Raja Sikatuna National Park in Bohol

This vast 9,000 hectare area of jungle land in Bilar in the province of Bohol is a perfect spot for reminiscing the distant past and watching nature up close. Raja Sikatuna National Park brings together history and nature lovers rendezvousing.

It’s easy to get to the Raja Sikatuna National Park. Just get to Bilar in Bohol and take a tricycle ride to Logarita, exactly where the spot sits enthroned. But coming from the Tagbilaran Airport, it takes about an hour’s travel going to the site. Going south, we pass by Baclayon, Albuquerque, and Loay. At Loay we turn left going to Loboc and Sevilla. The next town is Bilar.

A public bus to Loay may cost about $1 per person and a public jeep to Bilar may cost about half a dollar. Tricycle ride to Logarita costs about another half dollar. But the better alternative is hire a car or van which may cost $30 to $33 for half day. As far as lodging is concerned, we may opt to stay at Dimiao or Tagbilaran for classy resort-style lodgings costing about $40 to $60 a night. Book for an overnight stay or two and take a half-day trip from there to Raja Sikatuna National Park.

Raja Sikatuna National Park has lots of limestone rock formation to boast with good trails leading to hill tops. The hill tops afford a good view of the world famous Chocolate Hills of Bohol. Aside from the monument site commemorating the Blood Compact between Raja Sikatuna and Miguel Lopez de Legaspi, the forest all around also allow marvelous animal watching.

Raja Sikatuna National Park provides refuge for tarsiers, monitor lizards, civets, wild monkeys, wildcats, and lemurs, among others. The park is also perfect for bird watching where bird species endemic to Bilar are found—the pitta, munia, monarch, babbler, oriole, flower-pecker, woodpecker, sparrows, egret, trogon, kingfisher, and doves, all in their unique colors and features.

There is also a natural spring we can soak in after a perspiring trek up the slopes going to Raja Sikatuna National Park. Logarita has a pool and shower concessions at a point along the trail. Some trail-side snacks and drinks are sold. The ideal hour to start our hike up the hills is 9 in the morning so we can be back at 2 or 3 in the afternoon to Bilar, way before dark sets in. Dusk becomes really dark in the jungle.

Raja Sikatuna National Park is a great place to enjoy the past and the wild outdoors.