This was the pleasant view I had eating a late breakfast at my resort and trying to figure out how I should spend what was left of my last day in Panglao island, Bohol.
Connected by a short bridge and located right at the southwest tip of Bohol is where you will find the small island of Panglao. A very short distance from the port of Tagbilaran it is home to some lovely white sand beaches but Panglao is mostly renowned internationally for being a tropical paradise for divers.
Having a little stroll down Alona beach looking for an idea what to do with my last day
The island itself is quite small in size, from end to another there is roughly 2 km
A small bangka on the way
Here some more, they actually are everywhere along the beach
I eventually saw a few motorbikes for hire and a guide offered me to take a tour around the island so off I went on a scooter. Every possible form of transportation is for hire in the Philippines and you will find no shortage of offers to do pretty much anything you want.
My first stop was at a roman catholic church that we crossed on the way
No idea what this was but I took a picture as I was intrigued
Back on the road crossing one of those Filipino tricycle
The beaches of the northern part of Panglao island
Low tide at this time of day
Native kids playing along the beach
Back on the road again
The Hinagdanan underground Cave is a cool little spot if you want to take a break from the heat and take a dip in the lagoon filled with freshwater
local kids seem to love diving into the 9 foot deep waters
Very hard to take proper pictures with my little Canon Ixus camera but the Panglao cave is filled with stalactites and stalagmites
More tricycles for hire on the way
Next stop the Panglao mini-zoo
some of the varieties of birds it holds
But it’s not limited to birds there are of course other animals though the highlight if you happen to be lucky enough to arrive just at the right time is the boa that’s fed once a week a live piglet
This time direction: Bohol Bee Farm
Me with a few bees
School’s out
Our last stop was at my favorite beach the Dumaluan
Longer & wider than the Alona with less development is one of the reasons
Also you’ll see friendly local faces there. The Dumaluan beach resort rents huts there for 150 pesos per day and tents for 350 if you want to stay overnight so you’ll feel like you actually are in the Philippines and not on some beach in Spain surrounded by Caucasians. That was the main downside I found of staying at Alona Beach.
This is where I was suggested to go but I strongly recommend to book in advance since it was full when I wanted to do reservations there
The vast majority of resorts are located on the southwest coat along the 1 km long Alona beach. This portion of the island is more geared towards divers though and if you rather have a larger & longer beach in a more quiet area I would recommend the northern resorts on Dumaluan Beach, Bolod beach, Momo beach or Duljo beach. A few others on the Eastern portion are available where you can find the San Isodro beach, Bikini beach, and Libaong beach. Nowhere near as busy it’s a great spot to relax and get away from it all.
Back on Alona beach a few hours later trying to pick what I want to eat from the seafood displayed. Certainly fresh as some of it was still moving
Living seashell
Again the evening finishing late at around 5AM with some tourists & expats
My last Cebu Pacific flight going back to Manila
Tagbilaran view from the air
1 comment
Good job with your blog. Very nice. Thanks for coming to the Philippines too.