Banilad Spring Cave Pool

Overview

Banilad Spring Cave Pool is a natural cave and freshwater pool in Bacong barangay, Anda municipality, on the eastern tip of Bohol. The cave formation sits near stone ruins, with carved stone steps leading down to the cave entrance — suggesting prior development as a water source or religious site. The interior cavern contains a spring-fed pool of cool, clear water. A tunnel exists within the cave but is described as constricted, limiting passage deeper into the karst system.

The provincial tourism profile notes that only a small portion of the original natural cave remains accessible due to modifications over time. Adjacent to the pool is a grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, a common feature at spring and cave sites throughout the Philippines where natural water sources have been incorporated into popular Catholic devotion.

Location

Bacong barangay is in Anda municipality, at the far eastern tip of Bohol. Anda is approximately 115 kilometres by road from Tagbilaran City, making it one of Bohol’s more remote tourism destinations. The Banilad site is near Tibaw Cave Pool and Talisay Long Beach, which are within the same area and can be visited on a combined itinerary.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran City, take a bus or V-hire toward Jagna (approximately 1.5 hours), then a connecting vehicle to Anda (a further 45 minutes to 1 hour). From Anda town proper, habal-habal (motorcycle taxis) can reach Bacong barangay and the cave site. Total travel time from Tagbilaran is approximately 3 hours. Alternatively, some travellers stay overnight in Anda and visit the cave as part of a local circuit.

Practical Info

A 2016 local travel column (Leo P. Udtohan, “Enjoying The Great Life”) listed Banilad cave pool among Anda’s free-entrance cave pools, alongside Cabugnaw (Cabagnow), Kalorenzo, and Tigdao; the 2025 BPTO Tourism Profile’s Table 11 entry for Banilad Spring Cave Pool likewise records no entrance fee, in contrast to its entry for Cabagnow Cave Pool, which explicitly lists a ₱50 entrance fee plus environmental fee. [FACT NEEDED: local guide requirements and current (2026) on-the-ground access status for Banilad Spring Cave Pool — no source found confirms whether a caretaker, fee collection, or guide requirement is currently in place.] The spring-fed pool is suitable for swimming but the constricted interior tunnel should not be entered without a guide and proper equipment. The stone steps can be slippery — footwear with grip is advisable. The grotto setting makes this a site of both natural and religious significance locally.

What to Expect

Descend stone steps to reach the cave opening and the pool below. The pool contains cool, spring-fed water suitable for a brief swim. The cavern ceiling is low in sections and the accessible interior is limited — this is not a spelunking destination. Water temperature is typical of Bohol karst springs: cool relative to ambient air temperature, estimated 22 to 26°C. [FACT NEEDED: independently confirmed pool depth and water temperature measurements.] The Our Lady of Lourdes grotto is beside the pool.

The Bacong Trekking Tour entity (trekking-tour.md) documents a “Banilad Spring Cave Pool” station on its route as a subterranean limestone sinkhole with an overhanging rock dome, pool depths ranging from about 1.5 m in shallower sections to over 4 m in darker recesses, no natural daylight in the interior chambers (headlamps required), visible stalactite formations, and brackish-to-freshwater conditions. If this is the same site — both share the name and the Bacong/Anda area — it would resolve most of the remaining depth and lighting questions here; this has not been independently confirmed outside that one cross-referenced entity, so it is presented as corroborating rather than definitive.

Notes

Source: BPTO Table 11 — Inventory of Tourist Attractions (Bohol Tourism Profile Eco Dev 2025). The “ruins” near the cave entrance are referenced in the source profile without further detail — their origin and period are not recorded.

A good-faith web search (multiple query variants, including the official Bohol Island Geopark cave-pools-of-Anda listing and independent Anda cave-pool guides) found no attraction independently documented under the name “Banilad Spring Cave Pool.” The commonly documented named cave pools in Anda are Cabagnow, Combento, Kaligoon, and East Coast Cave Pool (Barangay Candabong) — this entity may be a locally used or informal name for one of these, or for a distinct, less-documented site; it should not be assumed identical to any of them without further confirmation.

Cave Pools of Anda — Bohol Island Geopark and The cool cave pools of Anda in Bohol, accessed 2026-07-17.

2026-07-28 follow-up (fresh angle): Rather than re-running the identity/naming search from the prior round, this pass checked source types not yet tried — cave-diving trip reports, local Bohol blogs/travel columns, and a direct full-text check of the current official tourism-profile PDF. Two independent sources were found that describe the same site (grotto with a statue of Our Lady/Blessed Virgin, stone steps, extensively modified natural cave, constricted tunnel) using near-identical language to the BPTO Table 11 entry already cited here, corroborating that “Banilad Spring Cave Pool” / “Banilad Spring” / “Banilad Cave” all refer to the same Bacong, Anda site: a 2007 cave-diving exploration account and a 2016 “Bohol Secret Spot” blog post. A 2016 local travel column (“Enjoying The Great Life,” by Bohol-based writer Leo P. Udtohan) listed Banilad cave pool with free entrance, grouped with Anda’s other named cave pools. The current (2025) BPTO Tourism Profile PDF was fetched directly and full-text searched for “Banilad” (ppdo.bohol.gov.ph, Table 11, p.63): its entry for Banilad Spring Cave Pool contains no fee, guide, or measurement data beyond what is already reflected in this entity’s description — unlike the adjacent Cabagnow Cave Pool entry in the same table, which explicitly lists a ₱50 entrance fee, environmental fee, and a 12–25 ft depth range. No source checked this round (the official tourism profile, local blogs, Facebook posts, TripAdvisor, cave-diving records, or a Cebuano-language depth query) states a current guide requirement, a current (2026) access status, or an independently measured pool depth or water temperature specifically for Banilad. Searched: “Banilad Spring” Anda Bohol entrance fee guide; Banilad Cave Pool Bacong Anda Bohol Facebook; “Banilad” cave pool Anda Bohol TripAdvisor; Anda Bohol Municipal Tourism Office cave pools fees; “Banilad Spring Cave Pool” reviews google maps; “Banilad” Bacong Anda Bohol cave pool entrance fee guide depth; “Banilad Spring” lalum tubig lawom (Cebuano-language depth query — no results). Sources: The 2007 Bohol Underwater Cave Explorations — Filipino Cave Divers, Bohol Secret Spot — Bohol Caves (2016), Enjoying The Great Life — Cold springs and cave pools to beat the heat (2016), and PPDO Bohol Tourism Profile 2025 (PDF, Table 11), accessed 2026-07-28.