Alona Beach To Panglao Airport By Bus

After a few days in Bohol, here I was, departing from the new Bohol International Airport. Yey!

But, as I always say, 'let me start from the very beginning'. So here was my getting out of Alona Beach!

I walked from ISIS Bungalows to the main road (corner of Circumferential Road & Alona Beach Road).

That is the usual way of most everyone exiting from the various beach-side resorts on Alona Beach. If you're not the walker type, there are motorcycles or tricycles you can hire at the corner by the beach.

Alona Beach Road is too narrow for vehicles to enter and try to maneuver a u-turn at the end (beach), as it always teems with humanity (mala-palengke na sya). Only emergency/PWD vehicles are allowed.

Mind you, that's about 500 meters of an upward walk. Not really that steep. I think that intersection is only about 30ft above sea-level, and from the beach corner where Alona Beach Road starts ascending is about 300 ft. away, thus the general angle of your upward walk is only about 7 degrees. Kayangkaya!

That's if you make it a leisurely walk like I always do, passing and peeping at the many stores on both sides of that little road, even hanging around a bit (plus photo-ops) at those already open snack bars!

In fact, this walk took about 20 minutes! That long? Yep, turista eh, andami ng photo-ops. Panindigan!

I reached Rona's Corner eventually anyway! Looking at the area though, it didn't look like a bus would stop at the very front of the store, so I moved a few more steps further up the road, just to make sure!

Until now, locals refer to this area as Rona's Corner or just Rona's - because it was the only prominent landmark in the past. But if you are a first-timer, no need to seriously remember it as travel reference.

Why? Well, that little store has been kind of "obscured" by the so many developments in the area that it is hard to find now! Don't get me wrong, it's still your good old 24/7 sari-sari store by the corner. But it became a building, and Rona's is just one of the stalls! And, right beside it is a Figaro Coffee branch.

Signboard-wise, it is of course easier to find Figaro than Rona's, correct? Plus, across the street are (as I earlier said) Islands Souvenirs (where bus from the airport stops), McDo or Jollibee, all easier to see!

Here here, I tried another google-map screenshot and labeled them to the best of my abilities hehe!

Let's start with the yellow arrow I drew on the lower middle of the map. That's Alona Beach Road from the beach going to its corner with Circumferential Road where the bus stops, as just described above.

After the yellow arrow you see a red dot. That's in front of Islands Souvenirs, where the bus stops, if it was coming from the airport on its way to Tagbilaran city center, though I wasn't going there this time.

Above the red dot, there's a green dot that I placed (near the hiway name Anos Fonacier). That spot is actually the photo above, and that's exactly where the bus stopped to pick me and other commuters!

Mind you, there are more green dots that I placed along that road (leftwise), and those are where this bus also stopped (at one time it even just slowed down), for other folks also airport-bound or nearby.

But that is busy a corner, not good for vehicles stopping. So I guess, that point where I hopped on the bus, is 'informally' the bus stop! Yes, there is no 'official' bus stop yet, but I predict there soon will be!

So, I got my ride to the new Bohol-Panglao International Airport on a new air-conditioned Public Bus!

Note: when I say public bus, it's just like any of your commuter buses in Metro Manila, where the fares are the same, whether you're an airline-passenger or not, and whether you're carrying luggage or not.

Syempre, I presume you would be sane enough not to ride on that bus if you had tons of luggage and lots of Balikbayan Boxes! Note though, just like Cebu's MyBus, there's space on that bus for your bags!

Oh, that bus stops at many points along the way, but we reached the airport in less than 30 minutes.

And we disembarked from that public commuter bus, at no less than the departure curbside mismo.

Sana all 'no?! Ah well, by-and-by, thanks to the kakulitan of some advocates (like this blog), more and more airports are (very lately) now realizing that 'seamless travel' means safe secure comfortable and convenient access of/by the general (commuting) public to/from their airport terminals. Sana nga all!

I think I already said this in my other stories, that, any airport should be designed with easy access in mind, not just for the "naka-kotse", or government employees who have their "for official use only" or LGU staff who have their "ambulance". Commuters shouldn't be under rain or sun to/from a terminal.

Ah, maybe we should write another full story to expound on that topic. Soon, I promise!

For now though, I arrived at the Bohol-Panglao International Airport (from nearby Alona Beach), via a safe, secure, comfortable and convenient public commuter bus! Wasn't that interesting? It was, really!

Let's go around that new airport. Next!