Went to Bohol recently over the Easter (2019) break. Wasn’t planning on going anywhere during Easter as everything is twice the price but with the crap weather in Hong Kong, did a bit of a last minute organise and decided to go to Bohol, which is a 2 hour ferry trip from Cebu. Looked at Cebu and staying at the Shangri-la Mactan Resort & Spa, which we’ve stayed at before, but at almost HKD$5,000 per night, didn’t want to pay that for that hotel, which is outrageous and the worst value for money I’ve seen for a hotel in a long time.
Anyway got a flight to Cebu for around HKD$8000 (myself and Grobbler) and the hotel was about HKD$2,000 per night for 3 nights. Unfortunately the flight was delayed 2 hours as it was pissing down with rain and being Easter, Hong Kong Airport was a nightmare as usual. Not much you can do about that and overall Cathay are usually pretty on-time with most of the flights we’ve taken.
Anyway, to get to Bohol you need to either take a Domestic flight from Manilla and fly into Tagbilaran or get a 2 hour ferry ride from Cebu Pier 1 to Tagbilaran, which is on Panglao Island, Bohol. Wasn’t expecting too much before we went but did a few (one in particular) awesome things there to make it worthwhile. Not sure I’d be going back there in a hurry, but at the same time I’d be happy to go back if we got a cheaper flight and can still recommend it to anybody thinking about going, especially if you’ve been to Cebu and want to try something different.
There’s not a load of things to do in Bohol so if you don’t like to sit by the pool and sloth out then it’s probably not for you. However, there’s a few half day and some full day trips you can do leaving from Bohol so if you just want to do a few things you’re going to be pretty happy here. The hotel which we stayed in (Amorita Resort), was way better in terms of rooms than Shangri-La Mactan in Cebu and for less than half the price, the extra hassle of having to take a 2 hour ferry ride to get there, almost makes it worthwhile.
Read about Amorita Resort in Bohol here or find out more about things to do in Bohol with kids and without in our Bohol Destination Guide or ask us anything on Twitter or contact us directly.
