Quad-biking through the Bohol Chocolate hills
Summary
The Chocolate Hills are 1,776 grassy hills in the centre of Bohol Island that turn brown during the dry season, hence the name, and look a hell of a lot like the hills in Super Mario on the Super Nintendo. They’re nice to look at, but you’ll probably be a bit bored of them after a look from the view point and quick wander around near them. To make this more fun, and to go more towards that Super Mario vibe, ride around them in quad bikes with a guide – way more fun
Some tips:
- Rent a taxi for the Chocolate Hills Loop – it’s easy to follow the Loop from Tagbilaran or Pangloa area. To give yourself more independence, and to generally avoid the mass-tourism tours, rent a taxi and make your own way round
- The Quad Biking – there will be people offering quad biking near the entrance to the Chocolate Hills main viewpoint. Expect to be away for an hour or so
- Make sure on the Chocolate Hills loop to visit the Tarsier Sanctuary where you can see the smallest, and very delicate, primates
- Stay on Pangalao Island – Tagbilaran didn’t look too appealing. We splurged a bit and stayed at the South Palms Resort, which was great and would recommend
- If staying on Panglao Island, make sure to do some diving or snorkelling at Balicasag Island, just 6km to the west of Pangalao. Some gorgeous tropical reefs there and more info in this post Diving off Balicasag Island
- Getting to Bohol from Cebu City is relatively straightforward, but its not a bad idea to ask your hotel / hostel to help you with getting the ferry tickets you want
highlights
#1 The quad-biking itself, great fun
#2 The view across the 1,776 Chocolate Hills from the lookout point
#3 Getting the chance to zip through some of the nearby villages and generally get out into the tracks
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Local Villages Experiences
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone