Subic Bay Travel Guide

Subic Bay is situated on the west coast of Luzon, Philippines, and is only 60 miles from Manila Bay. It is the former home of a major US navy facility and it is now a commercial hub.

The bay is in an area known as Subic and also touches Olongapo city and Grande Island. El Captain is the most famous wreck that divers like to explore; she was a freighter that weighed 3,000 tons and sits on a sloping part of the seabed.

Another popular wreck is the old USS New York, which acted as a floating workshop during the Japanese invasion and was later sunk by the Americans as she was too valuable to risk capture. The area boasts some of the best diving sites in the country and there are hundreds of wrecks dating back to the Spanish-American War and WWII.

There are turtles, colorful fish and sharks amongst many other impressive species that make diving and snorkeling in the bay particularly interesting and there are plenty of less strenuous activities to enjoy like sunbathing and casual swimming in the clear ocean. If you are traveling with children, the Ocean Adventure Park is full of killer whales and dolphins as well as a host of other marine life.

Getting There & Away

Subic Bay is home to an international airport that welcomes flights from domestic and limited international destinations, with Manila to Subic Bay flights taking about 30 minutes. Flights to and from Hong Kong and Subic Bay take just over 11 hours, Japan 3 hours and Singapore 4 hours. By road, the Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway (SCTEX) is an affordable and easy to use highway that is only 25 minutes by car or bus from Clark. Angeles City is a 2-hour drive away on Porac Road.