Alona Beach, Panglao Island: Teeming with Marine Life

Alona Beach is just one of the 5 beach areas in the island of Panglao. Located at the south eastern most area of Panglao, it faces the islands of Pamilacan, Siquijor and on a clear day, you’d also be able to see Camiguin island. Travel time from Tabilaran airport to Alona takes about 30 mins.

Trivia: The name of the beach, ‘Alona’, actually brings to my mind the name of a sexy actress from the 1970′s Alona Alegre. I just thought that this was just a coincidence and seriously believed that the name Alona may be due to the characteristic of the beach being “maalon” (having strong waves). But according to our driver Mang Mar (who has a Phd in local legends :p) , Alona was really named after Alona Alegre, where the story passed on by locals, tells of an incident where the locals saw Alona Alegre bathing on the beach, at the time when FPJ’s movie Esteban (1973) was being shot in Bohol.

The Beach Area and Marine Life

Alona beach’s sand is just as white as Boracay’s sand, but Alona’s sand is quite unique because it is powdery fine in characteristics. This is probably due to the eroded lime stones that are pretty much abundant in Bohol.

Earth worm poo? Not exactly, just soft fine sand ejected like tooth paste from small fresh water holes exposed during low tide

Alona beach compared to Boracay’s beach is just 1/7th the length. Alona does not have the luxury of having wide beach areas. There are a lot of postcards and shots taken which shows a portion of Alona beach that is just as wide as the beach area at Boracay, but that’s only a few hundred meters of length of wide beach area during normal tide.

The widest portion of Alona beach in front of Alona Palm Beach

The southern most portion of Alona beach is actually lacking in beach area. During normal tide, it is just probably a meter away from the cemented private areas of the resorts. The southern part of Alona beach is visibly being plagued by soil erosion with the sea slowly claiming portions of the private resort’s lot.

Southern portion of Alona Beach, visible signs of erosion with coconut tree stumps lined up on the beach and those trees that remain standing have their roots exposed

But even if Boracay have wide beach areas, it lacks something which Alona beach has, that is, lots of marine life that is just a meter away from the beach. During the morning’s lowest tide, you can walk just a meter or so from the beach and you’d be faced with abundant sea weeds, sea grass, lots and lots of star fish and sea urchins, a couple of sea cucumbers, crabs and of course small fishes. With these marine life just a meter away from the beach,it is no wonder that in such a small beach area, there are lots of dive shops along the beach.

Crab stealthily blends with the surrounding corals, lime stone and sea weed

The Stars of Alona Beach

Sea Urchin tightly wedged in between the corals

Trivia: Sea urchins are edible right out of its shell. In the morning low tide, you could see a lot of locals combing the shallow sea water looking for fresh breakfast from the sea.

Breakfast fresh from the sea: An old lady opens up several sea urchins from her early morning haul

Tip: For those who are fond of snorkeling, there is a protected no-fishing area just below the limestone cliff where Amorita resort is located. No need to rent a pump boat to bring you there, you can just walk up to the area because of the shallow water and limestone outcrops on the beach. The snorkeling area is delineated by white floats connected by a line (not sure if it is a net). Just be careful because tides come in fast and you might be swimming towards the shallow area with sharp limestone outcrops.

The ridge near Amorita: In the background are bouys outlining a protected water area for snorkling

Warning: Be careful in treading the shallow waters of Bohol sea. Sea urchins are abundant in Panglao and this marine creature is very inconspicuous as it blends well with the dark green color of the sea grass and sometimes protrudes out of corals. Stepping on a spike of the sea urchin would inject non lethal venom in your skin that would definitely sting and leave you feeling numb. Locals believe that the first aid for sea urchin injury is a warm dose of piss on your foot. So always remember, tread carefully in shallow waters or its piss on your foot.

The Resorts

Alona beach has the most number of resorts lined up along the beach area in Panglao. Similar to Boracay, you can stroll through the beach fronts of each resort and take a peek at their facilities.

In the background is Alona Palm Beach, the tent on the right side is the Alona Tropical

Amorita resort in on top of the lime stone ridge, it has an access path left side to the beach

If wide beach front is what matters to you, Alona Palm Beach, Alona Tropical and Amorita are the resorts that are just in front of the wide beach area, but do note that since these resorts have easy access to the wide beach front, expect that their rates would be quite pricey. Alona Kew and Oops! Resort are some of the resorts that are in the middle of Alona beach. The farthest resort in Alona beach to the south is Bohol Diver’s Club, which actually has only a meter of beach area during normal tide.

Southern part of Alona Beach, fronting Bohol Diver's Club at its widest during early morning low tide

If you intend to go night swimming, it is only on the beach fronts of Alona Palm Beach and Alona Tropical where you could do such activity because at night, beach areas to the south, like the beach front of Bohol Diver’s Club gets swallowed up by the incoming tide, while beach areas in the middle of the strech of Alona, gets converted into extension of restaurants along the beach.

Night swimming at the widest part of the beach

Bohol Diver’s Club

The resort where we stayed is Bohol Diver’s Club. The resort surrounding is very beautiful and well maintained. They have 2 pool areas, one near the villas and the other at beach front. While the resort surrounding is very well maintained, the villas where we stayed are not. The villa where we stayed in seems to have been neglected because the interior looks very old, with parquet tiles starting to loose their color, rusty towel rack and rusty tub water drain.

Bohol Diver's Club beach front

Beach front pool area

Another pool in front of the villas

But in fairness, even if the villa doesn’t seem to be very well maintained, the furnishings are complete and provisions are ample. They have 2 airconditioning units for the villa, one queen sized bed and twin beds in a separate room, a television, a refrigerator, a distilled water dispenser (not sure how long it has been there), cooking stove, plates, cups, spoon and fork, cooking utensils, even dishwasing soap. So for families or groups who are in a dining budget and would want to cook their own food, the villa is perfect for them.

Villas at Bohol Diver's Club with very well maintained surroundings

Inside the villa: Kitchen with complete furnishings, condiments and water dispenser, but who knows how long those haven't been replaced

Bathroom with rusty tub drain, rusty towel rack and a leaky toilet bowl

Dining at Alona Beach

Just like Boracay, Alona beach is lined up with different restaurants to select. One of the restaurant we tried is Roderick and Vivien, which was recomended by the inflight magazine of Cebu Pacific.

Roderick and Vivien

The restaurant offers cooking services similar to Dampa in Paranaque and Seaside at Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay, where you’d have to pick out the fish or meat that you like from their mini ‘palengke’ (wet market) type selection. And just the same, you could ask them to cook the fish or meat to whatever recipe you’d like. If you do not have any recipe in your mind, you could actually ask the staff to recommend to you a good recipe for what you’ve picked.

Seafood selection at Roderick and Vivien

Roderick and Vivien also has evening entertainment, acoustic and pop band, while you dine on the beach area. At the time of our stay, there are 2 other resorts that provide evening entertainment, one is Bohol Diver’s Club where they have hawaian dancers, fire dancers and afterwards a pop band. The other I think is Oops! Resort which also has acoustic and rock/country band.

Bohol Diver's bar area

Zip performer at Bohol Diver's Club

Pop band performing at Bohol Diver's Club

There are other restaurants located not on the beach area, but along Panglao’s circumferential road near Alona beach. These restaurants commonly offer grilled menu items.

Going Around Panglao from Alona

There is not much mass tranportation in Panglao, common transportation in Panglao are rented vans, cars, habal-habal (motorcycle back ride) and some minibus or jeep type that sparringly ply the circumfarential road.

If you intend to roam around from Alona beach to other areas of Panglao in a jiffy, there are a couple of habal-habal motorcycles waiting for passengers (a habal-habal driver can carry 2-3 persons riding at the back of the motorcycle) along Alona beach, particularly on the road connecting the beach and the circumferential road.

• Bohol Island Basics
• Chocolate Hills:Bohol’s Signature Must See
• Sandugo Shrine:Something to Skip or Stop to Appreciate More
• Loboc River Cruise: The Place Where You’d Like to Sleep After a Heavy Lunch
• Stop, Open Your Eyes and See the Tarsier
• Baclayon Church: A Long Walk Away
• The Hanging Bridge, Simple Yet Fun
• Alona Beach, Panglao Island: Teeming with Marine Life
  • The Beach Area and Marine Life
  • The Resorts
  • Bohol Diver’s Club
  • Dining at Alona Beach
  • Going Around Panglao from Alona
• Reliving Francisco Dagohoy’s Legend at EAT Danao
  • Extreme Road Trip to Extreme Activities
  • Take The Danao Plunge
  • SuiSlide, More of a SereneSlide
  • The Most Important Adventure: Eating at EAT Danao
  • Not Much Time? Stay at the Park!

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2. Stop, Open Your Eyes and See the Tarsier
3. Sandugo Shrine:Something to Skip or Stop to Appreciate More
4. Chocolate Hills:Bohol’s Signature Must See
5. The Hanging Bridge, Simple Yet Fun

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