Handpicked experience · Cebu
Cebu, Phillippines
The only primate that eats nothing but animals, a forest that was planted on bare ground, and church walls built out of the reef.
Baclayon Church:- It's one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. It is also one of the most well preserved Jesuit-built churches in the region.
Chocolate Hills Natural Monument:- The most famous tourist attraction of Bohol boasts 1,268 cone-shaped hills.
Blood Compact Monument:- This was considered as the first "Treat of Friendship" between Europe and Asia.
The Philippine Tarsier (Tarsius syrichta) is one of the smallest primates in the world. Most active at night, their diet consists of insects.
Loboc River and its serene waters are best appreciated with a fascinating ride on motorized pump boats adorned with buntings and native crafts.
A panoramic lookout over the cone-shaped hills
Close, quiet viewing of a nocturnal primate found in few places
A colonial stone church with a small museum of artefacts
Kilometres of planted timber standing where bare ground was
An island reached and left by sea in a single day
A twelve-hour day from Cebu to Bohol and back, crossing by ferry and touring the island by road: the cone-shaped hills, a tarsier sanctuary, a colonial stone church and a planted mahogany forest.
Tarsiers are not small monkeys. They are their own ancient branch of the primate family, and almost everything about them is unusual. Each eye is roughly the size of their brain — too large to rotate in the socket, which is why a tarsier turns its head instead, through nearly half a circle. They cannot digest plants at all: insects, lizards, small birds, nothing else. No other primate on earth is entirely carnivorous.
They are also acutely sensitive to stress, which is why the sanctuary rules are strict and worth keeping. No flash, no touching, no raised voices, and no getting closer than the guides allow. Tarsiers kept badly do not survive long, and the sanctuaries exist precisely because of what happened when people took them home.
The dense corridor of mahogany you drive through was planted in the 1960s and 70s as a reforestation project on land stripped bare. It is genuinely impressive to drive through, and it is also a monoculture of a species not native to the Philippines, which supports very little of the wildlife that a native forest of the same size would hold. It is a scenic success and an ecological compromise at once, and worth seeing as both.
Baclayon is among the oldest stone churches in the country, built from coral blocks cut from the sea, dried and set in lime mortar. Tradition holds that egg whites were mixed into that mortar by the thousand to bind it, with the yolks going to the townspeople — a detail repeated across Spanish-era churches in the islands. What is beyond doubt is the material: the walls are made of reef.
The lunch cruise on the Loboc is the part most people assume is included, and it usually is not. If you want it, arrange it when you book rather than discovering the position at the jetty.
This is a long day — most of it is spent moving, between two ferry crossings and a full island circuit. Attraction entry is generally settled on the day, so carry local currency in small notes. The Chocolate Hills viewpoint involves a flight of steps, and the tarsier sanctuary requires quiet.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
Because their eyes cannot move. Each eye is roughly the size of the animal's brain and is fixed in the socket, so the head rotates instead — through close to half a circle.
Only animals — insects, lizards, small birds. They cannot digest plant matter at all, which makes them the only entirely carnivorous primate.
Tarsiers are acutely sensitive to stress and do badly in captivity. No flash, no touching, no raised voices and no approaching closer than the guides allow.
No. It was planted in the 1960s and 70s to reforest stripped land, and it is a monoculture of a non-native species — striking to drive through, but supporting far less wildlife than a native forest would.
Coral blocks cut from the sea, dried and set in lime mortar. Tradition holds that egg whites were mixed into the mortar in their thousands, with the yolks going to the townspeople.
Usually not, though most people assume it is. Arrange it at booking if you want it, rather than at the jetty on the day.
About twelve hours, and most of it is spent moving — two ferry crossings plus a full circuit of the island by road.
Yes, in small local notes. Attraction entry is generally settled on the day rather than prepaid.