The Chocolate Hills in Bohol
Mabuhay! Welcome to Bohol, Philippines! Bohol Island is the tenth largest island in the Philippines and is one of the popular destinations of many tourists from different parts of the world. It has 75 minor surrounding islands and is a neighbor of Cebu Island in the Central Visayas region. It is a tropical haven of natural beauty and home to many amazing diving and snorkeling sites. It is dominated by hills and plateaus and consisting of dormant and active volcanoes. This is where the world famous Chocolate Hills, one of the natural wonders of the worldcan be found. Also, Bohol is home to many rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, one of which is the famous tarsier (Tarsiussyrichta), one of the world’s smallest primates. The seas surrounding Bohol and the second largest island, Panglao, is known for some of the world’s richest marine life, while Balicasag Island is famous for its endangered whales and dolphins that have attracted tourists for sightseeing tours. White sand beaches are common in the coastlines of Bohol, particularly in Panglao Island, where popular beach resorts are located.
The weather is generally hot and humid and temperature stays at 25-32 degrees Celsius (78-90 degrees Fahrenheit) all year round. The temperature goes up to 28-38 degrees Celsius during the summer that starts from April and ends in June. Amihan Season (High Season) where the wind, usually hot and humid goes northeasterly to easterly with little to no rainfall starts from September to May. Habagat Season (Low Season) where the cool wind goes south-westerly with moderate to heavy rainfall starts from May to September. Amihan or Habagat can start a month later sometimes, so it would be October to June for Amihan and vice versa for Habagat.
The nearest international airport is located in Mactan Island, Lapu-lapu City (part of Cebu). It is less congested than Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila. Numerous direct flights to and from Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and scheduled flights to Japan, Qatar, Malaysia, Taiwan and China can be booked. Additionally, seasonal chartered flights can be booked to and from countries such as, Russia, China, United States and other nations. Visitors from North America, Europe and the Middle East would need a lay-over on the South East Asian countries listed above to get to Mactan International Airport.You will need to ride a taxi cab to Pier 4, price is about PHP 200 and from there you will then need to take a fast catamaran ferry (fastcraft) to Tagbilaran City seaport. This is usually takes an hour and a half, and costs more or less PHP 500 each way. Supercat and Oceanjet are some of the operators of fastcraft trips to Bohol. Please note that the airport terminal fee for international entry is PhP 700 per passenger and PhP 200 per passenger for domestic.
There are different modes of transportation you can use around the city, but most tourists opt for taxi cabs. Make sure that you ask for a metered rate especially if you do not know your way around the city. If you are confident to have a little adventure, try the colorful jeepneys. There is no tourist information center at every corner so it is advisable to ask your hotel’s front desk on which jeepney routes to take to your destination before embarking outside rather than asking random strangers, although, sometimes it helps to ask. Most Boholanos can speak and understand English, so that would be a common language that can guarantee to get your message across.
Make sure that you always have smaller denominations of the Philippine peso (PhP), as cabbies always most of the time say they don’t have a change for PhP 500 bill, and unfortunately can force you to just let them to keep the change. The Philippine Peso come in 1 PhP coin, 5 PhP coin, 10 PhP coin, 20 PhP bill, 50 PhP bill, 100 hP bill, 200 PhP bill, 500 PhP bill and the biggest, 1,000 PhP bill. There are tons of ATM machines around the city, but safest to use the known banks such as BPI, Metrobank, RCBC, BDO and some foreign banks like HSBC and Citibank. These banks are also the safest and cheaper way to get your money changed. However, it is important to get your money changed before getting out of the airport for your transportation fares. If you are a frequent traveler, you would know that additional fees apply for overseas bank transactions and sometimes your bank from your country might need to be pre-alerted that you are travelling to the Philippines so they can release money to you when you use the ATM machines here. Western Unions are available in many locations in Cebu City for money transfer transactions, too. Please don’t forget to bring your passport I.D., as they will not accept other forms of identification except your passport if you are a foreigner.
While in Bohol, it is not customary to include a tip, but it would be nice if you can leave at least 10% tip for good service. However, some restaurants already include service charge on your bill so make sure to read your bill carefully before leaving money behind. As a matter of fact, if there is no clear signage in visible areas or a note on the menu that a service charge is included it would not be rude to ask if that is automatically charged to your bill prior to ordering rather than be forced to pay a service charge if you don’t want to.
To visit the neighboring islands that have all the beautiful beaches like Balicasag and Pamilacan Islands, or other nature sight-seeing activities like in Danao for Extreme Adventure Tour and maybe visit Hinagdanan Cave in Dauis, you can rent a car or take a cab to the nearest port to where a boat will bring you to which island. Renting a car usually means that you will have a driver to bring you to your destination and back if you prefer, although, the usual rent-a-car concept where you will drive the car yourself is also available.
The Philippines is a third-world country, but is a very forward country in terms of communication and data and not so lagging behind with the bigger industrialized nations of the developed world. In fact, as far as cellphone use is concerned, this country is definitely in the industry’s front. The Philippines is the texting capital of the world. Texting has boomed here long before it was popular in the US and numerous mobile phone applications are invented here. Grab any SIM card from any of the local 3G or 4G networks like SMART, GLOBE or SUN and just get electronic loads for usage credit. Local phone calls are PhP 7 – PhP 10 per minute and SMS texts are PhP 1- PhP 2 each. There are numerous load stands or you can buy phone cards for load that come in PhP 100 or PhP 300 usually, this is best and cheaper way to connect between families visiting together instead of accumulating expensive international roaming charges. You can ask your hotel desks as they may have electronic loads available for purchasing.
Please note that the metric system is used in most trade and legal transactions and standard electricity is 220 Volts A/C, although 110 Volts A/C is also used especially in major hotels. Also, most large stores, restaurants, hotels and resorts accept major credit cards including American Express, Visas and MasterCard. Traveler’s checks preferably American Express is accepted at hotels and large department stores. Personal checks drawn on foreign banks are generally not accepted.
As with any trip, you should take standard safety precautions. Don’t leave your belongings unattended, avoid flashing wads of cash, and don’t wear or carry jewelry. If you can get a safety deposit box in your hotel, it is advisable to leave your precious personal effects and important documents behind. Bohol is a safe place, but it would not hurt to be aware at all times.
I hope you enjoy your stay and take as many pictures you like to post on your Facebook page. Visit our General Information page for more detailed information and feel free to look at the other blogs about tourist destinations here in Bohol.
The friendly atmosphere will surely make you keep going back night after night given you have a longer stay in Panglao, Bohol. Helmut has a magnetic personality and never lacks time to meet and greet everybody and thank everybody on their way out. There are bar stools by the bar and there are sofas and little tables set up like in a coffee house. You will definitely feel at home.
Not all the places in Bohol are always open late and a tour guide once claims it’s because Boholanos are frugal and that is why they sleep early. However, I think in most provinces around the Philippines most families retire really early to bed because their day starts very early in the morning.