Eastern Visayas

About Eastern Visayas

Eastern Visayas — Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran and the three Samar provinces, with Tacloban as its regional center — faces the Pacific. The San Juanico Bridge links Samar and Leyte at Tacloban, the Leyte coast at Palo marks MacArthur's 1944 landing, and on the western side Kalanggaman's sandbar is a day trip from Palompon. Tacloban took the worst of Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in November 2013.

Getting there

Tacloban's airport has the region's main flights from Manila. For Kalanggaman, the usual route is from Cebu: a 2.5–3-hour fast craft to Ormoc, then 1–1.5 hours by van to Palompon, where the town's ecotourism office arranges the boats.

When to go

This is the wet side of the country, and its wettest months are the Christmas season: PAGASA's Tacloban station averages 22 rainy days in December and 18 in January, and Borongan, on the Eastern Samar coast, records about 4,600 mm a year with 25–26 rainy days in December and January. April and May are the driest months on Leyte, and Kalanggaman's boats run most reliably from February to May. Our month-by-month guide has the national picture.

Climate: PAGASA climatological normals 1991–2020, Tacloban, Borongan and Maasin stations. Travel details come from our destination guides, where each is dated.

Destination Guides in Eastern Visayas

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