04.09.2022 | Asia, Philippines

Explore the reefs of Panglao on Bohol Island

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We mainly took the ferry from Siquijor to Bohol to go Scuba diving at the famous reefs of Panglao in the West of Bohol. You can choose between different wall drift dives or trips to close islands. We can highly recommend to go with Bohol Divers Club, the school is very well organized and the equipment looked very good! However, if you aren’t a diver, there are several other things to do on Bohol: First of all, you can visit the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary to see these small little monkeys. Also we really liked the Pahangog Twin Falls surrounded by beautiful rice terraces and local villages. The center of Panglao isn’t as nice as El Nido or Coron, but there is this really good restaurant Shaka, you should definitely check out!

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WHAT TO DO ?

1. Go diving at Alona Beach with Bohol Divers Club

Since we did our Open Water certificate a few months ago in Mexico, we wanted to go diving on a regular basis. Therefore we booked a few dives at Bohol Divers Club. Bohol is known for beautiful reefs, many fish and turtles. The diving school is located in the West of this island, on the Panglao peninsula. You can choose between different wall drift dives or trips to close islands. We can highly recommend to book with Bohol Divers Club, the school is very well organized and the equipment looked very good! We also saw a lot of people doing their certificates there. We went down to 18 meters and our diving teacher showed us all the incredible animals underwater.

2. Alona Beach

The dive school is located directly at Alona Beach. We just went out with the boat from the shore. This beach gets pretty crowded in the evening. A lot of locals come here, as well as many tourists, to watch the sunset. Also the locals ask for a high parking fee for the scooter. If you are looking for a quit beach we definitely recommend Dumaluan Beach!

3. Dumaluan Beach at South Palms Resort – the most beautiful beach

Well, I guess it’s the most beautiful and quit beach on Panglao, Bohol island. Since there is the famous South Palms Resort, the beach is well looked after. There are some beautiful palm trees and you can walk to the left or the right to get some distance to the resort. In the evening there are often music events.

4. Molave Cliff Jump and Panglao Beach

These two places are very close to each other. If you want to jump from Molave Cliff Jump, you have to pay a day ticket. Panglao Beach is a beautiful empty beach with no entrance fee. You can watch the locals working on their fisher boats.

5. Visit the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary and the drive through the Man-Made-Forest

There are several Tarsier Sanctuaries, but we highly recommend visiting the “Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary”. We drove by at another sanctuary and it was a horrible tourist attraction with hundreds of people coming with tourist busses. At the “Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary” there were only around 6 other people, guides who made sure everyone is silent and a video room with information about the Tarsier. We were surprised how small the little Tarsier monkeys are, just as big as my hand. We saw 3 Tarsiers in total. If you drive to the sanctuary by scooter, you can take a break at the street surrounded by the Man-Made-Forest. They sell it as one of the main tourist attractions, however coming from Germany with a lot of forests, it wasn’t that impressive. But it’s still nice to stop for a view minutes.

6. Jump in the Pahangog Twin Falls ( also called Dimiao Falls )

This waterfall was definitely a highlight on Bohol island. First we crossed the bridge separating the little Peninsula Panglao from the main island. It took us 1,5 hour to get to the falls. We drove through local villages with kids screaming hello and beautiful rice terraces. Honestly we loved this little expedition a lot more than the touristic Panglao. We left the scooter at some little huts of the locals, and hiked up a little hill next to incredible looking rice terraces. From there we had to take a lot of steps down to the waterfall. After a little bit of climbing on the rocks, we reached the main and biggest waterfall. First we’ve been the only ones, then two other tourists arrived. There were several jumping possibilities. There is no entrance fee.

7. Have a look at Loboc River – driving around with a scooter

It’s a big tourist thing riding down the Loboc River on a big boat. However, we had some great views on the river from the streets driving to the waterfall. It was easy to drive on the streets of Bohol with a scooter, everyone was driving very carefully.

8. Chocolate Hills Viewpoint

Actually, we haven’t been at Chocolate Hills Viewpoint, because we’ve been to Casino Peak on Cebu Island which looked pretty much the same and isn’t as touristic as this viewpoint in Bohol. Basically the grass on these smooth hills can get very brown in the heat, therefore they can look like chocolate hills. If you want to see these hills, go there early! The viewpoint platforms get pretty crowded. However we heard from several people that they were a little disappointed. The picture was taken on Cebu island, to give you a feeling how the hills look like.

9. Spend a few day in the East of Bohol: Cadapdapan Rice Terraces, Can-Umanted Falls & Binbaje Hills Hike

Do you have time left on Bohol island and want to explore authentic local places without tourism? Then you should spend 2-3 nights in the East of the island! We found some incredible blog articles about this area (look at journeyera.com). From there you can explore the Cad-Umanted Falls, Cadapdapan Rice Terraces and hike the Binbaje Hills. Keep in mind that you need half a day to get from Panglao to the East of the island, it’s not recommended to try it in a day trip!

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WHERE TO EAT ?

1. The tasty Shaka café and restaurant

Mhhh, everywhere we found Shaka on the different islands of the Philippines, we were more than happy. The bowls there are so good. Shaka on Bohol island is actually the best Shaka café we’ve been to, since it also has really good lunch and dinner options next to bowls. Everything is so tasty, healthy and comes with a lot of vegan options.

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WHERE TO STAY ?

1. Budget accommodation: Scent of Green Papaya

We searched for a budget room close to the center and found this hotel for around 30 euros. It’s basic, but absolutely fine for the price. They can organize you a scooter directly to the hotel. Also they can book you a ferry.

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HOW TO GET THERE ?

There are direct ferries available from Cebu city or Siquijor. You can book the ferry ticket at the harbor. From the ferry port in Bohol it’s best to share a taxi with some other travelers to get to the center (around 15 to 20 minutes) or to take a tuktuk. Exploring Bohol island, we highly recommend renting a scooter to be independent.