Bohol Tour

October 2013

Next on the bucket list is Bohol, an island located in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. It has been one of the famous tourist destinations in the nation partly because of its Chocolate Hills, a conglomerate of hills in one of the town in Bohol.


A couple of days before our scheduled tour in Bohol, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 had shaken the Central Visayas and its neighboring regions, causing huge damage to major infrastructure and facilities in Bohol and Cebu. My boyfriend and I were saddened. We thought the tour would have been cancelled and we would head back to Manila without even seeing the beauty of Bohol Island. But we were lucky! Panglao, an island where we're going to stay during the entire visit was not tremendously impacted. Upon receipt of confirmation from the staff of Dumaluan Beach Resort that tour would proceed as booked, with exceptions to some tour destinations included in the package, I got thrilled and so was Gord.


Going to Bohol

From Cebu, we took Super Cat Ferry to Tagbilaran, the capital city of Bohol. I thought we're going to take same old ferries that transport passengers from Allen Northern Samar to Matnog, Sorsogon but the ferry looks better and well managed. It's air-conditioned.

After an hour or so, we reached Tagbilaran port and what I noticed the most was a very clean port and an organized disembarkation of passengers. There were some cracks on the pavement and roads as well due to earthquake.

Port of Tagbilaran

The staff from Dumaluan Resort

The first time I got into the island, I was already amazed by its beauty. Everything in the sea is mainly colored green, from shoreline to most part of the sea water, something that is not usual to me because ours, in my hometown, it's blue. It's all blue unless you get near the corals.

Panglao is a small island located at the lower side of the main Bohol island. It comprises two municipalities or counties: Dauis and Panglao. The resort where we're gonna stay is Dumaluan Resort and its located in Panglao municipality. From the port, it takes 30 minutes to get to the resort so it's good that a private van picked us up at the port for our convenience. That was part of the services offered by the resort.



The Resort


Of all the resorts in Pangalao, I chose Dumaluan. It has been in the business for more than 50 years according to its website and all reviews I read were positive. And I would say we had the best experience in the resort! The staff were all courteous and friendly. We had a very comfy and huge room with bath tub. We were served with best food. All the itineraries went on as planned, with exceptions to Bohol country tour and Loboc as those places were not reachable by the time we were there. The earthquake damaged the bridges and major roads and they were not passable yet.


The fact that the resort is by the beach, that was already a best part of it. It's always best to go swim in the ocean with immediate access to shower or bathroom when necessary. That's just so perfectly convenient for me.

  

The Beach


One of the things I like in their beach is the sunrise. In my place where I grew up, we don't see sun rise but what we could witness by the sea is a lovely sunset every afternoon.

The Sunrise 

The beach in the morning

 The beach was just so lovely that I wanted to go and swim the moment I saw it! But it was 2 in the afternoon when we reached the resort so just imagine a very hot temperature and I would go swimming? That doesn't sound fair to my skin.


With a beautiful beach and a very nice weather, it felt like we were in a paradise island. It was so awesome, and with the activities we had on the tour package, I just couldn't wait to begin the actual tour. I was so excited! Very excited.


For the tours we had, please click on the following below:


Dolphin Watching
Balicasag Island
Panglao Tour



Ma Cristina
Mandaluyong City
Metro Manila
October 16, 2013