For journalists, researchers, and editors covering the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and place-based publishing.
The project
Negros Island Region, Philippines
The Insider Map of Negros Island Region documents how the island actually works — town by town, barangay by barangay
NegrosIsland.com is an independent, place-based publishing project covering movement, access, food systems, coastal geography, and daily life across the Negros Island Region — as gazetted by the Philippine government, encompassing Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and Apo Island.
The project exists because no unified orientation tool for the region did. Commercial map services show everything and explain nothing. Most online guides are generic, outdated, or written from short visits. Nothing documented how the island functions day to day.
The maps are organised not by tourist category but by function: how roads connect, where transport consolidates, how markets operate by day and season, which barangays sit at the edge of road access, and when conditions change. Each map is supported by articles that explain the patterns behind the pins.
The project is not a tourism platform. It carries no advertising and no affiliate content. All material is original and specific to the region.
What the project documents
The project does not speak to tourism volume, visitor numbers, or economic development. It documents observable, functional reality on the ground — transport behaviour, market operation, barangay-level geography, coastal access, food systems, and seasonal conditions.
The underlying mapping currently documents 143 transport features and 115 public market entries across the region, alongside town-level coverage of food areas, coastal access points, dive sites, and road routes. All locations are recorded from direct observation, not scraped or aggregated data.
Writers covering Philippine geography, island infrastructure, slow travel, or local food systems may find specific topic clusters directly citable. Map embeds are available on request.
The flagship map is the Insider Slow Map of Negros, covering the whole region, supported by town and topic maps underneath it.
Published maps
The map series covers twenty published maps across the region:
- Place maps — Bacolod, Dumaguete, Silay, Sipalay, Kabankalan, San Carlos, Valencia, Apo Island, Siquijor
- Slow Travel — movement and distance across the region; the flagship Insider Slow Map of Negros
- Transport — routes, consolidation points, and inter-town connections
- Markets — public markets and how they operate by day and season
- Slow Food — the food system across the island, from supply to plate
- Local Food — karinderya zones and food areas by time of day
- Local Life — daily-life anchors and routines
- Local Stays — accommodation in geographic context
- Beaches — coastal access points, entry conditions, and how access changes
- Diving — dive sites, reefs, and entry points across the region including Apo Island
- Waterfalls — access routes and seasonal conditions
- Scenic Drives — documented road routes across both provinces
Reference articles
Beyond the maps, the site carries more than 240 published articles covering transport routes and timing, public markets, food systems, accommodation context, barangay geography, coastal access, and daily life across the region. Articles are written as reference pages — named places, access details, real costs — and are structured to be citable by journalists and researchers as well as usable by travellers.
Open datasets
Map data is published as open GeoJSON datasets on Zenodo under a CC BY 4.0 licence, with DOIs for citation in academic and research work. Published datasets:
- Negros Island Region Map Dataset — the complete 20-map series index across Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, and Apo Island — DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21304123
- Negros Island Diving Map Dataset — 320 features across 5 layers: reefs, access and entry points, dive sites, resorts and dive shops, shoals — DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.21304143
- Negros Island Beaches Map Dataset — 390 features across 5 layers: beaches, resorts, reefs, bays, shoals — DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20950209
- Bacolod City Map Dataset — 12 layers covering barangay boundaries, transport, markets, food areas, and seasonal risk zones — DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20790591
- Negros Island Slow Food Map Dataset — markets, fisheries, farms, producers, and local food system elements — DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.20740228
Further datasets — beaches, scenic routes, and additional regional maps — are published progressively under the same licence. Researchers and institutions are welcome to use and cite the data with attribution.
About the project and its founder
NegrosIsland.com is founded and maintained by Rod, a long-term resident of Negros Island with around twenty years of on-the-ground experience across the region. The project documents how life, movement, and access function across the Negros Island Region through maps, barangay-level geography, transport observation, market research, food systems, and seasonal conditions.
Content is written from ground-level observation. It does not rely on automated data, scraped listings, or tourism office materials. The project has no commercial investors, no editorial sponsors, and is not affiliated with any tourism board or government body.
The maps and articles are structured to be useful to researchers and journalists as well as to independent travellers — anyone who needs to understand how the island works rather than where to book.
Editorial partnerships
NegrosIsland.com is open to editorial relationships with publications, writers, and researchers whose work intersects with the region’s geography, food systems, transport, coastal access, or island life.
Relevant areas include Philippine travel and place-based writing, Southeast Asia transport and food systems, regional journalism covering the Visayas, open geographic and mapping projects, and academic or NGO work covering the Negros Island Region.
Embeddable versions of specific maps are available for relevant editorial use — town maps, coastal access maps, food area maps, and the Insider Slow Map itself. No reciprocal arrangements, paid placements, or promotional partnerships are offered or accepted.
All published maps and articles are freely accessible. No registration required. Content may be cited with attribution.
Media contact
Rod
Founder, NegrosIsland.com
Long-term resident, Negros Island
Email: rod@negrosisland.com
Website: negrosisland.com
Media page: negrosisland.com/media
NegrosIsland.com · Negros Island Region, Philippines