Backpacking Bohol
Bohol is the island that does not just do beaches, which on a route like this is a genuine relief. Inland there are 1,268 near identical conical hills spread across the middle of it, and in the dry season the grass on them browns off and they turn the colour that gave them their name.
In the forest nearby lives the Philippine tarsier: ten centimetres tall, eyes the size of its brain, and one of the smallest primates on earth. They are also so sensitive to stress that they can die from it in captivity, which makes where you go to see them an actual decision rather than a detail.
Then there is Panglao, joined to Bohol by a bridge, with Alona Beach, the dive shops and a wall at Balicasag Island twenty minutes offshore with turtles and schooling jacks on it. Three days, €20 a day, two hours from Cebu.
Why Bohol is popular with backpackers
- The Chocolate Hills: 1,268 of them, and brown in the dry season
- Tarsiers in the forest at Corella, unrestrained and free moving
- Balicasag Island: a wall dive with turtles, twenty minutes off Panglao
- Dolphins at dawn, wild and in open water
- The Loboc river, by cruise boat or more cheaply by kayak
- Waterfalls and rice terraces in the east that nobody drives to
- Cheap and varied: €20 a day and three completely different days
Best time to visit Bohol
The Visayas, right in the typhoon path. Warm all year, and between June and December a storm can rearrange your plans.
A detail that decides your photographs. The Chocolate Hills get their name from the colour the grass turns in the dry season. Come in the rainy season and they are bright green: just as good to look at, and the name makes no sense at all.
Backpacker budget: around €20 a day
- €7hostel bed
- €2.50local meal
- €1.20beer
- €7scooter for the day
Guide prices from our own days in Bohol. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best area for backpackers
Panglao and Alona Beach
Panglao is a separate island joined to Bohol by a bridge, and it is where almost everybody stays. Alona Beach is the centre of it: hostels, restaurants, dive shops and every tour desk on one stretch of sand.
The inland sights are an hour to an hour and a half away by scooter or tour van, which is close enough that nobody bothers sleeping out there.
Good to know about this area
- Nearly every hostel, dive shop and tour desk on the island is here
- Alona Beach is the sand, the sunset and the evening
- Balicasag and the dolphin trips leave from directly in front of it
- Scooters from about €7 a day, which is how you see the interior
- Alona prices are tourist prices: ten minutes inland is a third of that
- Panglao has its own airport, with direct flights from Manila
Best hostels in Bohol
All on Panglao, in or near Alona, which puts you a walk from the beach and the boats.
Bohol Coco Farm
The best known backpacker place on the island and one of the highest rated anywhere: 9.7 across nearly fourteen hundred stays. Set in a tropical garden, quiet, and genuinely sociable.
If you only look at one hostel here, look at this one.
Bohol Hammock Hostel
Relaxed, social and near Alona Beach, and rated 9.8. Big common areas and the kind of place where you end up on a dive boat with people you met at breakfast.
Glamping Alona
Tents rather than dorms, with proper beds in them, close to Alona Beach. Something different from a standard hostel and quieter than most of them.
Best things to do in Bohol
One inland day, one water day, and one day on a scooter going somewhere nobody else goes.
Our own pick
Diving with Seaquest Dive Center
Seaquest has been on Alona Beach since 1990 and rotates between the dive sites around Panglao, full of seahorses, mantis shrimp and other small life. In groups of six at most, with local dive guides who have known these reefs for decades. Even if you have never dived before.
With the code REBELSONTHEROAD you get 2.5% off your PADI course. Give it when you book, because without mentioning it you will not get it.
See Seaquest Dive CenterOur partner on Bohol
Chocolate Hills, tarsiers and the Loboc river
The classic countryside day, and it does all three of the famous things: the viewpoint over the hills, a tarsier sanctuary, and a cruise up the Loboc river with lunch on the boat.
Over a thousand reviews and a 4.7. Doing it yourself on a scooter is perfectly possible and takes longer than you think, because the hills are an hour and a half inland.
Dolphins and Balicasag
Out before sunrise to find wild dolphins in open water, then on to snorkelling stops where green turtles feed. The dolphins are not fed or baited: the boats look for them, and some mornings they find a lot and some mornings fewer.
Ask your boat to keep its distance and not to chase, because not all of them do and the ones that do are the problem.
The tarsier sanctuary
The Philippine tarsier is about ten centimetres tall, weighs less than a phone, and has eyes that cannot move in their sockets, so it turns its whole head instead. There are very few places on earth to see one.
Go to Corella, where they live loose in the forest and guides point them out from a distance. Avoid anywhere that has them tied to a branch for photographs, and never touch one: these animals can die of stress, and that is not a figure of speech.
The Chocolate Hills
1,268 of them, spread over fifty square kilometres of the interior, each one between thirty and a hundred and twenty metres high and all of them roughly the same shape. There is a viewpoint with a staircase up it in Carmen, and the geology behind them is still argued about.
Brown in April and May, green the rest of the year, and worth the hour and a half inland either way.
The Loboc river
A green river through jungle, and the standard version is a floating restaurant with a buffet and a man with a guitar, which is more fun than that description deserves.
The cheaper and quieter version is a kayak or a paddleboard from the bank, which costs a fraction and lets you go where the big boat cannot.
Waterfalls and jungle trails
The other Bohol: inland tracks to waterfalls with pools at the bottom, through the man made mahogany forest at Bilar and out into rice country.
A good day for anyone who has had enough of boats, and it is where the island stops looking like a holiday brochure.
Alona Beach
The main beach on Panglao: white sand, dive boats pulled up on it, restaurants along the back and fire shows in the evening. Busy, and it is also where everything is.
Early morning and sunset are the two times it is worth being on it.
A scooter into the interior
Bohol is one of the best islands in the country to ride: the roads are decent, the interior is green and hilly, and almost nobody goes east.
Helmet on, and carry your international driving permit, because this is one of the places it gets checked.
How to plan your days in Bohol
Three days: the interior, the beach and the water. Pick how long you have.
Chocolate Hills and tarsiers. The countryside tour does the hills, a tarsier sanctuary and the Loboc river in one day. Pick a sanctuary where the animals sit loose in the forest rather than tied to a branch.
Tonight: dinner on Alona Beach, on Panglao.
Diving or dolphins. Balicasag Island has a wall with turtles and schooling jacks, twenty minutes out. To dive there you book months ahead, because only 150 divers a day are allowed in; if that does not work out, you dive around Panglao. The dolphin trip before it leaves at first light.
Tonight: sunset on Alona Beach, with the fire shows.
Waterfalls and the interior. Hire a scooter and ride out to Can-umantad Falls or the Anda side of the island, where almost no travellers go. Through the Bilar man made forest on the way.
Tonight: ferry to Cebu, or a flight to your next island.
Food and drink in Bohol
Bohol eats like the rest of the Visayas: a lot of fish, a lot of pork, and the sour and salty push and pull of vinegar and soy that runs through all Filipino cooking.
On Alona Beach you pay tourist prices. Ride ten minutes inland to a karinderia and the same plate costs a third of that, which over three days is most of a boat trip.
Getting there and onward
Bohol is easy to reach by fast boat from Cebu, and Panglao has its own airport as well.
Getting there. The fast boat from Cebu City takes two hours and runs several times a day. You can also fly straight into Panglao from Manila.
On the island. Panglao and Bohol are joined by a bridge. A scooter is about €7 a day and is the only sensible way to see the interior on your own.
Onward. Cebu is two hours by boat, and from there on to Moalboal or Malapascua. Siquijor is about two hours by boat, with fewer sailings than from Dumaguete.
- Fast boatCebu City 2 hrs, several times a day
- PlanePanglao, 1.5 hrs from Manila
- ScooterFrom about €7 a day
- Dive boatBalicasag Island, 20 minutes out
- TricycleOn Panglao, from about €0.40
Staying safe in Bohol
Safe and relaxed. The decision that actually matters here is which tarsier sanctuary you walk into, because not all of them are sanctuaries.
- Pick a tarsier sanctuary where the animals sit free in the forest
- Turn your flash off around them. Their eyes are extremely light sensitive
- Keep your voice down in the sanctuary. Stress is lethal to these animals
- Photograph your scooter before you ride away on it
- Touch or hold a tarsier, however often it is offered
- Visit a place where the animals are tied to a branch
- Stand on coral at Balicasag
- Ride the inland roads after dark. There are dogs and water buffalo on them
Tarsiers are so sensitive to stress that they are known to harm themselves in captivity. At the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary in Corella they move freely in the forest and guides point them out from a distance. That is the one you want.
Rebels on the Road tip
Almost everybody does the Chocolate Hills and the tarsiers and then goes back to the beach. Take the scooter east instead, to Can-umantad Falls, the highest waterfall on the island, hidden between rice terraces and jungle hills. The ride out is the point: winding roads, villages, viewpoints and not a coach in sight. Pair it with the Cadapdapan Rice Terraces just above it and you get a side of Bohol most visitors never see. Plenty of people who make that ride end up calling it their favourite day on the island.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in Bohol?
Three. One inland for the hills and the tarsiers, one on the water for Balicasag or the dolphins, and one on a scooter going east. Two is enough if you skip the east.
Where should I see the tarsiers?
Corella, at the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary, where they live loose in the forest and are pointed out from a distance. Avoid anywhere that keeps them tied to a branch for photos, and never touch one.
Are the Chocolate Hills actually brown?
In April and May, yes, when the grass dries out. The rest of the year they are green and the name makes no sense, and they are worth the trip either way.
Bohol or Siquijor?
Bohol has far more to do: hills, tarsiers, diving, waterfalls. Siquijor has quiet and a scooter loop. If you have time for one and want variety, Bohol. If you want to slow down, Siquijor.
Where should I stay?
Panglao, around Alona Beach. That is where the hostels, the dive shops and the boats are, and the inland sights are an hour to an hour and a half away.
Is Bohol good for diving?
Yes. Balicasag Island, twenty minutes off Panglao, has a wall with turtles and big schools of jacks and sardines on it, and it is one of the better known sites in the Visayas. Only 150 divers a day are allowed in, so book three to four months ahead; a spot is never guaranteed. The reef around Panglao you can dive any day.
How do I get to Bohol?
Fast boat from Cebu City, two hours, several sailings a day. Or fly direct into Panglao from Manila in about an hour and a half.
When is the best time to visit Bohol?
January to March for the calmest sea and the best diving. April and May are hot and dry, which is also when the hills are genuinely chocolate coloured. June to December is the rainy season in the Visayas, with typhoons possible.
