I haven’t done much of anything since retiring to the Philippines over six years ago with my lovely asawa, The Sainted Patient Wife. I’ve been on a perpetual vacation for years but my hardworking spouse never takes a break. That’s why I decided she deserved some adventures in Cebu City, like shopping at the new SM Seaside Mall, the fourth largest SM in the Philippines. My wife also expressed a desire to visit the Chocolate Hills in Bohol, someplace neither one of us has been.
Bohol’s famous tourist attraction is a geological formation with at least 1,260 hills that are covered in green grass that turns brown (like chocolate) during the dry season. And with the current El Niño smacking the Philippines, I have no doubt the hills will be brown. We had some thunder and lightning the other evening but not even rain to wet a hummingbird’s beak.
While in Cebu, we are going to see some good friends from Illinois visiting relatives in the Philippines. My wife used to go shopping back in the Land of Lincoln with her Filipina friend, married to an American. We haven’t seen the couple in over six years and it will be a two-hour bus ride to reach the province our friends will be staying at. Hopefully, we can catch a bus with air-con.
While in Cebu City, The Queen City of the South, aside from shopping, we will take a Supercat Tour from Cebu to Tagbilaran Wharf in Bohol. The trip takes two hours and has such highlights as the Loboc River Cruise with lunch on board and a visit to the Tarsier Sanctuary along with a stop at the famous Chocolate Hills, of course.
Chocolate Hills of Bohol (Photo Source: Wikipedia)
The cost of the Bohol tour is 2,980 pesos per person, 65 dollars, and includes round trip SuperCat tickets to and from Bohol, which run 1,000 pesos per person, if purchased separately.
We will have air-conditioned transportation in Bohol and all applicable Entrance Fees and Terminal Fees are included in the package. We will be back in Cebu at 7:30 pm that same day.
Regular readers of Philippines Plus know I like to go on the cheap. Sure, we could just hop on a bus in Bohol and make all the tourist stops ourselves, but I decided to fork out a few more pesos and make the trip easier on us and pay for the tour. After all, it is a vacation.
(This post is scheduled to be released on Saturday, April 16th. We should be in Cebu by then and I will not be able to respond to any comments until we return.)
Hi Dave, have a great time there we are planning to go to Bohol this year especially
To the loboc river cruise and of course the chocolate hills, really hot in Manila will go to subic next week for a few days we need a break from Manila, Derek in pasig.
Hope you have a good and safe trip Dave.
We did that on my very first visit to the Philippines, and really enjoyed it.
Then we stayed at Kaylaas resort about 45 minutes from the ferry terminal for a week, its owned by an American from California, was a very nice place although kinda pricey and is not very close to anything but that was fine since we were on a romantic getaway and thats where I proposed to the beautiful, sweet lady I fell in love with.
There are so many beautiful places in the Philippines that I have only seen in pictures, that I hope to be able to go see in person once I move there. We like Cebu area a lot, and may start looking at it as a place to live, just not in the actual city, but outside the city where we can get a couple hectors of land. We usually stay in Davao area, but its so damn hot down there, execpt for General Santos, Davao seems to always have about the hottest temps of any place there, so we may start looking at places to the South just to find someplace a little bit cooler. Heat I think is going to be my kryptonite I think about living there, just hope I can adapt to it over time. Here its Spring and temps are nice and cool in the mid to upper 60’s if you can remember what that feels like, Dave.
Hello dave
jason from central illinois my wife is from Bohol i have been there 5 times it is amazing great people and great sites!!!!!!
dont forget Panglao it has awesome beaches and Mag-Aso Falls is a beautiful water fall you can swim at!!!! have fun and take care
You make me miss it more. Every time I read your blog.