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Island in the Philippines
Photo: Maximilian Felkel, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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.
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This spans the San Juanico Strait from Tacloban to Santa Rita on Samar Island. At 2.16 km long, it was the longest bridge spanning a body of seawater in the Philippines until the Cebu-Cordova bridge opened in 2022.
The tallest bridge in the Philippines.
By ferry
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.
By bus
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.
By car
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.
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.
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Tacloban City · Regional · TAC
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