The province of Bohol is located in Central Visayas.  It is surrounded by the provinces of Cebu in the northwestern side, Leyte in the northeast and Siquijor and Mindanao in the south.

Bohol has a population of 1,137,268 based from the 2000 census of the National Statistics Office with an annual growth rate of 2.92%.  It is composed of 47 municipalities and one city, Tagbiaran City.  In terms of area, it covers a total land area of 4,821 square kilometers, which already include the 75 other small islands that surround the province.

Bohol is known of its natural wonder, the Chocolate Hills.  With the development of its tourism industry, Bohol has several tourist destinations these days.  Among these are the Tarsier and Loboc River, Baclayon Old Church, Hinagdanan Cave, the hanging bridge in Sevilla, the man-made forest in Loboc, and many others.

How to get there?

Bohol has six ports of entry, if you will go there by boat, and these include the ports of Ubay, Talibon, Tubigon, Loon, Jagna and Tagbilaran City.  The only point of entry by plane is in Tagbilaran City.

For travelers from Leyte and Samar, you go to Bato, Leyte and take a boat to Ubay, a northeastern town of the province.  Most of the available sea crafts that transport passengers between Bato-Ubay and vice versa are pump boats or "banca" and a one-way trip takes around 3-4 hours.  If you find travelling by banca quite risky, you can come via Cebu City. 

For travelers from or who will pass through Cebu City, you can enter Bohol by boat through Ubay, Talibon, Tubigon, Loon or Tagbilaran depending on your place/s of destination/s.

Ubay is a good entry point if your destination(s) are any of the north and eastern towns (i.e. Bien Unido, Alicia, Mabini, Anda); Talibon for north, western and north interior towns (i.e. Trinidad, Jetafe, Buenavista, San Miguel, Dagohoy); Tubigon for mid-western and interior towns (i.e. Inabanga, Calape, Sagbayan, Carmen, etc); and Tagbilaran City for southern towns (i.e Baclayon, Albur, Loboc, etc) of the province.  

If you are from southern part of Cebu province, the best way to go to Bohol is via Argao by boat to Loon.  The Argao-Cebu route is currently served by Lite Shipping Corporation.  

Cebu-Ubay, Cebu-Talibon and vice versa have at least two trips per day and a one-way trip is around 4 hrs. Cebu-Tubigon, which normally takes around 2 to 2.5 hrs, have several trips per day while the Cebu-Tagbilaran route is only 1.5 hrs via fast crafts or 4 hours by the usual passenger boats. Cebu-Tagbilaran route and vice-versa have around 10 trips per day and are available from 6:00 in the morning up to 6:00 in the evening.

Daily trip is also available for travelers from Western Mindanao (i.e. Zamboanga del Norte, Dapitan City, Dipolog City), and Dumaguete City via fast crafts.  Currently, the Ocean Jet is serving the route with a single trip per day from Dapitan/Dipolog to Tagbilaran City via Dumaguete City.

For travelers from other areas in Mindanao, you can take the Cagayan de Oro City-Tagbilaran via Trans Asia Shipping Lines. Trans Asia serves the route for three times per week.  If you are from northeastern part of Mindanao, you can take the Nasipit (Butuan) - Jagna via Sulpicio Lines.

Luzon-based visitors may come directly from Manila either by boat or by plane via Cebu Pacific, Zest Air and Philippine Air Lines.   Manila-Tagbilaran route by boat is also served by the Super Ferry with at least one trip per week. 

Travelers outside the Philippines have to pass through either Cebu City or Manila depending on your point of origin and availability of international flights.