Places to visit in Central Visayas, Philippines
19 places to visit in Central Visayas, Philippines, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Chocolate Hills, Bantayan Island, Basilica del Santo Niño and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Central Visayas volume.
1 Heritage site · 3 Famous places to visit · 15 Hidden gems
Heritage sites in Central Visayas (1)
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Chocolate Hills
A field of at least 1,260 grass covered limestone mounds in the middle of Bohol. The hills turn brown in the dry season, which gives them their name. A viewing deck at Carmen climbs more than 200 steps to look over the rounded hills.
Famous places to visit in Central Visayas (3)
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Bantayan Island
A flat island in the Visayan Sea, off the north western tip of Cebu, with long white sand beaches near Santa Fe. Fishing is the main trade, and the island is known for dried fish. Its old church in Bantayan town dates to the Spanish period.
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Basilica del Santo Niño
A church in Cebu City that houses the Santo Niño image, said to have been given by Magellan to the queen of Cebu in 1521. The site is considered the oldest Roman Catholic foundation in the country. The Sinulog festival each January centres on the basilica.
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Magellan's Cross
A stone kiosk on Plaza Sugbo, beside the Basilica del Santo Niño in Cebu City. It houses a cross planted by the Spanish expedition of the first circumnavigation, led by Ferdinand Magellan, which arrived in Cebu in 1521.
Hidden gems in Central Visayas (15)
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Apo Island
A small volcanic island off the southern tip of Negros, about 7 kilometres from the coast, run as a community managed marine sanctuary since the 1980s. Divers and snorkellers come for the reef and the green turtles that feed close to the beach.
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Baclayon Church
The Immaculate Conception Parish Church in Baclayon, Bohol, founded by the Jesuit priest Juan de Torres. Built of coral stone, it is one of the oldest churches in the country and sits beside the sea.
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Camotes Islands
A group of islands in the Camotes Sea, east of Cebu, reached by ferry from Cebu or Leyte. They have white beaches, limestone caves and freshwater lagoons such as Lake Danao. The islands are quieter than the main tourist spots of the Visayas.
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Casa Gorordo Museum
A heritage house museum in the Parian district of Cebu City, built in the 1850s. It shows the domestic life of elite Cebuano families in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with period furniture and a ground floor of stone.
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Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral
The seat of the Archbishop of Cebu, beside the Basilica of the Santo Niño in the old city. The church was built in the 1560s and rebuilt after wartime damage, and its bell tower started life as part of a Spanish fort. Saint Vitalis of Milan is its patron.
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Dauis Church
The Assumption of Our Lady Shrine Parish Church in Dauis, on Panglao Island, Bohol. It was founded by Jesuit priests in 1697, and it is known for a ceiling painted with murals and a well inside the church.
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Fort San Pedro
A Spanish military fortress in Cebu City, built under Miguel López de Legazpi, the first governor of the Captaincy General of the Philippines. It stands at Plaza Independencia near the harbour and is among the oldest and smallest forts in the country.
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Kawasan Falls
A three stage cascade of clear turquoise water in the jungle of southwest Cebu, on the Kawasan River in Badian. The water comes from mountain springs and spills into a series of pools where visitors swim.
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Liberty Shrine
A memorial park on Mactan Island, also called the Mactan Shrine. It hosts two monuments, one to Ferdinand Magellan and one to the chieftain Lapulapu, who fought his forces here in 1521.
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Loboc Church
The San Pedro Apostol Parish Church in Loboc, Bohol, also known as the Diocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Extremadura. It stands near the Loboc River and is a notable example of the island's Spanish era churches.
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Loboc River
A river in the province of Bohol that is one of the island's major tourist draws. Visitors take floating restaurant cruises upstream from the town of Loboc, past banks lined with palms and thick green forest.
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Malapascua Island
A small island off the northern tip of Cebu, about 2.5 kilometres long. It is known for diving at Monad Shoal, where thresher sharks can be seen at dawn, and for its quiet white sand beach on the south side.
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Marcelo Fernan Bridge
A cable stayed bridge between Cebu Island and Mactan Island, opened in 1999 as the second crossing over the Mactan Channel. It carries traffic towards the airport and the beach resorts of Mactan, and it is a landmark of the Cebu skyline at night.
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Mount Talinis
A volcano in Negros Oriental, about 1,862 metres high and the second highest mountain on the island. It rises above Dumaguete and Valencia, and its slopes hold twin crater lakes, hot springs and forest trails. It is also known as Cuernos de Negros.
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Panglao Island
An island linked by bridge to the south western coast of Bohol, with white sand beaches such as Alona Beach and some of the best diving in the Visayas. Reefs and drop offs lie just offshore, and the island is the usual base for trips to Bohol.
Collecting in Central Visayas
What are the best places to visit in Central Visayas?
LOQAH lists 19 places in Central Visayas. The best known include Chocolate Hills, Bantayan Island, Basilica del Santo Niño, Magellan's Cross and Apo Island. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Central Visayas?
19, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Central Visayas?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Central Visayas before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Central Visayas and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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