Bohol Philippines

The island of Bohol is located south of Manila. You can reach the island by ferry or plane. We chose to fly from the domestic airport in Manila to Tagbilaran airport. This airport was brand new and is located on a small island called Panglao Island attached to Bohol by two bridges.

When we were reading about the islands Panglao Island seemed to be the best place to stay as it had a beach area and reasonable tourist accommodation.  We stayed at Alonaland which said it was located close to the beach.  We stayed in a attached bungalow with two bedrooms and had a kitchen so we could prepare meals. The room was very quiet and there was air conditioning in the bedrooms.

The property was quiet but access to the beach was not that easy. It was a fairly long walk via the road. If you were lucky enough to get access passes that allow you to walk through the property across from Alonaland then it is a short walk. Unfortunately they only have a limited number of passes that were not always returned daily.

Having chosen to cook meals access to groceries was very challenging. The closet large grocery story was located in Tagbilaran on Bohol and took an hour by bus. There are to taxis on the island so your choice for transportation is tricycle (similar to a tuk tuk in Thailand but smaller), private car with driver, scooter or bus.

There are a lot of restaurants in the area so access to meals is easy and very reasonably priced. They do a lot of grilled food chicken, pork belly, and fish. Every meal comes with a cup of rice and very few vegetables.

Paglao Island is mainly set up for diving. Our accommodation had diving classes daily in the hotel pool so access to the pool was limited. The beach area was also the marina. If you venture into the water you were warned to be careful of the spiny sea urchins. The sand on the beach is white and very fine and you can find shade if you do not want to spend all your time in the sun. There are also lots of restaurants located along the beach if you are looking for a view of the water.

Dive Boats

We did get to do some sightseeing on Bohol. One day we booked a car and driver and we went north to the Chocolate Hills. During the summer the hills in this area are brown. We visited just after the rainy season so the vegetation is still green.

To get the view of the whole area you need to climb to the top of the hill.

The chocolate hills are conical karst hills made of limestone. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more that 50 square kilometers.

This is a very busy tourist area.

We also visited the Tarsier Sanctuary. The smallest primate in the world can be seen at the sanctuary.  Tasiers measure only about 85 to 160 mm in height.  They are about the size of a human fist. Tarsier are nocturnal each morning they return to the same location to sleep during the day. This allows for visitors to have the opportunity to see these tiny creatures.

Large eyes fixed to their head.

The bamboo bridge is used by locals to cross over the river so that they can access transportation on the island. This was also a very busy spot. Walking across the bridge is challenging because of the uneven surface, low guide line and it is a suspension bridge.

Another popular activity is lunch on the Loboc River on Bohol Island. You board one of the many boats that serve a buffet lunch. As the boat travels down a quiet river you are entertained by the on board musical or a group of singers on the shore. If you don't like activities that cater to the masses this would not be for you.

Boarding the Boat

This concluded our tour of Bohol Island.  From Bohol Island we decided to fly to Palawan Island on the western edge of the Philippine Islands. To reach the island we had to fly back to Manila and catch a second flight to Puerto Princesa on Palawan. We flew Cebu Air which is a no frills airline. The seats are very close and you do not even get a glass of water unless you have paid for the please of being served. Manila airport is extremely busy that most flights are never on time make sure that you give yourself plenty of time for connections and try not to book the last flight of the day. Flights can also be canceled.  There are lots of services in Manila's domestic airport so take advantage before you get on a plane. When we traveled the exchange rate was better at the airport than on Paglao Island.