Chocolate Hills: What the Giants Left Behind

Place

Chocolate Hills

Visited: May 23, 2023
Published: October 19, 2026

A grass-covered cone-shaped hill rising out of forest, with dozens of similar hills behind it and visitors at a red railing on the viewing deck to the right — The nearest one of more than a thousand, give or take five hundred.

The Chocolate Hills were not built up. More than a thousand stand in the interior of Bohol, cone after cone, most of much the same shape, and each one is what remained when the ground around it wore away.

The name is said to come from the dry season, when the grass on the hills turns brown and they look, so the comparison goes, like Hershey’s Kisses. I went in May. Mine were green. They were still odd, a little dreamlike, and, for a geological formation, surprisingly cute.

The best-known view of them is from a hilltop in Carmen, at the top of a great many stairs.

The way up

My guide had said umbrellas could be borrowed at the waiting area. There is little shade on the way up, and the sun that afternoon was taking its job seriously.

A yellow octagonal building with a red tiled roof and WAITING AREA signs in its windows, plastic chairs inside, visitors standing and sitting outside, and a folded pink umbrella hanging beside the door — The waiting area, and one folded umbrella.

I asked at the waiting area. There were none.

So I climbed without one. Earlier that afternoon, in Bilar, the tarsiers had been spending the day in the shade of the trees, some of them asleep. They had the right idea.

A hand-painted yellow sign reading WATCH YOUR STEPS on a metal stand at the foot of concrete steps painted green and yellow, with a visitor blurred in the foreground — There would be a lot of them to watch.

Green cone-shaped hills and forest seen from a paved path with a wooden railing, where two visitors are walking — Already in view from the path. I climbed anyway.

There are a little over two hundred steps, the exact number depending on whom you ask.

A long, steep concrete stairway painted in stripes of green, yellow and brown, rising up a hillside between red handrails, with visitors climbing and coming down — The way up.

Partway up there is a small grotto with a statue of the Virgin Mary, probably as Our Lady of Lourdes. On these stairs, it is well placed.

A white statue of the Virgin Mary with a blue sash and hands joined in prayer, in a rock grotto with a sign ending SA LOURDES, small pictures of Jesus beside her and a kneeling figure in the foreground — The grotto, partway up.

Further up, the steps came with advice, painted on them a line at a time: SUPPORT THE LOCAL ECONOMY. BE A RESPECTFUL TRAVELLER. RESPECT ALL GENDER AND AGES. And the hashtag of a campaign by the UN’s tourism agency, #TRAVELENJOYRESPECT.

Concrete steps between red handrails, their risers painted with slogans including SUPPORT THE LOCAL ECONOMY, BE A RESPECTFUL TRAVELLER, RESPECT ALL GENDER AND AGES and #TRAVELENJOYRESPECT, the paint partly worn away — Advice, one step at a time.

Travel, I had managed. Respect was easy.

Enjoy took more effort.

If you go, take it slowly, and take your own umbrella.

At the top

From the deck, the hills go on in every direction.

A plaque at the top explains how they got there. This was once a shallow sea. Coral and shells settled on the bottom and became limestone, and the seabed was lifted up into land. Then the rain went to work. Rainwater is slightly acidic, and limestone dissolves in it. Valleys opened and widened, until the higher ground between them stood apart as separate hills.

There is another explanation. One story goes that two giants fought here for days, throwing stones and sand at each other. When they were finally worn out, they made friends and left the island. They did not clean up.

The geologists and the giants agree on one thing: the hills are what was left behind.

A wide view over forest dotted with dozens of grass-covered cone-shaped hills stretching to the horizon under a cloudy sky — Hard to picture the giants? Season two of Netflix’s ONE PIECE has a pair, still fighting.

Below

The view down a steep stairway from the top of a hill, with visitors descending, one under a yellow umbrella, and a car park and red-roofed buildings below among forested hills — Some people had found umbrellas.

From up there, you can also see where the trees stop. They crowd around the foot of most of the hills and thin out partway up, leaving the rest to grass.

That is not entirely the hills’ own doing. For a long time, the grass has been burned regularly to keep the trees from taking over, and where the burning stops, the trees come back. How best to go on managing it is now being studied.

Large white letters reading I, a red heart and CHOCOLATE HILLS on a low platform beside a wooden railing, with visitors at the railing and green hills behind — On the way out.

The giants, the story goes, left without tidying up.

Somebody else has been keeping the place tidy.

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Location

Chocolate Hills Complex

On a hilltop in Carmen, in the interior of Bohol

Loay Interior Road, Carmen, Bohol, Philippines

View this place on the map Open in Google Maps

Practical Information

Visiting: The viewing deck is at the top of a little over 200 steps, with little shade on the way up.
Admission: An entrance fee is charged.
Visitor note: Umbrellas were said to be available to borrow at the waiting area, but none were left on a 2023 visit. Bring your own.

Information last checked: October 19, 2026 (Location checked on Google Maps. Admission prices and opening hours are not stated.)

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