Though I barely got to go around Bohol during my short stay, there are several spots I can recommend you visit while you’re there. Here’s a quick mini tour of some areas around Panglao.

South Palms Resort

Another one of Bohol’s beautiful resorts. This isn’t in the main beach area (Alona), but it’s pretty close by. South Palms Resort’s beach is private for guests and has a lot of hangout spots you can choose from. Aside from the umbrellas you see below, there are also lounge chairs and bean bags around.

I really liked the style of this resort–a more modern take on the kubo. Their beach front is wide and long, and the resort is surrounded by coconut trees and is levelled with the beach so it looks extra spacious.

Before the wedding day, my friends and I met up at South Palms for dinner. We ate at the Coast Pool Bar, and I shared a Kinilaw and Seafood Pasta with Isa. We were satisfied with the two meals and a little overwhelmed by the pasta size that we couldn’t finish it. I don’t exactly remember the pricing for these dishes but they ranged from Php 350-450.

Island Hopping: Virgin Island and Balicasag

We went island hopping the day after the wedding. It started out horribly, as expected–really, after a late night of dancing and alcohol then jumping on a boat with a roaring motor and travelling 30-40 minutes to the middle of the ocean, what do you expect? But as the day went by and we got to chill on Virgin Island, things got a little better.

Virgin Island

Of the two that we visited, I liked this island more. It’s really not much, literally a sand bar in the middle of nowhere. But the guys selling Uni and Abalon were there, and we got to eat a lot of it while sipping on some buko, chilling, and looking out into the clear blue waters.

Balicasag Island

I don’t have much photos of this island because by the time we got there, the heat was scorching and I spent most of the time trying to shade myself from getting extra dark. But this Island had several eating places and other activities you can’t do in Virgin. Their eating places are mainly just huts around the area you can walk into and have some delicious seafood. I had garlic shrimp and rice with Coke for Php 350.

Other activities you can do here: snorkeling and turtle watching. Don’t be fooled by some of the people here; they tend to charge extra high when they know you’re a tourist. They charged us Php 400 per head just to see the turtles, and another Php 400 to go to another part of the island. It’s a little ridiculous. Our friends who went here were charged around Php 600 per head to do all the activities available.

Alona Beach

This is Bohol’s mini Boracay. It does remind you of Bora as you walk through the strip of restaurants and see the countless foreigners. There are several food choices (mostly seafood, some Greek, Italian and other grilled food), and the restaurants tend to fill up quickly since their spaces aren’t so big.

We ate in Pyramid where Anton and I had some Pork Belly (each) with rice, atchara and iced tea for Php 180, and shared Grilled Squid with rice atchara and iced tea for Php 110. It was more than enough for us and was delicious. Pretty sulit.

We also couldn’t miss out on the famous Bohol Bee Farm ice cream. They’re known for their crazy ice cream flavors like Spicy Ginger, Malunggay, Durian, Seaweed and a lot more. The Pandan, Melon and Chocolate for me were the best. Php 50 per scoop!

Despite not being able to see the Chocolate Hills, Tarsier and other historic tourist spots, I enjoyed Bohol a lot and found the island to be so beautiful. Being in the resort of course was relaxing because of the privacy that we got, but going out to the different islands and to Alona was also another good, livelier experience. Definitely a place worth visiting and returning to.