Bohol is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region. Its capital is Tagbilaran City. To the west of Bohol is Cebu, to the northeast is the island of Leyte and to the south, across the Bohol Sea is Mindanao.

Bohol is a popular tourist destination with its beaches and resorts. The Chocolate Hills, numerous mounds of limestone formations, is the most popular attraction. The island of Panglao, located just south of Tagbilaran City, is home to some of the finest beaches in the country. The Philippine Tarsier, considered by some to be the smallest primates, is indigenous to the island.

Carlos P. Garcia, the country's fourth president, was from Bohol.

Tourist Spot:

Chocolate Hills

The Chocolate Hills is an unusual geological formation in the island province of Bohol in the Philippines. The hills are the most famous tourist attraction on the island and consists of at least 1,268 individual mounds. The hills are scattered throughout the municipalities of Carmen, Batuan, and Sagbayan. What makes them intriguing is their mostly uniform molehill shape and size ranging from 30 to 50 meters high. The hills are covered in green grass that turns brown during the dry season, giving the hills their name.

A popular local myth for the hills' origin states that two giants fought with stones and sand against each other over a period of several days. A more romantic tale is that of Arogo, a strong and young giant who fell in love with Aloya, a mortal girl. She died within the palm of the giant's hand and the tears that fell supposedly turned into the hills.


Geologists have long debated about the formation of the hills. The most accepted theory, and the one that is written on a bronze plaque at an observation hill, is that the hills are eroded formations of a type of marine limestone that sits on top of hardened clay.

In 1988, the government of the Philippines declared the Chocolate Hills a National Geological Monument because of its unique formation. Currently two hills have been developed for tourism, one in Carmen, the very interior of Bohol, and the more recent one in Sagbayan, known as Sagbayan Peak.

How to get there

Plenty of tourist guides and tour operators will be happy to bring you to the chocolate hills, either as a separate trip or as part of a day tour. However, if you want to go here on your own, from Tagbilaran, you will have to go the integrated bus terminal in Dao and catch a bus going to Carmen. If you look like a stranger, you will have a hard time not finding one. At the entrance of the bus terminal people will point you to the right bus. Make sure it is the first one to leave, and ask the driver to drop you off at the Chocolate Hills complex, about 4 kilometers before the town of Carmen. From there it is a 10 minute walk along a roud winding up to the complex.


To get back to Tagbilaran, you will have to walk back to the main road, and wait for a bus to pass by. The last bus from Carmen to Tagbilaran leaves at four P.M. Alternatively, you can use the services of the motorcyclists who often wait here for tourist, and ride 'habal-habal,' or motorbike taxi.

If you're coming from Tubigon (arriving from Cebu by boat), a few buses go to Carmen daily, but sometimes you'll have to wait for some time for the bus to fill up. When you arrive in Carmen, you can catch the next bus or jeepney in the direction of Bilar, Loay or Tagbilaran, or ask a 'habal-habal' driver to bring you to the Chocolate Hills Complex.