Most visitors only encounter Malay as the gateway to Boracay, but the mainland deserves a brief look in its own right. The Caticlan Jetty Port is the boat departure point for the famous island, and the small bayside town of Caticlan itself has a handful of family-run restaurants serving fresh seafood and Aklanon dishes.
Further inland, the green hills of mainland Malay are dotted with small barangays, mangrove channels, and the protected forest of the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park, a rare patch of lowland rainforest home to the endangered Visayan warty pig and rufous hornbill. Motag Living Museum in barangay Motag, just south of Caticlan, gives visitors an honest look at Aklanon rural village life — rice farming, weaving, traditional games — with no theme-park polish.