Boracay

Four kilometres of sand split into Stations 1, 2 and 3; the lower the number, the finer and quieter it gets. Since the 2018 clean-up nobody drinks or smokes on the sand, and the music stops after ten. At sunset the paraw sailboats pass in a line.

A volcanic outcrop standing in the water off Station 1 with a Marian statue set on top. At low tide you walk out; at high tide it is waist deep, so the hour matters, and the queue for photographs builds through the afternoon.

The northern tip, where broken shell mixes coarse into the sand and makes barefoot walking awkward. A handful of umbrellas and stalls is all there is, so it runs far emptier than White Beach, twenty minutes out by tricycle.

A small cove reached off the northern end of White Beach by a narrow path cut into the cliff. At high tide that path goes under and you have to call a tricycle to get back. It faces the same way, so the sunset works from here too.

It faces east, so from November to April the amihan wind comes straight in. Kitesurfing and windsurfing lessons all move to this side in those months, and enough coral fragments lie in the shallows that people wear shoes into the water.

The island's highest ground, and from the deck Bulabog to the east and White Beach to the west separate in one view. Tricycles stop below the hill and the last stretch of steps is on foot. A small fee is taken at the gate.

A small island most boat tours include, and the two caves are the reason. The stairs into the second one are narrow and wet enough to slip on, and the swell reaches in, so feet get wet. The whole island takes an hour.

Five platforms hang off the cliff at heights from three to fifteen metres. It is forty minutes by boat from Boracay and the day rate bundles the crossing and lunch, so half a day goes into it. Staff check your stance before the highest one.

On the northeast side, where the coral starts as soon as you are in, so a snorkel is enough to see fish. On a day with swell the visibility drops, and the only shade is under the trees.

The beach in front of a fishing village on the southeast side, where boats come and go and coral rubble outnumbers sand. It is fifteen minutes by tricycle from White Beach yet nearly empty, and snorkelling boats bargain lower here.

An open-air warren of shops and restaurants behind Station 2 on White Beach. Souvenir shops, pharmacies and money changers crowd together, so most island errands end here. The beachside entrance gets so packed in the evening that groups lose each other.

A wet market tucked in behind Station 2. Pick out fish, prawns and crab, hand them to one of the eateries ringing it, and they cook them for a fee, an arrangement called paluto. Opening prices run high, so compare a few stalls before buying.

A traditional sailboat with bamboo outriggers on either side carries passengers along the water off White Beach. Riders perch on the nets strung between hull and outrigger and take the spray. It is busiest at sunset, and on windless days the boats stay ashore.

An island across the water to Boracay's north that belongs to Romblon province rather than Aklan. The white sand at Inobahan Beach rivals Boracay's, yet with few resorts it stays quiet. Most visitors hire a bangka from Boracay and return the same day.

A small rocky islet off Boracay's southeast that, seen from afar, looks like a crocodile lying flat in the water. Nobody lands; people snorkel the reef around it. Island-hopping tours call here, and on choppy days everyone goes in wearing a life vest.

Kalibo, the gateway town for Boracay, holds it in January: revellers smear soot on their faces and bodies and dance through the streets to drums. Onlookers shout hala bira and join in. Kalibo rooms fill first that week, so many commute from Boracay.

Mudflats on the Kalibo coast that residents have planted with mangroves since the 1990s, now grown into a forest. A bamboo boardwalk threads through it to open sea. At high tide water rises under the planks and crabs and mudskippers stir below your feet.

A tiered waterfall in Tangalan, Aklan, where the water drops through seven pools in turn. The lowest basin sits steps from the coastal road, and the rocks grow slicker the higher you climb. Kalibo is near, so some stop here en route to the airport.