🇵🇭 Philippines · SE Asia
Bohol
Chocolate Hills, pocket-sized tarsiers and Panglao’s reef beaches.
natureislandsfamily☀ best: Mar – May
The Bohol guide
Inside the premium guide
A preview of the real thing — a detailed premium guide, researched and checked in 2026. Click a page to enlarge.
THE COMPLETE CITY GUIDE
PHILIPPINES · RESEARCHED 2026
Bohol
Chocolate Hills, pocket-sized tarsiers and Panglao’s reef beaches.
sama·sama
The cover
What this guide covers
38 pages, A4 — cover to back. A phone edition comes with it.
What’s inside + how to use
The place & what a day costs
City at a glance — the best-of snapshot
What & how to eat
Where to eat — cheap & local
Mid-range & special occasion
Sweets, cafés & coffee
Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Supermarkets & typical prices
Markets & food halls
Souvenirs & shopping
Where to stay — neighbourhoods
Budget, boutique & luxury stays
Hostels — the backpacker shortlist
Six big things to do
Top 10 experiences — book & compare
Nightlife & after dark
Best day trips
Insider tips + safety & scams
Ready-made day plans
Getting around
Arrival, tickets & transport cheat sheet
When to go + best time to visit
Cash, cards & tipping
Connectivity & insurance
Health, safety & entry
The travel toolbox
Every link, one place
Sama·Sama · Bohol guide38 pages
Everything it covers
STRAIGHT FROM THE GUIDE
Designed cover to cover
One real entry from the Bohol guide
The price tables further down give you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — 30 of them in Bohol, each priced, each one tap from Google Maps.
€2–4Mang Inasal & the turo-turo spotsCharcoal-grilled chicken inasal with unlimited rice, plus point-and-pick turo-turo eateries serving adobo, humba and veg over rice. Fast, filling and cheap — the reliable everyday Bohol lunch.📍 Open in Google Maps →One of 30. The rest are in the guide.
Everything. Two files. One price.
This isn’t a blog post saved as a PDF — it’s a detailed, premium, 38-page A4 magazine — researched and checked in 2026, designed to be used. And every purchase comes as two files: the A4 edition for your laptop, tablet and printer, and a phone edition laid out tall and narrow so you never pinch or zoom — the same guide re-flowed into 103 phone-sized pages. Keep it on your phone or print it, open it at a street corner in Bohol and it answers the question you’re standing there with.
38A4 pages — cover to back
103phone pages — same guide, re-flowed
247+researched prices in €
242live, verified links
107jump straight to Google Maps
61hand-picked photos
Add it up: 550+ researched details — every price checked, every venue placed, every link live. More usable information than a week of blog-tab hopping, in one beautiful file.
- Made for the phone in your pocket — as well as the A4 magazine you get a phone edition: one attraction per screen, nothing cut, every link still live. No pinching, no sideways scrolling.
- Every venue is one tap from navigation — 107 Google Maps links mean you never type an address on holiday.
- Real prices, not vibes — three honest daily budgets (€24 / €50 / €122) and prices on everything from a dorm bed to a splurge dinner.
- Zero sponsorships — nobody paid to be in this guide. If it’s in, it’s in because it’s good.
- Book everything from the page — stays open on Booking.com & Hostelworld, experiences on GetYourGuide, Trip.com & Klook, transport on official operator sites.
- Plan-it-for-me included — ready day plans, a Top 10, a best-of snapshot, and neighbourhood “best for” labels that choose your base with you.
Buy the Bohol guide — €9.95 →Or buy Bohol on Etsy ↗
Was €14.50 — now €9.95, every city the same.
This page gives you the ranges. The guide gives you the places — every venue named, priced and linked.
SHOESTRING
€24/day
dorms, street plates, transit
COMFY
€50/day
private room, sit-down meals, a treat
FLASH
€122/day
nice hotel, good dinners, no maths
🧮 Trip maths
€352 total
What Bohol costs, day to day
🛵 Getting around
Grab — barely operates — tricycles and habal-habal moto-taxis fill the gap
Tricycle hopper ride€0.6–€1.3
Scooter rentalper day€5.2–€6.9
Ferry from Cebu (OceanJet)one-way€10–€16
Countryside van + driver, dayper day€39–€52
🛏 Stays
Per night
Hostel dorm bed€6.9–€11
Alona guesthouse double€22–€39
Airbnb bungalow€22–€43
Beach resort double€52–€122
Monthly
Room near Alona€260–€434
1-BR house, Panglao€347–€564
🛒 Groceries & daily life
Alturas / BQ (Tagbilaran) — the cheap big shops
Panglao minimarts — +20 % — stock up in town
Tagbilaran public market — fish straight off the boats
Water 1.5 L€0.4–€0.6
Milk 1 L€1.6–€2
Eggs ×10€1.6–€2.1
Bread loaf€0.9–€1.3
Rice 1 kg€0.9–€1.2
Chicken breast 1 kg€2.4–€3.1
Bananas 1 kg€0.6–€1
Local beer 0.5 L (shop)€0.9–€1.2
🍜 Eating out
Local eatery meal€1.3–€2.6
Buko (coconut) shake€1.3–€1.7
Alona strip dinnerper person€5.2–€10
Seafood grillper person€6.9–€13
Resort dinnerper person€13–€26
🎡 Things to do — with kids
Chocolate Hills viewpointentry€1.7
Tarsier sanctuaryentry — Whisper — they’re tiny and nervous€2.6
Loboc river lunch cruiseper person€14–€17
Hinagdanan caveentry€1.3–€1.7
🌙 Things to do — grown-ups
Fun dive at Alonaper dive€24–€30
Balicasag island snorkel tourper person€17–€26
Countryside scooter looprental + fuel€5.2–€6.9
Firefly kayak nightper person€16–€22
🌤 Climate
Day °CSea °CRain
Best: Mar – May · Wet: Jun – Oct
Showers spread through the year; Mar–May is driest — when the Chocolate Hills actually turn chocolate.
✈️ Getting there
Cebu PacificAirAsiaManila – Panglao€22–€52
Cebu (ferry instead)€10–€16
The 2-hour Cebu ferry is the classic route — book promo seats.
🏧 ATMs & money
Fees: A flat ₱250 rides on almost every foreign withdrawal, with 10,000–20,000 ₱ limits — it stings in percentages on small pulls.
Limits: ₱10,000–20,000 at most banks; HSBC allows up to ₱40,000 — four fees become one.
Best machines: HSBC (higher limits)BPIBDO
HSBC branches allow bigger single withdrawals, diluting the flat fee. Bring some USD as backup for islands; change at bank counters or established changers, not kiosks.
🩺 Health & safety
Vaccines: Routine, Hepatitis A, Typhoid; rabies awareness with strays.
Health: Bottled water, repellent for dengue, sunscreen like it's a job — the tropics' honest checklist. City private hospitals (Cebu Doctors', Chong Hua) are good; island clinics are basic, so travel insured.
Tap water: ⚠️ Metro Manila and Cebu tap is chlorinated but most drink bottled/purified; on islands, always bottled.
Safety: The tourist islands — Boracay, Bohol, Cebu's resorts — run calm and heavily hosted; violence involving visitors is rare there. National statistics look higher than your actual itinerary: the areas driving them (far southwest Mindanao) are 500+ km from anywhere on this site. Typhoon season is Jun–Nov; Dec–May is your blue-sky alternative.
Emergency: 911 nationwide
🌱 Vegan, veggie & gluten-free
Plant-based: Hardest of the region — meat hides everywhere. Stick to Chinese-Filipino veggie houses, Bohol's farm cafés, and market fruit.
Gluten-free: Rice-based mains are safe; soy sauce (toyo) is in most adobo and marinades — grilled fish + rice is the reliable order.
'Walang karne' = no meat · 'gulay lang' = just vegetables · big cities have growing vegan scenes (Cebu IT Park).
🛂 Visa & entry
For most short tourist trips, citizens of the US, UK, EU/Schengen, Canada, Australia and New Zealand either enter visa-free or get a simple online authorisation (an eVisa or eTA) before flying. Typical visa-free stays run 30–90 days. Some countries want a visa arranged in advance, and a growing number ask you to fill an online arrival or eVisa form even when 'visa-free' — so always check the official portal for your exact nationality before you book.
Rules change — always verify with an official source for your nationality before you book.
💬 Traveller tips & reports
Panglao ≠ Bohol — Alona Beach is the postcard, but the island’s soul is inland: rice terraces, hanging bridges, the mahogany forest. Give the countryside a full day on a scooter.
@hills.and.hides · May ’26 · ▲ 87