It feels a bit surreal to be writing this series but here we are. I am a married woman, and whether you’re here for your own honeymoon inspiration, or whether you’re visiting the Philippines just on holidays, I’m so excited to share our trip with you. We start in the island of Bohol – one of the lesser touristic islands that we visited. The island has a lot to offer, but here’s what really attracted us: firstly, the waters around Bohol are amongst the top in the world for diving, secondly, Bohol is one of the last places where you can still see tarsiers, one of the world’s smallest primates, and thirdly, the island´s Chocolate Hills are a unique geological formation that is nothing short of spectacular. So let’s jump straight in.
Getting There
First thing to note about the island of Bohol (and several others you might think of visiting in the Philippines) is that the airport is not on the actual island. In the case of Bohol, the New Bohol International Airport or Panglao Island Airport is in the province of Bohol but on the island of Panglao actually. Which is the island we also stayed on. From our research that’s where most hotels are. Activities will take you to the island of Bohol but the two are connected by two bridges so it’s really not that much of an imposition for you to stay on Panglao if you choose to.
Flying into the New Bohol International Airport is easiest via Manila or Cebu. We flew AirAsia from Manila and the 1:25h flight costs us 80€ with a large suitcase each. When leaving Bohol though we opted to take a ferry into Cebu from which we caught a flight to our next destination – Boracay. We preferred this version because it was more convenient in terms of travelling hours and connections and slightly cheaper – we paid 1200 php / 19€ each for business class tickets on the ferry and it only took us 2h to get from Bohol to Cebu that way. Please do note that there are some additional terminal and baggage handling fees at Bohol port on top of the ferry ticket. We did not expect them and while they were not high we were quite unsure at first whether we were being scammed (we were not) or whether the fees were legal. Since Cebu is the second largest city in the Philippines we got an easy flight to Boracay from there.
Where to Stay
Our hotel of choice in Bohol was the Donatela Resort which is actually quite close to the Panglao airport, but even so feels super well isolated. To get there from the airport you can either hitch a cab or ask the hotel for a pickup, either costing around 600 php / 10 €. It’s a bit excessive since we’re talking about a less than 10 min drive, but I promise it’s worth it. The hotel is an oasis of quiet and green. We got a garden villa and it felt perfectly honeymoon-y. Think tall but cozy bamboo villa with a huge bed, a large bathroom and a little porch to drink a glass of wine on. We had breakfast and occasionally dinner at the hotel´s restaurant, Paprika, which has the most amazing views over the sea, and even a little pier from which you can take a swim in the clearest water possible. The food is alright but nothing wow, as we’d soon learn was the case for most of the Philippines. Our room cost 185€ a night and it was utterly worth it.
Where to Eat
Now this is notoriously a tough one because our foodie selves suffered a lot in Bohol. We found little good food in the restaurants of the island, which was coherent with what friends had warned us about. The restaurants here have very strong Spanish and American influences – with more fast food restaurants than you can dream of. Seriously, the number of Jollibee and McDonalds´ is pure madness. And interestingly enough, unlike the rest of South East Asia, the Philippines has close to no street food. I understand that home cooked meals and food at fairs can be quite delicious (albeit maybe not well aligned with the Western palate). Meaning the best place we ate at was the Loboc Lunch Cruise where for 1000 php / 16 € you get a 1.5h lunch cruise on the Loboc River with a buffet of local dishes that were actually quite nice. Since we only spent four days on the island and we also had some meals at our hotel´s restaurant, Paprika (which we can recommend for the view but less so for the food, which is average), we don’t really have many more restaurants we tried and liked. We heard good things about the Japanese restaurant Udzuki, but we unfortunately didn’t get to try it. It has 4.9 stars on Google Maps though so I’d give it a shot if I were you!
What to Do
1.Embark on a Countryside Tour
Most people spend only a couple of days in Bohol and from our short experience there we think that is perfectly sufficient. The one drawback if you’re spending only two or three full days on the island is that you’ll be tempted to book yourself into a countryside tour that will take you through pretty much all attraction points on the island – the Man Made Forest, the Butterfly Sanctuary, the Blood Compact Shrine, the Chocolate Hills, the Tarsier Sanctuary, the Loboc River Cruise and the Baclayon Church. It sounds like a lot but with these tours you’ll be able to do all of the above in a day and be back by 5pm. We booked our tour from a salesmen on Alone Beach and it cost 800 php / 13€ per person + the Loboc lunch cruise cost of 1000 php / 16€.
There are quite a few downsides though. The Bilar Man Made Forest is a quick stop solely for picture taking. You’ll feel rushed and unless you have a good guide you’ll learn nothing about how the forest came to be (you can read a little about it here though). Personally I think I would still visit this but maybe riding a scooter through it and not trapped in a car from where you can barely see anything until you stop.
The Butterfly Garden (which is across the street from the Blood Compact Shrine, and which actually also houses a lemur and a bunch of pythons) is unethical at best. Calling it a garden/sanctuary is a stretch, we’re talking about an underfunded tiny zoo and I do not recommend it in the least. The Blood Compact Shrine is essentially a statue depicting the 1565 blood compact between the Spaniards and the Philippine leaders. Not wanting to take away from its historical value, but without a good guide or thorough research beforehand, it will seem bland.
The Chocolate Hills are a wonderful sight, whether you visit them during dry season when they are indeed chocolatey in colour, or in wet season as we did, when they’re green. You’ll get about half an hour to spend here as part of the tour but personally I think it might have been more fun to have just rented a scooter and gone there by ourselves, spending as much or little time as we pleased there.
The Tarsier Sanctuary which is part of this tour is also not a proper sanctuary. You’ll see 8 tarsiers scattered through the trees of the premises and at a first glance they’ll seem ok, but then you realise that they’re most likely placed there by the staff (as they happen to always be on branches covered by leaves), and that despite being nocturnal animals and needing quiet, the nearby parking lot provides anything but quiet. I hear there’s a proper sanctuary on the island closer to Corella – here and I think that’s likely much more ethical, so I would definitely recommend you don’t visit the one part of the tour but go on your own to this second one.
The Loboc River Cruise is quite fun! This has an extra cost of 1000 php / 16€ but is still something you’ll do as part of the tour, and I quite recommend it. The river itself if a wonderful green colour that is just mesmerising to look at, and the lunch on top of the cruise is a buffet that is not bad at all! There’s singing and dancing while abroad the 1.5h cruise and while all you see is the river bed and surrounding vegetation,it´s really nice.
2.Go Diving by Balicasag Island
Deemed as one of the best diving spots in the Philippines (and by some the world), this diving spot is a short boat drive away from Bohol and is great for both beginners and more advanced divers. A wall of about 40m awaits you, as well as some of the healthiest corals we’ve seen in the Philippines, giant turtles of up to 1.5m, as well as all sorts of fish. Make sure that whatever diving agency you choose is PADI certified and take their job seriously. André went with Alona Divers and they seemed quite diligent about the work they did. He actually went diving close to Dojol because the Balicasag tour was full that day but from what we’ve heard Balicasag is really the creme de la creme, hence our recommendation. For the Dojol dives, he left at 8 am and came back at 3 pm, nearly giving me a heart attack because I was expecting him back earlier and was worried sick which he had the time of his life.
3.Do an Island Hopping Tour on Balicasag and the Virgin Islands
Island hopping is something you’ll come across on pretty much any touristic island you go to on the Philippines, but the thing that stood out to us during our island hopping tour in Bohol was the marine life. As mentioned above, we saw some of the healthiest corals of the entire trip and we swam centimetres away from curious giant turtles that came to check us out. Throughout our entire Phillipines trip we kept getting told we’d see turtles if we were lucky but we only ever got to see one more in a lagoon in El Nido, so if you like sea turtles, colourful coral, amazing marine life, you have to do this island hopping tour. Unfortunately for us, weeks before we got there the Virgin Islands were temporarily shut down due to a tourist that wrote on a coral, so we stuck to Balicasag and the surrounding diving spots. We booked our tour the day before we embarked on it from a salesperson on Alona Beach and it cost us 800 php / 13€ per person.
4.Drink Some Cocktails and Get a Massage on Alone Beach at Sunset
During your trip you’ll see a lot more stunning beaches than Alona, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy your time here. Unless you want to rent a scooter or get yourself a tuk tuk and see what other beaches Bohol has to offer, Alona is a safe choice and fairly central if you’re staying on Panglao like we did. The water is clean, the sand is white, but if you don’t want to spend a day here sunbathing (we did not), you should at least spend a few hours here at sundown. You can get yourself a cocktail at one of the many bars and restaurants here, and stop for a massage which if you negotiate it well you’ll pay as little as 500 php / 8€ for one hour. For this, head towards the right end of the beach to find a group of ladies with sunbeds on the beach ready to help you fall asleep for an hour and wake up refreshed.
Now I hope this article helped you prepare a little bit your trip to Bohol, but if you have more questions please feel free to add them in a comment and I´ll be happy to help as much as I can! And if you want more inspiration for South East Asian travels, check out our itinerary for Thailand.
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