Bohol's Man-Made Forest

One popular tourist stop while on your way to and/or from Chocolate Hills in Bohol is the one and only man-made forest in the Philippines...only in Bohol! 

When you love nature, you can surely appreciate the beauty of a 2-kilometer road stretch that is densely planted with Mahogany trees along both sides of the road. They also call it the man-made Bilar forest and is situated on the border of Loboc and Bilar towns.

The mahogany trees have branches shooting up high that are also curved overhead, giving the area a shade. They create a breezy atmosphere making it feel cooler even during summer.

Taking a worthy photo can be challenging. Just be extra cautious about cars passing by as they mostly are driving fast in the area since it is part of a highway and busy road. Be sure the road is clear from any impending traffic before you take that memorable photo of yours! 

The Magnificent Chocolate Hills of Bohol

The chocolate hills in Bohol (Philippines) are famous attractions to many tourists. They are group of cone-shaped hills which are grass-covered limestones, and form as a rolling terrain of haycock hills. There are at least 1,268-1,776 estimated individual mounds in the area of approximately 50 square kilometers.

Many visitors would wonder why they are called "chocolate hills" when in fact, they are covered in green grass!

It is because these green grass covered mounds turns brown during the dry season, hence, they become like chocolate scattered mounds...also popularly called chocolate hills.

When we visited the site, it wasn't during the dry season...we were more on the early season of wet/rainy months. Fortunately, it was not raining when we got there! 😁

The hills cannot be climbed and is strictly prohibited to preserve their natural formations. Although, there are some tours that can take you to the hills to view them up closer. Most of the tours usually offer rented ATV's (just like what we did) which was at least 10-20 minutes drive going to the hills for photo ops. Time would still depends whether your ATV would break down at the middle of the road or not! LOL! (only in the Philippines).😂

However, the best view that you can get is to go up the viewing deck and capture the scenery! The viewing deck is only accessible by stairs and is not wheelchair accessible. So, heads up for handicapped people, they can't go up the viewing deck unless they are willing to climb the stairs by foot! 😏

The view appears to be endless from the viewing deck as you get to see a 360-degree view of the hills as far as your eyes can see!

Chocolate Hills is located in Carmen, Bohol, Philippines!