All 3,865 square kilometers of Bohol in the Philippines can easily be reached by a number of different land transportation options.

To give you an idea of the island's scale, your guide endured a two-and-a-half-hour ride from Tagbilaran City (in the island's west) to Anda (Bohol's easternmost point) via a coastal highway ringing the island's southern coast. Everything in between - from the Chocolate Hills to Baclayon Church - took far less time to reach.

Of course, the ease and speed of getting around depends entirely on how much you've budgeted for your trip. Travelers with money to burn can get a private car or van rental, while backpackers can get around fine just commuting on the island's jeepneys, buses, or tricycles.

• Fresh off the Boat: To get to Bohol in the first place, review your travel options in this article: Transportation To Bohol, Philippines.
• One on One: For what you can experience in this Philippine island, read this list of Things to Do in Bohol, Philippines.

Traveling Throughout Bohol Island - Three Major Routes

Three major highways diverge from Tagbilaran, all serving as the island's three main traffic arteries converging on the northeastern coast of Bohol.

• The northern route travels north from Tagbilaran along the aptly-named Tagbilaran North Road, spanning 75 miles skimming along Bohol's northern coast. The northern route passes by the port town of Tubigon, which provides an alternative port of entry for fast ferries coming from nearby Cebu.

• The interior route travels east from Tagbilaran past some of Bohol's most famous sights: the Loboc Church and the Chocolate Hills in Carmen municipality. The views from this road range from overgrown forests to rice paddies to wide river scenery. The route mainly follows the 80-km-long Loay Interior Road that starts at Loay on Bohol's southwestern coast and terminates at Trinidad.
• The eastern route runs 81 miles down Bohol's southern and eastern coasts. This route passes by Baclayon (home of the Baclayon Church) and Anda (jump-off point for tourists wishing to visit Lamanoc Island).

Before you set off to explore Bohol, find out where your destination lies on any of these three routes, and plan accordingly. In Tagbilaran, go to the Integrated Bus Terminal (known to the locals as IBT) near Island City Mall, and ask for which buses, jeepneys and minibuses pass by the town or the route you want to go.

Bus, V-hires and Jeepney - Long-Distance Road Travel in Bohol

At the Integrated Bus Terminal, you'll find v-hires, jeepneys, buses, and minibuses that traverse any of the three routes to take you where you want to go.

• Buses - come in open-air ("ordinary") and air-conditioned variants. The buses wait to be filled before departing. Last buses tend to leave at around 8pm.
• Jeepneys - these open-air minibuses seat between 8 to 15 people on facing benches. Jeepneys ply a fixed route, but can be flagged down and stopped at any point along the way, making these a rather slow way to travel down Bohol's roads. These are cheap, though - base fare is about PHP 8 (about 20 US cents).
  The jeepney's route is generally painted on its side; use this as reference for when you're looking for a ride to where you want to go. As the jeepney generally plies the same road there and back, you just need to cross the road to catch another jeepney coming back to where you came.
• "V-Hires" - During the beginning and end of the working day, vans called "v-hires" ply fixed routes around Tagbilaran and through the highways. Unlike jeepneys, V-hires do not stop to pick up passengers along their route, although passengers can disembark at any point along the way. The upside to V-hires is their speed; the downside is that they tend to drive really fast and a tad recklessly.
  V-hire fares depend on the route, but they vary between PHP 20 to PHP 50, depending on the distance of your destination.

For other transport options and Bohol transportation tips, proceed to the next page.