Bohol Experience

Dumaluan Beach Resort Review

The island of Bohol, Philippines has many things to offer families looking for a place to spend their vacation. The home of the Philippine Tarsier and the breathtaking Chocolate Hills, it is also blessed with spectacular beaches. Less than a half hour trip from the capital, Dumaluan is a family oriented beach resort located at the southern tip of Panglao Island.

The resort with its long stretch of powdery white sand lined with tropical palms, remain virtually unexploited. The sound of the waves gently touching the shore add to the feeling of peace and tranquility. With its shallow warm water, it is ideal for children to safely frolic in. Children of ages can have endless fun in building sandcastles or by simply picking up seashells washed to the shore.

Water sports such as Jetskis, Kayaking, Windsurfing, Banana boats and even Parasailing offer different levels to enjoy the waves. You can rent equipment at the Dive shop for your snorkeling and scuba diving activities. The diverse aquatic life can be clearly seen through crystal clear waters. Boats can even take you out to watch for whales and dolphins promising an unforgettable encounter.

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Bohol Top 5 by Lakwatsera

1. Chocolate Hills
There are actually more than a thousand of these 30 to 50 meter hills. The mounds look like chocolates because it is made of limestone and trees don’t grow on them.2. Panglao Island beach

Panglao Island is located southwest of Tagbilaran City has one of the most beautiful beachfronts in the Philippines. I think I’d go back to Bohol more often than Boracay.

3. Baclayon Church

Baclayon Church is one of the best preserved churches ran by Jesuits and is the oldest coral stone church in the region.

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A Week on Alona Beach, Bohol

Anybody who knows me knows that I’m all about beaches. And Alona Beach is one to remember. It’s a bit pricey, and there’s not much for the solo traveller to do. But I found that time slows and the beer flows on Alona!

Life’s a beach! Most people who have been to or thought of visiting the Philippines have heard of the Chocolate Hills on Bohol. The typical deal is for people to find their way to Cebu Island, then take the Supercat boat over to Tagbilaran City, Bohol. They spend 2 nights, with one day doing the Chocolate Hills tour. That’s one way to do it. Personally, I don’t like losing holiday time just getting from point A to point B, so I chose to skip Cebu entirely and spend all 7 nights on Bohol. I flew directly from Manila to Tagbilaran, then hired a taxi for 500 pesos (about $10) for the 40 minute drive to Alona Beach on Panglao Island, which is connected by a short bridge to Bohol.

Favourite spots:

The beach is beautiful, with powder-like white sand and coconut trees leaning out toward the blue-green waters. Although I’m usually not a fan of beaches crowded with boats, I love the outrigger style white and blue boats they use in the Philippines, so to me, it just added to that tropical feeling. And the sunsets. Wow!

What’s really great:

Tourism students As much as I love being at the beach, I rarely spend any time just sitting in the sun. In fact, one of my goals in visiting the beach was to get some work done, so I spent a lot of time just sitting in the restaurant working on my laptop. This was not, however, always an easy thing to do. The Philippines is a decidedly friendly place, and people, both Filipino and foreign alike, will stop by for a chat. In most cases, people just stopped to ask about how I was getting a wireless connection (I wasn’t), or about the size of my super small Toughbook laptop (no jokes, please). At least two times, that resulted in an afternoon of chatting over beers with some very interesting travellers. And one time, as I was sitting there working, I was approached by a group of Tourism students from Mindanao, in the south of the Philippines. We talked for ages, and finally took a few pics together. Not that I needed any to remember: experiences like that are the ones that I always remember.

Sights:

Not one photo I have does justice to the beach. Sights? The beach IS the sight. I never tired of just staring at it, or sitting and watching the stars sitting on the beach at night. But if you want to adventure out, you can rent a scooter for about $2 an hour (or about $8 for a full day) and just go exploring. I also did the tour around Bohol Island, which I’ll be writing about soon

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this is a repost from tokyomike’s travelouge

Bohol Nature Trip by cherrific

The beautiful Bohol was the destination for this year’s HSBC Nature Trip. It’s an annual thing bringing staff volunteers to different provinces in the Philippines where environmental awareness is being promoted. I am one of the lucky staff this year!We stayed in Bohol Bee Farm where everything is bee-and-honey-themed. It’s definitely a beautiful place with fantastic people, a great view and good food – I just love the honey-and-cheese muffins!

Cambuhat River – we trekked the still waters of Cambuhat river riding a 2-seater banca. One wrong move and you’re swimming in the oyster-inhabited river! The villagers welcomed us with a hand-made oyster necklace and a cultural dance. Best part? They served us a very yummy seafood feast! I was kinda hesitant to try the ‘takla” (a cross-over of shrimp and lobster) though – but definitely, it tastes better than it sounds.

Loboc River – my favorite part of the trip is when we cruised this river riding a floating restaurant. I had this surreal feeling while trekking the Loboc River and being serenaded by a local villager. Our raft even came across another similar one with only two guests on board—yes, a couple! It was so sweet.

Dauis Church – known for the miraculous water from its in-house well, this church also appeals tourists for its amazing structure. The bell-tower located at the back of the church is definitely a must-see.

Baclayon Church – the second oldest stone church in the Philippines (the San Agustin Church in Intramuros is the oldest) which stands alongside its museum is also a must-see. The Museo houses a variety of antique church artifacts – from the song books to the priest’s chair (I really don’t know what it’s called). On the way to this church, we saw a century old balete tree which is said to be so big that 10 persons can fit inside.

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Bohol Beach Day

Bohol is blessed with prestine white beaches. A favorite relaxation spot for the locals and a lot of tourists.

Beach goers have a choice of going to public beaches which has cottages for rent and public beaches where people can just go there, enjoy the beach without paying.

For beaches where you need not pay anything to get take a swim in the water and enjoy the white sandy beach in Panglao Island, you can go to either of the following:Doljo beach (most of the portion of this long white beach strip is free); Momo beach, Bikini beach and Alona beach.

There are also white beaches where most of the beach front lots are owned by private individuals however, they provided huts or tables for the public to use for a fee. The favorites are Dumaluan Beach and the BBC Public Beach. At Dumaluan Beach, huts are rented out at P150/day plus additional P30 if you need to use the electric outlet for your cd player or turbo broiler.

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Bohol Beach – Kain, Panglao!

Kain!Traveling is one half (or more, in my case) a gustatory endeavor and Panglao definitely hits the yummy spot. Being a tropical seaside resort town, one word comes to mind — FRESH. Fresh fish best eaten grilled with splashes of calamansi, freshsquid for the most succulent calamari, fresh crustaceans of all shapes, colors and sizes, from tasty little shrimps to the fattest, meatiest crabs, to bright and juicy prawns and to the bluest and yummiest lobsters. Clams and mussels also abound, Oysters so fresh just a splash of our local lemon and vinegar with a dash of salt plus one big slurp – ay yay yay! – enough to send you to a delicious mind-numbing experience. The fresh taste of the seabed that goes down with the oyster lingers in one’s palate and leaves one wanting more.

sugbahan Panglao*

For non-seafood fans (shame on you!) beef and pork are easily available. Kabobs of all sorts are grilled almost everywhere so savory scents envelope the alona beach strip especially come dinner time. No worries too, as the meats are sourced from neighboring communities so one is assured of the freshness. Grilled to perfection, the meats are tender and juicy to the bite.

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Bohol Beach – BOHOLidays

Hu-waw Philippines!

Alona beach*

Located in Panglao island, Bohol, Alona beach is its main strip of white sand. Alona Kew provides one of the budget friendly places to stay.

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The loboc river cruise is a complete feast for the senses. As the stream tugs you down the river, let’s hope you’re not color blind since different shades of green paint the facade. From the river to the coconut trees to the passing boat man’s banana-leaf hat, there is no need for that so-called ‘certain shade of green’. The tropical weather takes part in setting the mood. After mother nature sprinkles the river with scattered five-minute rain showers, sunshine comes into play as it seeps through the coconut tree canopy and the scent of wet-earth tingles the nose. The water twinkles like stars. Birds whisper songs, voiding the need for mp3 players. Although there is beer served on the boat, let yourself feel the natural enchantment reek from your pores thus completing the fiesta on all five senses.

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zhenmei Visit to Bohol

Bohol has always been one of the places I wanted to visit in the Philippines. And now I can tick off this site and smile in remembrance of how Bohol taught me to have a grateful heart.

Joy, Lyca, and I were in Bohol from April 5-9, Holy Week. Joy and I took the 6:30 am flight to Tagbilaran City from Manila, while Lyca took the Cebu route (then ferry to Tagbilaran). Though cheaper, I did not choose this route because I wanted to go through Manila and see my friends.

Joy and I were expecting a big crowd considering that it was Holy Week. The Cebu Pacific plane was fully booked. In front of me was a family with children, who were evidently riding a plane for the first time.

Boy: “Wheeee! We’re flying! We’re flying!”
His sister: “Mama, mama, pwede mag-weewee?”

We arrived in Tagbilaran at about 7:30, which was 30 minutes earlier than the scheduled arrival time. The airport reminded me of Davao’s long ago – small, with no proper baggage claim area.

We met our hired driver Mang Domeng, then drove to Tierra Azul, Panglao. That’s where we stayed the whole time. Tierra Azul is said to be only one of two Filipino-owned resorts in Panglao. Though not beachfront, it is only a short walk from the beach and has clean rooms and a friendly staff.

Panglao has many resorts side by side, so it doesn’t really matter where you stay. I was surprised to see not a lot of people, for Joy and I were expecting a deluge of China standards. We shouldn’t have compared, because even though the resorts were fully booked, the number of people was just enough. Not too few as to be lonely, and not too many either as to be suffocating.

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