We often get requests for the cheapest resorts or places to stay. This, however, is an question we will answer, as it makes little sense. I think it is better to go for the best value for money, within your budget, and considering your wishes. There are expensive hotels that are worth every centavo and cheap hotels that offer great value for money, but you can also find really bad places in every price-range.
The purpose of this site is to help you find a place that matches your budget and expectations. As a general rule, if you want to stay directly on the beach, you pay much more, and could easily find a much more pleasant place a few hundred meters from the beach. When you select one of the larger, secluded resorts, you will pay considerably more than with most smaller resorts, especially if alternative locations are nearby (such as on Alona Beach).
Details for resorts can also be found via our search interface.
Anda
Anda, a peaceful municipality on a peninsula with the same name at the north-east of Bohol, about 100 kilometers from Tagbilaran (2 hours by bus), is so-far mostly unaffected by tourism, but this is likely to change once more people discover its wonderful beaches, and the attractive environment of the peninsula. So far, only a few resorts have opened their doors to visitors, but a few more are in development.
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The Chocolate Hills
View from the Chocolate Hills
View from the Chocolate Hills
The Chocolate Hills are probably Bohol's most famous tourist attraction. They look like giant mole hills, or as some say, women's breasts, and remind us of the hills in a small child's drawing. Most people who first see pictures of this landscape can hardly believe that these hills are not a man-made artifact. However, this idea is quickly abandoned, as the effort would surely surpass the construction of the pyramids in Egypt. The chocolate hills consist of are no less than 1268 hills (some claim this to be the exact number). They are very uniform in shape and mostly between 30 and 50 meters high. They are covered with grass, which, at the end of the dry season, turns chocolate brown. From this color, the hills derive their name. At other times, the hills are green, and the association may be a bit difficult to make.Legend has it that the hills came into existence when two giants threw stones and sand at each other in a fight that lasted for days. When they were finally exhausted, they made friends and left the island, but left behind the mess they made. For the more romantically inclined is the tale of Arogo, a young and very strong giant who fell in love with an ordinary mortal girl called Aloya. After she died, the giant Arogo cried bitterly. His tears then turned into hills, as a lasting proof of his grief.
However, up to this day, even geologists have not reached consensus on how they where formed. The most commonly accept theory is that they are the weathered formations of a kind of marine limestone on top of a impermeable layer of clay. If you climb the 214 steps to the top of the observation hill near the complex, you can read this explanation on a bronze plaque.
How to get there
Plenty of tourist guides and tour operators will be happy to bring you to the chocolate hills, either as a separate trip or as part of a day tour. However, if you want to go here on your own, from Tagbilaran, you will have to go the integrated bus terminal in Dao and catch a bus going to Carmen. If you look like a stranger, you will have a hard time not finding one. At the entrance of the bus terminal people will point you to the right bus. Make sure it is the first one to leave, and ask the driver to drop you off at the Chocolate Hills complex, about 4 kilometers before the town of Carmen. From there it is a 10 minute walk along a road winding up to the complex.
To get back to Tagbilaran, you will have to walk back to the main road, and wait for a bus to pass by. The last bus from Carmen to Tagbilaran leaves at four P.M. Alternatively, you can use the services of the motorcyclists who often wait here for tourist, and ride 'habal-habal,' or motorbike taxi.
If you're coming from Tubigon (arriving from Cebu by boat), a few buses go to Carmen daily, but sometimes you'll have to wait for some time for the bus to fill up. When you arrive in Carmen, you can catch the next bus or jeepney in the direction of Bilar, Loay or Tagbilaran, or ask a 'habal-habal' driver to bring you to the Chocolate Hills Complex.
Where to stay
If you would like to stay in the Chocolate Hills, you have very little choice. The only facility is the Government run Chocolate Hills resort. Currently, this hotel is undergoing renovation and extension, but, since funds have run out, work on this is suspended, and you'll have to deal with the mess of a half-completed resort. However, the staff are friendly, and if you stay here overnight, seeing the sun rise over this bizarre landscape is worth the inconvenience. The place also has a still functional and maintained swimming pool, which is behind the unfinished building, a little bit downhill.
Carmen
Carmen is a municipality in the interior of the Bohol. It is the home of the world-famous Chocolate Hills, an amazing geological curiosity that can only be found on Bohol. The Chocolate Hills, which only turn to their characteristic brown color that gives them their name at the end of the summer, consist of nearly two thousand highly regularly shaped hills, between 30 to 50 meters above a mainly flat land. It will take most people some time to accept that these hills are not man-made.If you would like to stay in the Chocolate Hills overnight, you have very little choice. The only facility is the Government run A couple of years ago, they started to extend and renovate the place, but, since funds have run out, work on this is suspended, and you'll have to deal with the mess of a half-completed resort. The rooms are somewhat run-down, but if you stay here, you'll be rewarded with a very nice sunrise over these eerie hills partly covered by fog the next morning. The same place can also be used as a base for exploring the Sikatuna National Park, not far away from here. 
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