraordinary water clarity and beauty without the party-beach infrastructure, Puka Beach on the island's northern tip is the answer.

Puka Beach takes its name from the puka shells found in the coarse ivory sand — small, naturally perforated cone shells traditionally used in Philippine jewellery and souvenirs. The beach faces northeast over the Sibuyan Sea, away from the sunset-watching crowds of White Beach, and has retained a far more natural character: shade trees grow close to the waterline, the sand is undeveloped, and the only vendors are a handful of local women selling fresh coconuts and cold drinks from buckets. On weekdays before noon, it is possible to have sections of the beach largely to yourself.

The picnic lunch is the centrepiece of this beach day: the guide prepares a spread of fresh Aklan seafood — typically grilled squid, shrimp sinigang in tamarind broth, and steamed lapu-lapu — along with calamansi juice, coconut vinegar dipping sauce, and fresh-cut mango and pineapple, all laid out on a mat under a shade tree. Eating a meal of this quality in this setting, with the Sibuyan Sea turquoise and wind-textured in front of you and no other tourists within 200 metres, is the Boracay that existed before the resort hotels arrived. The snorkelling along the reef edge at the northern end of the beach adds a 45-minute underwater dimension that White Beach, with its boat traffic, cannot provide.