Subic as a children’s Destination

Since we started a family eight years ago, it has become a practice between my husband and I to treat our two kids to a vacation outside Manila during the Christmas break so they can relax and enjoy their outing before going back to school.

Last December we brought our kids Zeke, 7 of Ateneo gradeschool and Cameron, 6, of Miriam gradeschool together with my four nephews JM, a young tv and stage actor of UP, Paolo, Joshua and Matthew and my parents to Subic. We have been to the former US Naval Base in the past but we never realized that there are so many things that we can do there and four days in Subic is just not enough.

We started our vacation by checking in at the new Delta building of the fivestarSubic International Hotel. The rooms are very elegant and spacious and the staff were very friendly. We drove around and we were surprised at the number of new hotels and restaurants especially fronting the beach area. On our first day we went fishing and rowboat riding in the lagoon across the Yacht club where we also enjoyed a nice snack in the restaurant fronting the lagoon. On our second day in Subic we brought our kids to the SBMA Museum where the kids enjoyed learning all about the history of Subic. Next stop was the Science Center where our kids enjoyed playing and discovering a lot of things related to science such as visual effects and illusions , how telephone works, how tidal waves develop among other educational things presented in such a way that kids will really enjoy. In the afternoon we went to Ocean Adventure Marine Theme Park where we were treated with a Sea Lion, Whale and a Dolphin show. The kids had an opportunity to have their pictures taken with the sea lions and the dolphins. The show was unbelievably entertaining and educational for the kids as well. The trainers stresses the idea on taking care of our marine animals during the show and teaches the audience how we can help protect them. They also have other programs such as Swim with the whales, Dolphin Encounter, Dive with the whales, Animal Trainer Adventure, Recreational and Discover Scuba Dive. Ocean Adventure also has a fantastic aquarium and a mini zoo which they call Wildlife In Need (WIND) Rescue Center. This is a really nice touch for the whole park because the WIND was created to take care of injured animals since Ocean Adventure was known to have a lot of really good in-house veterinarians a lot of people brought injured animals for them to treat and take care of such as a civet cat with an amputated limb, a partially blind lawin, a monkey who lost a tail among other animals who got injured within as well as outside SBMA.

The whole tour around Ocean Adventure Marine Theme Park was indeed really educational and very entertaining for the kids and people of all ages and it was really a treat for them to watch the animals really up close.

On our third day in Subic we went to the very popular Zoobic Safari. The entire tour within the area will take about 2 and a half hours. The attractions in Zoobic Safari include an amazing collection of rodents, a petting zoo in a walk-through tropical jungle where you can see an albino carabao, monkeys, civet cat, bear, deer, ostrich and a lot more. They also have a Serpentarium where you can view snakes, lizards, iguanas, turtles and other coldblooded animals. The Savannah is a great attraction of the park where you can see a wide range of ostriches, potbelly pigs, wild boar and guinea fowls. The newest addition in Zoobic is the Croco Loco where you can see and feed hundreds of crocodiles. While inside the Zoobic we were treated also to a performance by the Aetas. Our personal favorite is the Tiger Safari ride. Zoobic has the only Tiger Safari in the Philippines where visitors can have a close encounter with Siberian and Bengal tigers. We rode a jeep where we entered an enclosed area with live tigers roaming and frolicking the area and the most exciting part of the ride is that we were able to feed the tigers while inside the jeep.

We truly enjoyed our trip to Subic and there are so much more we have not seen. We will definitely come back again with our kids. Our trip to Subic was one of the best vacations we have been to. We didn’t have to travel far to enjoy the world-class Ocean Adventure Marine Theme Park and Zoobic Safari right here in the Philippines.