I finally got the chance to experience Bohol’s Top Tourist destination during my recent trip with AirAsia last November 2017. It was a dream come true since I learned of Bohol in grade school.
February 2016, was my first time in Bohol. I was with a couple bus loads full of online celebrities and influencer. The group was divided in two to explore Bohol Top Tourist spots. The other group was to have the land adventure and the other has the water adventure. I was assigned to the group to do the water adventure, we had whale shark watching activity planned but the weather did not permit us to do so. Instead, we just enjoyed the beautiful white sand beach of Bohol Beach Club where I was able to try water biking .
Where are the Top Tourist Destinations /Attractions in Bohol that we saw for this visit?
Loboc River sand Loboc Church
In 2013, Loboc Church was badly destroyed by the 7.1 magnitued earthquake. I was nice to catch a glimpse of its rehabilitation while we were having our Loboc River cruise lunch. The cruise took about an hour. It was fascinationg to know it is one of the cleanest river in Asia. in fact I can see shrimps swimmimg along as we cruise!
Man-made Forest
Our tour guide said all the Mahogany trees in this 2 kilometer stretch of Bilar in Bohol was planted by Boholanos. All graduating students are required to plant a tree that actually sprouted. They have to document the planting until a sprout comes out! Our guide is somewhere along her 50s. She was talking about her experience from grade school!!!
Baclayon Church
One of the churches that was destroyed by the same 7.1 earthquake in 2013 was Baclayon church. I even have blog post during that time appealing for help in restoring heavily damaged heritage sites in Bohol. Baclayon Church was National Cultural Treasure of our country, and was even listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site built in 1950s! It was such a delight to see up close how the restoration was taking in place. Slowly but surely. The facade is already perfect but renovations are still being done inside. But still it looks really better than the last image of it after the earthquake!
Mingle with Tarsiers at natural habitat
Our guide was able to secure us a private tour inside the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary. This is a non-government and non-profit organization created for tarsier conservation in Bohol. Here you can see Tarsiers up-close but not caged!
Silence is observed while in the sanctuary, an 8 hectare forest inhabited by Tarsiers! We only covered about less than a kilomer area of the forest about 15-30 minute walk carefully looking at every tree amd corners we were able to see about 6 of them. We were told Tarsiers are territorial and there can only be at least 8 tarsiers per kilometer . It was one of the best experience ever especially seeing a noctural creature endemic to the Philippines only in person and it gave me a glance!
I was so giddy to finally see the Chocolate Hills! The first time. i saw it was in history books in grade school to see it with my own eyes was pure bliss .When I was there the hills were moss green, probably because it was rainy season. The hills are more brown during summer when the leaves has dried out ergo Chocolate Hills like giant Kisses!
Alona Beach
Bohol boast of gorgeous white beaches and this is one of them. Alona was said to be an island named after a pppular 70s starlet Alona Alegre some rich foreigner bought the island for her and named it after her.
I am also listing down some of the places you should stay at to experience the best when in Bohol :
Stay at Amorita Resort
We olny stayed overnight but it was all worth it. Hoping to come back soon. This resort has the biggest resort room ever like house /suite type. Gorgeous pool and pool view overlooking Alona Beach. Delicous food at their Tapas house! Yum!
Belleview Resort
This was the resort we stayed for our 3 days 2 nights trip in 2016. It has large hotel roms nice facily and white sand beach front as well.
Bohol Beach Club
This is where we had our water adventure during my first Bohol visit. White sand beach as well big recrational area and I heard nice rooms as well.
Bohol Bee Farm
Home of the famous honey in Bohol plus a creekside view of the sea when you dine in. They serve exquisite food and ice cream.
Thank you so much AirAsia Philippines and Comco for letting me experience the entire Bohol top tourist spots, finally!
How about you, have you been to Bohol yet? Are there any other places to see that I have missed out?
Stay gorgeous everyone!
P. S. Watch my Bohol vlogs below: