A 5-days itinerary in Bohol, what to miss and don’t miss on the pearl of Visayas, Philippines

Last Updated on 29 November 2025 by Cycloscope

What to see and do in Bohol, a pearl of the Visayas
An itinerary for traveling in Central Philippines by bicycle touring or backpacking

This article is a part of our guide to adventure travel in the Philippines on a budget
Check the rest of our itinerary in the Philippines for more inspiration

Maybe because this was our first real impact with the rural Philippines, we developed a strong affection for this beautiful island. I think it’s really a no-miss destination for a proper tour of the Philippines.

Bohol is part of the Central Visayas province and is inhabited by around 1.3 million people. It is one of the most popular destinations in the Philippines, mainly for the Chocolate Hills and Panglao Island, but there’s really much more on this island.

Our loop of Bohol took five relaxing days, for 270km, but it can be done faster. We reached Bohol from Cebu City with the fast ferry (unfortunately, the short visa didn’t allow us to explore Cebu island). Read our section about ferries for more info. And it costs us around 400P, slow boats are cheaper but less frequent (some schedules here).

Tagbilaran City

Boats from Cebu and other islands all arrive and depart from the port of Tagbilaran, Bohol’s chaotic, small capital town.

With around 100.000 inhabitants, this is the sole urban area on the Island of Bohol; it has a few supermarkets, a relatively big fresh market, and a shopping mall. Stock here if you’re looking for more peculiar goods, not that you can find a lot of stuff here, but still better than the rural areas.

Our bicycle trip in Bohol – the route

Below is the map of our tour of Bohol Island. Our GPS records the track, and you can display the elevation profile by clicking on the portion of the track you’re interested in.

Panglao Island

From Tagbilaran, you have the choice to go north, south, or to explore the tourist area of Panglao. While you think about it, the latter is what we did.

The entire tour around Panglao covers less than 40 flat, pleasant kilometers. Though this is a tourist area, you will not see many of them around; most live in their resorts, which have taken over most of the beaches on the island, so don’t expect to find a place to swim here easily.

There’s a big public beach on the westernmost tip of the island, but the water is very shallow here; the sand is so white, though, that it’s worth a look.

Here, like almost everywhere else in the Philippines, it’s fantastic to see the creativity people put in their buildings, houses, huts, small shops, food stalls, all so different from each other and mainly made of bamboo and rattan.

Cycling Bohol’s southern coast

After bicycle touring Panglao, we decided to follow Jens’s advice and cycle a loop in the southern area of Bohol.

Heading south along the coast from Tagbilaran can be stressful for the first 10km or less, where you’ll still feel the roar of the homemade tricycles and jeepneys, but after that, it really becomes paradise.

The sea is visible most of the time in this first stretch, and you can bathe to cool off. With low tides, it can be slightly tricky, though (shoes recommended).

We slept here at a very cheap (300P/7$) place called Hilario’s, which was nice and friendly. Along this road, there’s also the interesting Baclayon Church, the oldest in Bohol, made of coral stones; here, local youth often meet to train their acrobatic skills on their BMX and skates.

Bicycle touring the interiors of Bohol Island

Reaching the village of Loay, we left the coast heading to the interiors, where the famous Chocolate Hills are—a few flat kilometers and then a short but steep climb up to 300msl.

In the village of Loboc, we slept at Nuts Huts, a nice place in the jungle by the Loboc River (you could cruise it or rent a kayak), but it’s not worth the effort if you stay only one night here.

There’s a 2km not easy, dirty track and then a few hundred steps to get to the place, not so bike-friendly (impossible for a wheelchair), moreover, nobody helped us with the baggage.

From here, you’re not far from the Chocolate Hills, the most famous tourist attraction in Bohol, next to the village of Carmen. Those are hills shaped like bonbons; a few are visible from the road, while you have to pay (50P) to get to the viewpoint. We decided not to go when we saw four big tourist buses out there.

But, in our opinion, the most interesting thing about getting here is instead of the road, with lush rice fields, rock with palm trees that look like islands in the middle of the green, traditional houses and people at work, a postcard from the Philippines countryside.

You will also pass through the lovely, shady man-made Bilar mahogany forest, though it seems to have a dark side.

Anda and the way back to Tagbilaran

Once you pass the Chocolate Hills, tourists suddenly disappear, and the island is all for you. The bike ride is still pretty easy and scenic up to Sierra Bullones and Alicia, where we turn left to get back to the south coast, through Candijai.

So we get to the area of Anda, one of the best beach areas we’ve ever seen. Also, here private resorts exploit the beauty, but it is not as hard to find public beaches as in Panglao. These are just perfect, crystal-clear water and snow-white sand, and it’s often possible to swim to private beaches; the water is so calm here.

There’s a sort of road that tours around the Anda peninsula in a loop but we didn’t do it, there’s a short but tough stretch of dirty track with steep parts, so we took it easy and went back from the same road. Lazy morons we are.

And so, Anda was the easternmost point of our trip to Bohol, and then we started heading back to Tagbilaran, this time following the coast. The sea is on our left for the whole ride now, spectacular views in a very low-touristic-impact area.

Reaching the town of Jagna, there’s a small resort called Paseo del Mar where the very nice Silvio, an Italian ex-pat, owns a dive shop. It’s the only place where you can buy snorkel and mask in Bohol, according to our experience. Here you can snorkel from the beach, but you will need shoes.

Back to Loay, you can choose to go to the interiors, where the Tarsier Sanctuary is (entry fee 50P), between the towns of Corella and Sikatuna.

The tarsier is the smallest primate in the world and a scarce creature, but we decided to spend one more night at Hilario’s, so we didn’t go. Even though this is a so-called sanctuary and the animals are free, it feels to us that they must be really annoyed by all these tourists taking pictures while they sleep (tarsiers are nocturnal animals).

So we went back to Tagbilaran and took a boat to the island of Negros (check here for our itinerary in Negros). Of course, there’s much more in Bohol, and this article is based just on our (excellent) experience on this magic island. If you know some more interesting places or roads to ride, please contribute in the comments!

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