Panglao Island, Bohol

Panglao is a perfect for a great dive and beach holiday. It is a small island on the Philippines southwest of the bigger island, Bohol. On the southern beach of Panglao there are several resorts that line up on the beach. The perfect getaway from the clutter of the urban jungle. Business conventions, extended vacations, weekend stays, and day-long sunbathing at the beach are just few of the activities best spent in the beauty of Panglao Island Resort. Located at Bingag, Dauis, Bohol.

Alona Beach Probably the most beautiful, and surely the most developed beach on Panglao is Alona Beach. Located at the Southwest of the island, this beach is about one and a half kilometers long, lined with nice resorts, which are great to stay for a some time, a number of well equiped diving establishments and pleasant places to eat out, if you do not want to eat at your resort’s restaurant for a change.

Probably the only drawback of the beach are the large numbers of sea urchins that inhabit the water, starting some twenty or thirty meters out of the coast. You will just have to be careful when wading.

Don’t forget to bring your snorkeling equipment. When you swim about one hundred meters off the beach, you will reach the edge of the ‘house’ reef, at between three and five meters deep, and thus can be easily observed even without scuba equipment. If you are into scuba diving, though, don’t forget to have a few dives here as well, as it is certainly worth it, not bad at all, even compared with the reefs the boats will bring you to.

Dumaluan Beach, also on the south of the island, is about two and half kilometers east of Alona Beach. Here you will find some of the more exclusive beach resorts of Bohol, such as the Bohol Beach Club.

Bikini Beach is about eight kilometers from Tagbilaran, and hence a popular location for local pick-nickers.

Momo Beach is on the north side of Panglao. This again is a shallow beach.

Doljo Beach (pronounced ‘Dolho‘ beach) is on the Northwest of the island, not far from Momo beach, and is also a nice beach, mostly free from sea-grasses. This beach is known for the beautiful sea shells that can be found here.

Getting to Panglao

From Manila you can take a plane ride using either PAL or Cebu-Pacific, going to Tagbilaran. The ride from Tagbilaran to Panglao is about 30mins; est. Php300. The room rates with AC is around Php1800-Php3000 per night in Panglao. Go to Scubaworld for Scuba dives. They charge around $22-$24 USD; equipments are in good shape. The dive sites are in Balicasag Island, just 30mins from Panglao (by sea). It is a wall dive drifting with the current. Have fun!

More pictures here and here

Tourist Destinations