Leyte is an island in the Eastern Visayas island group in the Philippines. It is divided into two provinces, Leyte Province and Southern Leyte. Each province includes some nearby smaller islands. Leyte is connected by bridges across narrow straits to the larger Samar Island and to the smaller Biliran island. The two largest cities are the capital, Tacloban, on the east coast near Samar Island, and Ormoc on the western coast.
Ormoc — the economic, cultural, commercial and transportation hub of western Leyte
Baybay — famous for the Visayas State University
Palompon — home to the Tabuk Marine Park and Bird Sanctuary
Inopacan — a base for exploring the Cuatro Islas, which have pearl white sand, crystal clear water and great snorkling areas with beautiful coral
Hindang - known for the Hindang Nature Park with Philippine long-tailed macaques and caves
Hilongos — an important regional center
The island is divided into two provinces, Leyte province and Southern Leyte; the former occupying 75% of the island and the latter the remaining 25%. For practical reasons, we treat Leyte as one region with good transportation links.
To many, Leyte is best known as the starting point of the liberation of the Philippines during World War II in 1944. On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur made his landing to the Philippines, following his well-remembered promise that "I shall return" when he left the country, then a United States colony, during the Japanese invasion in 1942. After MacArthur's return and the ensuing battle to liberate the island, Leyte eventually witnessed one of the largest naval battles in history, the Battle of Leyte Gulf, which was an American victory despite kamikaze attacks.
Waray is spoken by people from the eastern part of Leyte, about 60% of the population of the province, including most of the people in the capital city, Tacloban.
Cebuano/Bisaya is the most common language in Southern Leyte and the western part of Leyte Province, with about 40% of the population of the province speaking it.
Tacloban's Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport (IATA: TAC) is the main gateway to the island and the entire region of the Eastern Visayas including the provinces of Samar (Western) and Eastern Samar. The following airlines have daily flights:
Ormoc (IATA: OMC) also has an airport; there are flights on Cebu Pacific to/from Manila via Cebu.
Maasin is served by Air Juan, with flights from Cebu.
Ormoc is also the region's main ferry port with frequent boats to Cebu City. There are also some boats from Maasin to Ubay on Bohol.
Leyte Island is connected by RORO ferry from Surigao. From Luzon by car or, you must take a 1-hour ferry ride between Matnog in Sorsogon and Allen in Samar.
Philtranco operates regular interisland buses from either Manila, Davao or Cagayan de Oro, stopping at most towns on their routes. Multiple companies have buses from Manila as well.
Leyte lies on the Visayas routes of Asian Highway 26, which includes Rte 1 across the island and Rte 70 between Palo and Ormoc, and connecting to the Cebu-Ormoc ferry route. AH26 enters Leyte from Samar across the San Juanico Bridge; from Mindanao and Cebu, the route follows RORO ferry routes from Surigao and Cebu respectively.
From Cebu Island, vehicles generally take a 4-hour ferry ride from Bogo to Palompon.
There are frequent bus services that traverse Leyte Island's primary highways, which mostly lie near the coast. Most bus services are part of longer interisland routes either from Manila or Samar or Mindanao.
UV Express van shuttles are ubiquitous across the island, serving most towns with limited or no bus service. Jeepneys are limited around the cities of Tacloban and Ormoc. To most towns, you either take a bus, UV Express or a tricycle.
Primary highways are the Maharlika Highway and Rte 70. Maharlika Hwy runs on the east coast, while Rte 70 runs from Tacloban to Ormoc, then to Baybay, and to Mahaplag where it reunites with the Maharlika Hwy. The highways are mostly two- or four-lane stretches, with narrow shoulders. Cars are few and far in between, and there are lots of tricycles and motorcycles. You may see farmers drying their crops along the highways, while illegal, are common as in many provinces in the Philippines that rely on agriculture.
Leyte is famous for it delicacies like:
Leyte is famous for tuba, a local wine made from coconut, and a so-called "red wine", rather made from fermented coconut nectar that they wrap in tree bark that give the wine its red color. Almost every house have tuba stored, and is usually drank during occasions or just as a pastime.
Leyte lies on the Philippines typhoon belt; one of the strongest and costliest tropical cyclones to record, Haiyan ("Yolanda" in the Philippines), made landfall in 2013, and the island is still recovering from it.
2nd-order administrative division
Primary administrative division