In the dry season the Chocolate Hills are exactly what the name suggests: over a thousand chocolate-brown, cone-shaped mounds spread across the interior of Bohol. In the wet season they turn a vivid green and lose their chocolate resemblance, but they are still a remarkable sight. The hills are probably of karst limestone origin — marine stone uplifted and eroded into near-identical cones — though local legend claims they are the tears of giants who once lived on the island.
The main viewing complex is at Carmen, reached by bus or tour from Tagbilaran. The trip through the interior is as interesting as the hills themselves. Along the way you can stop at Baclayon Church, one of the oldest in the Philippines (built in 1595), visit the Philippine Tarsier Sanctuary to see the tiny wide-eyed primates at close range, and take a floating restaurant cruise on the Loboc River through jungle-draped gorge. The rice fields along the road are intensely green and worth the drive on their own.