Boracay Island Hopping With Lunch Included

What is included

A local-style lunch buffet, stated plainly on the inclusion list. That means a spread rather than a packed meal, eaten ashore at a table rather than balanced on a knee on a moving boat.

Photographs from the operator show what turns up: grilled fish, prawns and crab, rice, noodle dishes, vegetables and fruit, laid out on long tables under a bamboo roof.

It is a genuine meal in the middle of a five and a half hour day on the water, which is exactly what a schedule like this one needs. Nobody finishes this tour hungry, whatever else they say about it. On a shared boat that also means nobody is watching somebody else eat a better packed lunch than theirs.

What local-style actually means

Filipino food, cooked for a group. The staples are rice, always, and pancit, which is the family of noodle dishes that appears at every Filipino gathering there has ever been.

Around those come grilled fish and seafood, which on an island like this is simply what there is. Prawns, crab, whole grilled fish, and whatever came in that morning.

There will be vegetable dishes and there will usually be fruit. It is generous, unfussy food designed to feed a lot of people well, and it is a considerably better introduction to Filipino cooking than a resort restaurant is. Pancit is worth trying properly rather than picking at, since it is the dish most Filipinos would put in front of a guest first.

Boracay trip: why guests mention it

Because it exceeds expectation, which is the only reason anybody mentions catering on a boat tour. The reviews for this tour describe the food as delicious, as very good, and as better than they had expected.

That is a low bar cleared with room to spare rather than fine dining. Island hopping lunches have a reputation for being adequate, and this one is repeatedly described as more than that.

It also arrives at the right moment. After a morning of swimming, snorkelling and possibly jumping off a platform, a full table under a roof is a genuinely welcome thing. Food is one of the two things this operator is consistently praised for, the other being the guides themselves.

Where you eat it

Ashore, at a local restaurant on the route, rather than on the boat. The photographs show a covered eating area with long tables, open at the sides, of the kind found on beaches throughout the Philippines.

That means getting off the boat, sitting down properly and eating at a table, which is a better arrangement than any amount of catering on a vessel could manage.

It is also the social centre of the whole day. Everybody eats at the same time in the same place, which turns a boat carrying several separate parties into a single group for the afternoon. Getting off the boat halfway through also breaks the day up usefully, which matters more than it sounds on the water.

Dietary requirements

Ask in advance rather than at the table. A buffet cooked for a boat load is planned and bought before anybody arrives, so a requirement known a day ahead is a different proposition from one raised at lunchtime.

Filipino cooking is fish and meat heavy, so vegetarians should flag it specifically. There will usually be rice, noodles and vegetable dishes, but relying on that without asking is optimistic.

The operator notes the tour is not suitable for people with pre-existing medical conditions, which is a broader restriction and worth reading separately if it might apply. Nobody at a beach restaurant is going to improvise a separate meal for one person at short notice.

Drinks on the day

Water appears among the items the operator asks you to bring, which tells you it is not part of the meal. Bring a bottle, and more than you think you need on a day this hot.

There is generally something available to buy at the lunch stop itself, but relying on that is a good deal less sensible than carrying your own on a boat that offers only limited shade.

Dehydration on an island hopping day is the most common avoidable problem, more so than sunburn, because the swimming disguises how much fluid you are losing.

If you are still hungry

You are unlikely to be, but Boracay solves the problem comprehensively. The island is dense with places to eat at every level, and a five and a half hour tour ends with the evening ahead of you.

Nothing else is included on the tour beyond the lunch, so anything on the boat before or after is your own arrangement. Bringing a snack is entirely reasonable if you know your appetite.

The buffet is served once, in the middle of the day, and it is not a rolling arrangement that stays open. Eating properly when it is actually put in front of you is the sensible approach to take. Boracay's eating options run from beachfront grills to proper restaurants, so an appetite is easily dealt with afterwards.

Things travellers ask