Planning a trip to the Philippines can be overwhelming with the large number of destination options. The main consideration to your trip planning is time. For those travelers with one week, your best option is visiting a village or two on Palawan Island (click here to see my post on Palawan in One Week). But if you have two or more weeks, you should certainly consider making a visit to Bohol. Below I outline my recommendations of what to see and how to get to the friendliest island in the Philippines.
BOHOL: FRIENDLIEST PLACE IN THE PHILIPPINES
After visiting the historic rice terraces of the Ifugao province north of Manila (click here to see my post on the Ifugao Rice Terraces) and chilling out around Palawan Island, Bohol Island was the friendliest place I experienced in the Philippines. The hospitality and the friendliness of the people was far above the hospitality of other places that I had visited.
STAY AT ALONA BEACH ON PANGLAO ISLAND
My recommendation would be to stay at Alona Beach on Panglao Island, which is a small island off the coast of Bohol and is a short trike or taxi ride from Tagbilaran City. The beach is quite pretty and the liveliness of the businesses along the beach is infectious. Many resorts, hotels and homestays are along the beach as well as within a short walk from the beach.
DIVE BALICASAG ISLAND
Balicasag Island is rated as one of the top diving spots in the Philippines. It is a small island and a short boat ride from Panglao. Large sea walls, fun currents, schools of jackfish and many sea turtles are some of the beautiful features of this protected marine environment. A plethora of diving companies are located along Alona Beach. I dove with Philippine Fun Divers, which is a five-star PADI dive shop, and had a fun time.
Sidenote: if you are looking to workout at a gym while in Alona Beach, one of the dive masters, Frank, at Philippine Fun Divers owns a gym, Palace Fitness Gym, that is well kept and will give you your sweaty workout fix while traveling.
BOHOL ISLAND TOURS OR YOUR OWN TOUR
Along Alona Beach, or at any hotel you stay at in Bohol or Panglao, you will find many opportunities for a day tour to see all of the sites on Bohol. Most tours will feature all of these sites:
- Tarsier Sanctuary
- Loboc River Floating restaurants
- Man-Made forest
- Blood Compact Site
- Zip-lining Adventure
- Historic Churches
- Chocolate Hills
- Bohol Bee Farm
If you like group tours with about 10-12 people in a van, definitely sign up for one of these tours. Sign up in advance since they do fill up quickly. You should note that the tour fee does not include the entrance fees at most of the sites, including the hefty lunch fee for the floating restaurants. I learned you aren’t required to see everything on the tour. You can stay on the van while others zip-line, for example. But if you are like me, you like to explore at your own pace. And you want to see the highlights you want to see instead of being tied to a tour route seeing things that you may not be interested in. Hire a scooter or a private car. Many of the attractions are in the same area so you can hit most them on the way of your own tour.
CHOCOLATE HILLS A MUST SEE
I rented a motorbike for the day for about USD $8 and went on my own adventure. My main destination was the Chocolate Hills in the middle of the island, On my way, I passed many of the other sites on my way: several historic churches, the Blood Compact Site, the Tarsier Sanctuary, Man-Made forest, and Loboc River restaurants.
The Chocolate Hills are definitely worth visiting. The area has such a unique set of hills positioned along the countryside for as long as you can see from the main tourist viewing platform atop one of the hills. These hills were formed over millions of years and were once a seabed full of coral. The hills get their name because they are covered in grass and in the heat of the summer the grass turns brown, or chocolate color, which created the name “Chocolate Hills”.
GETTING TO BOHOL
Tagbiliaran City airport has flights from Manila and several other Philippines destinations. But you can also choose to visit Cebu City and take a two hour ferry (fast ferry) to Tagbilaran. Many fast ferries depart daily. If you want to visit Panglao Island, you can take a taxi or even a trike. I paid 300 pisos (about $6 USD) for the 45 minute trike ride to Alona Beach.
If you have any desire to visit Bohol and have any questions, shoot me a note at cory@thereiscory.com or leave me a comment below. Also feel free to visit ThereIsCory on Facebook to see what others have said about my tips on Bohol.
Seeing the smallest monkey in the world and those lovely chocolate hills was the highlight of my Phiilppine vacation. I love Bohol and will be coming back again early next year.