Tinuy-an Falls gets most of the attention when people talk about Bislig City tourism, but the city has a second natural attraction that barely comes up outside of local travel blogs: Hagonoy Island, a small privately owned island resort sitting in the middle of Bislig Bay.
Where it is and how to get there
Hagonoy Island lies about 3 kilometers from the mainland, roughly a thirty-minute pumpboat ride out into Bislig Bay. The usual jump-off point is the pier in Barangay Mangagoy, the city's commercial center. For visitors coming from outside Mindanao, the standard route is a flight into Davao City followed by an air-conditioned van to Bislig, then the boat crossing from Mangagoy.
Once you're on the water, the island itself is easy to spot: a compact stretch of white sand facing open ocean, with no other development crowding the shoreline around it.
A small island you can walk in twenty minutes
Hagonoy Island is genuinely small. Visitors consistently describe being able to walk the entire island in under twenty minutes, which sets expectations correctly: this isn't a resort with sprawling grounds, it's a quiet sandbar-sized escape. The appeal is the water, not the size of the land.
The island faces the Pacific side of Bislig Bay, and the combination of fine white sand and clear water has made it a known spot among local scuba divers and snorkelers, even if it hasn't shown up much in national tourism coverage.
No huts, no cottages, bring your own tent
The one detail that catches most first-time visitors off guard: there is no built accommodation on Hagonoy Island. No huts, no cottages, no restaurant. Tourists who want to stay overnight are expected to bring their own tents, and travelers who've made the trip describe camping directly on the shore or slinging a hammock between trees as the norm.
That makes Hagonoy Island less of a resort stop and more of a genuine camping-and-diving destination, best suited to visitors who are comfortable roughing it for a day or two in exchange for a beach with essentially no crowds.
Why it's worth knowing about
Bislig City's tourism identity leans heavily on Tinuy-an Falls, and for good reason. But the city's official list of tourist spots also includes Hagonoy Island as one of its own, distinct from the better-known Britania Group of Islands further south in San Agustin municipality. For Bisliganon looking to recommend something besides the falls to visiting friends and relatives, or for tourists willing to pack a tent for a day trip, Hagonoy Island is a real, close-to-home option that most people simply haven't heard of yet.
Anyone planning a trip should coordinate with local boatmen in Mangagoy for pumpboat arrangements and bring their own food, water, and shelter, since the island itself offers none of it.