Bohol Hammock Hostel

Bohol Hammock Hostel: A Working Coconut Farm in Batuan

Bohol Hammock Hostel sits in Purok 1, Barangay Cambacay, Batuan — central Bohol’s Chocolate Hills country, not the coast. There is no beach here and no dive shop within reach; the property is built on and around an active coconut farm, and that farm setting, not any reef, is the entire premise of a stay. Batuan itself has no other tourist accommodation to speak of, which makes this hostel an outlier: a genuine base for staying overnight inside the Chocolate Hills area rather than day-tripping through it from Tagbilaran or Panglao.

The Farm Setting

The hostel operates on land planted with roughly 150 coconut trees, mixed with other fruit trees, with chickens and other farm animals moving freely through the grounds. Construction throughout is open-air and built largely from bamboo, which keeps the structure cool without air conditioning and keeps the footprint light on the land it sits on. Guests are given the run of the farm itself, not just the sleeping area — walking among the coconut palms is as much a part of the stay as anything scheduled.

The Accommodation

Sleeping arrangements are unconventional by design: guests choose between floor beds, swing beds, and hammocks rather than a standard dorm bunk, all under open-air bamboo construction rather than sealed rooms. This is a hostel built around the outdoor, farm-adjacent experience rather than private comfort — travellers looking for air conditioning, a locked private room, or hotel-standard furnishings should look elsewhere in Bohol. What the format sacrifices in privacy it makes up for in a genuinely different way of sleeping than any resort on the island offers.

Food and Community

Breakfast is included and served daily between 7 and 10 a.m. Beyond that, the hosts cook a shared family dinner most evenings for a flat 200 PHP per person, with vegan and vegetarian options built into the menu rather than treated as an afterthought — a detail that matters on an island where plant-based options are often limited to plain rice and vegetables. The shared-dinner format is deliberately communal: guests who arrive solo are folded into one table with whoever else is staying that night, which is a large part of why reviewers consistently single out the sense of community here over any physical amenity.

Activities From the Farm

The hostel’s location inside Batuan’s stretch of the Chocolate Hills formation means the signature activity is a free, guide-led sunrise hike to the hills themselves, roughly 20 minutes on foot from the property — a genuinely different vantage than the paid, developed viewpoint across the municipal line in Carmen. Beyond the hike, the hostel runs a yoga class, bike tours, countryside tours, and cooking lessons, and rents out motorbikes for around 500 PHP a day for guests who want to explore Batuan’s back roads, caves, and rivers independently. None of this requires leaving the farm to arrange — it is booked directly with the hosts.

An Informal Animal Shelter

Alongside the working farm, the hostel functions as an informal sanctuary for stray cats and dogs, which move freely around the grounds alongside the farm’s own chickens. This isn’t a managed welfare program with veterinary infrastructure, but a small-scale, low-cost practice increasingly common at backpacker-style properties across the Philippines — taking in strays that would otherwise have nowhere to go, funded out of the hostel’s own modest margins rather than any outside grant. Guests who dislike animals underfoot at mealtimes should factor that into their expectations.

Guest Ratings

Bohol Hammock Hostel is one of the more consistently well-reviewed budget stays on the island, running in the mid-to-high 9s out of 10 on Booking.com across several hundred reviews as of recent research, with value for money and staff friendliness standing out as the strongest categories — consistent with a property whose whole appeal rests on hospitality and setting rather than physical facilities. Guests describe the swing beds and the free family dinners as the two most memorable parts of a stay, alongside the sunrise hike.

Practical Details

Location: Purok 1, Cambacay, Batuan — roughly 18 km (about 11 miles) from the Tarsier Conservation Area, and well inland from any of Bohol’s beach areas. Getting there: buses and jeepneys on the Tagbilaran–Carmen route pass through Batuan, roughly 1 to 1.25 hours from Tagbilaran’s Integrated Bus Terminal; the hostel can typically be reached by habal-habal from the main road, or by arranging pickup directly. Contact: the property maintains its own phone line and a Facebook page for direct booking questions, alongside standard OTA listings. Cancellation and rates: confirm current policy and nightly pricing directly through Stay22 or Booking.com at the time of booking, as neither is fixed enough to state reliably here.

Who Should Book Here

Works for: budget travellers who want to stay inside the Chocolate Hills area overnight rather than day-tripping through it, solo travellers looking for a built-in social scene, anyone who wants a genuinely different Bohol experience than another beach resort.

Skip if you: need air conditioning or a private locked room, are uncomfortable with animals around communal areas, or are looking for proximity to diving, snorkelling, or nightlife — none of which exist anywhere near Batuan.

Getting There & Booking

Book directly through Stay22 or Booking.com for current availability and rates; confirm pickup arrangements with the hostel directly once a booking is made, since the property sits off the main highway on farm access roads.