Tagbilaran City is a 2nd class component city in the island province of Bohol, Philippines and serves as its capital. Tagbilaran lies on the southwestern part of the province, and has a total land area of 32.7 km², with about 13 km of coastline. The city is on the south of Cortes, southwest of Corella west of the town of Baclayon and is about 630 km southeast of Manila and 72 km south of Cebu City.

It is the principal gateway to Bohol and is known as the "City of Friendship". Tagbilaran is considered by the Institute for Solidarity in Asia as one of the eight Philippine Dream Cities, along with Samal, San Fernando, La Union, Cebu City, Iloilo City, Marikina, Naga, Calbayog City and Surigao City. It was also recognized as one of the 20 "Most Competitive Cities in the Philippines" and "Pinoy Cities on the Rise" in 2005 and 2007, and first in the Quality of Life Category for the same two years, awarded by the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center.

A hundred years before Spaniards arrived in the Philippines, the settlement of which eventually became Tagbilaran City was already involved in trading with China and Malaysia. This early settlement had contact with the Spaniards in 1565, when the Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi and the native chieftain Datu Sikatuna pledged peace and cooperation through the famous blood compact.