Rajah Sikatuna National Park — Attraction in Bohol

Really a scam, let me describe the walk:

We chose the "hiking in forest" option and ended up with a mandatory guide (already, the price listed as 500 PHP became 920 PHP after adding entrance fees, unknown fees, parking fees for a scooter... and the mandatory guide).

The guide turned out to be an elderly woman who walked very slowly and with difficulty, using a cane. She seems to have very poor vision and doesn't know much about the nature she is supposed to present to us.

Her slow walking explains why the tour lasted 1 hour; otherwise, we would have completed it in less than 30 minutes.

I tried to ask questions at the information desk, but they told me to ask my guide. During the walk, I asked the guide questions, but she didn't answer any of them.

The guide doesn't know what she's talking about and reads bits of paper attached to trees to name the trees, without having any idea of what they are.

I took the time to look for insects and found some beautiful spiders, and the guide kept saying that we were very lucky to see them because they usually live at night and hide during the day. However, these are very common spiders that live in their webs, and they can be seen in large numbers almost everywhere, just like the butterflies (I should specify that these were clearly not nocturnal butterflies).

The guide has very poor vision (you could tell because she often stopped to make sure she wouldn't step on a snake, but it was clearly just a branch. Also, while butterflies had been circling us for 10 minutes, she suddenly stopped and exclaimed, "Look, there is a butterfly, you are really lucky"). She also doesn't make any effort to help us spot animals or insects, even though they were present in the forest, and almost openly mocks me for taking the time to search for them.

At one point, we reached the top of a small hill and, as if by magic, without even looking around, she spotted a "lemur" in the branches in the distance, barely visible even with good eyesight and while searching, among the leaves, and completely still. My friend and I thought it was a stuffed animal hung in a barely visible spot to create a fake encounter (the only one on the walk, by the way). Perhaps it wasn't the case, but the guide's acting left a lot to be desired.

Then, the guide started telling us that she was a volunteer (which is false, because we paid extra for the guide at the entrance) and that she had a family to feed... basically asking us for money.

Finally, when we returned to the welcome desk, she openly mocked us with her colleagues, in their language, of course, but it was very clear.

A huge scam run by people who despise tourists and have no knowledge of the nature they are supposed to show you. Really avoid this, these people are dishonest and bring shame to...

We had such an awesome time on the night safari. Our two guides were local volunteers who did the 45-min night hike in slippers and sandals (in epic Filipino fashion), and were FULL of knowledge about plants, insects, and animals. It was great to meet two locals who were so passionate about nature and their communities.

This is affordable, high-quality experience that is not crowded with tourists. We saw countless cool bugs and spiders, heard many birds and got to see a few too, and even found a mama flying lemur and her baby. Some people are lucky enough to see tarsiers too.

Here’s what we did to take the night tour. It’s not well advertised online, so hopefully this is helpful if you are interested in doing the night safari too: we called the day before after finding their number on Facebook (Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape). We spoke to a woman who explained that we would need to arrive before closing time (5pm) to pay for the tour, and then the safari would start at 6pm. She recommended we bring flashlights if possible and gave us the price breakdown. We ended up arriving earlier in the day, around 4:30. The person at the front gate implied that we had arrived just in time since the guides were still there and had not gone home yet. 5:30 was high time for spotting the flying lemurs; by 6pm we made our way up towards the trailhead to see nightjars and insect bats.

The hike was about 45 mins-1 hr. It’s a bit slippery and requires a small amount of scrambling; there’s also a dropoff on the trail so keep on mind if you have a fear of heights. Unless you are hardy and accustomed to the forest like our wonderful guides, I recommend close-toed shoes, as you never know exactly what snakes and bugs you might encounter...

Feeding of monkeys by visitors is strictly prohibited.

Be ready for a hard sell upon arriving at the gate of the park. They are pressing on all kinds of 500p guided tours, even if you came for just a look around and want to visit the first option on the pricelist: "Magsay park tour / view deck: 100p".

In the end we paid 345: 2x100 for park entrance fees 100 for the tour guide that wasn't needed 45 for our car parking

Upon reaching an next "orientation" checkpoint, we're told that view deck is closed, because slippery path due to rain last night.

Instead we were pressured to purchase peanuts for feeding the monkeys, even though the park rules sign right there clearly says: "Feeding the macaque by tourist/visitors is strictly prohibited".

Seems like the staff is making a nice little side business. When we decline to feed the wild monkeys who clearly are able to find their own food, we're assigned a guide to show us around.

There is very little to see anyways. 3 huge empty cages, with an injured hawk and some wild monkeys monkeying around on them.

The "guide" that was assigned to us finally agreed to take us to the observation deck.

The path to observation deck was a nice uphill hike, but it hadn't seen any maintenance for long time. The guide also admitted, that nobody had gone there in 5 months. Seems that everyone is buying in on the Guided Tours. The viewing deck had some ok views of surroundings.

In summary, the park is desolate and unmaintained, the visitor facing staff are unfortunately only out for your buck.

I almost never give low ratings, but this time is justified: Not...