{LUXX Travel} Panglao

Onto our last island in the Philippines, this time to Bohol. The day the airports and boat stations opened again in Boracay was the day we had booked to leave, we were very lucky. We hopped on a tuk tuk to the boat port. This consisted of 4 adults, 4 cases, 4 hand luggage bags, two laughing sisters in the back, one chilled out Matt in the front and one seriously scared Martyn gripping on for dear life whilst sliding slowly down the back of the drivers motorbike whilst trying to keep his legs off the off hot exhaust…. From the boat port we took a mini bus to the airport, jumped on a plane back to Manila then another plane to Bohol followed by a jeep to Alona beach. No one can say we don’t take our travelling seriously! Bohol is a much larger island than Boracay, very green and lush with high humidity. It suffered with a strong earthquake the year before destroying many of the historic buildings, mainly the Spanish churches which are now being slowly rebuilt. We stayed on Panglao a smaller island connected to Bohol by a couple of bridges and set up our base on Alona beach.
Arriving in Alona beach the searing heat hit us straight away, we thought Manila and Boracay were hot but this was tropical with a T. Alona beach has a very different vibe to Boracay, much more laid back, still busy but not over crowded. The beach is nice but not a patch on White beach.

We had some amazing dinners in Alona beach in fact one of the best seafood meals I’ve ever had. Along the beach front are many outdoor restaurants displaying fresh fish lying on shaved ice that have been pulled out of the sea that day. You pick your fish, weigh it choose a marinade and some sides and the chef will drop it onto the bbq for you. What arrived for us was two large heavenly fragrant fish, one fresh and zingy, the other with a fiery kick plus the big juiciest prawns you have ever seen. Coupled with some delicious vegetables on the side I could have eaten this meal every night and not tire of it!

We also had a soft spot for the Buzz Café, an organic island sourced café/ restaurant which served some really interesting food and drinks, the homemade ice cream was incredible.

The days passed on Bohol very easily the routine going something like this: beach, coconut, tan, swim, repeat and I won’t lie I didn’t tire of it! A couple of days we headed to the Bohol beach club for the most peaceful of days. The resort has a beautiful empty stretch of beach, a gorgeous fresh pool and two thatched outdoor restaurants serving breakfast and lunch. You do pay a small fee to enter for the day but most of the charge is given back to you in the way of a food and drinks voucher.

I have one more post from our Philippine travels to show you, look out for it coming soon!