Diving Subic Bay

[billywinter]

We are looking into a trip here in April/May and are trying to understand the geography and best places to stay. Is there any specific areas to stay for best access to the wrecks? The bay looks large and the hotels seem spread out all over the place. Ideally, we would like to stay in a place that has a dive operation on the premises, unless it is easy to move around to different locations. At the same time we don't want to be isolated with long drives to town (what is the town?) and far from bars and restaurants. We dove last year in Puerto Galera and enjoyed the macro photography. This year we were looking for something different and still easy to get to from Manila. Any feedback on diving operators, hotels or just general diving here would be appreciated.

 

[pfirejack]

Mangos Dive Resort. Sea Scan divers is on site dive operation. Good service close to wrecks very good on site restaurant. Many restaurants & bars up & down the street.

 

[Goingforsound]

No macro, subic has very scarce reefs and they are not in good condition.

I am not sure about the rooms but I dove with Arizona and the dive operation was smooth!

 

[runsongas]

consider a flight to busuanga for coron instead.

 

[Centrals]

The wrecks in Coron are far more interesting than those in Subic Bay unless you really want to dive USS New York.
Two main areas for tourists to stay in Subic:
1. Free Port: You have to walk as there is NO public transport available unless you have a CAR.
Dive operator: Broadwalk
2. Barrio Barretto(BB) and Baloy Long Beach(BLB).
Three main dive resorts: Arizona(BB), Mangos(BB) and Johan(BLB)
Both Arizona and Mangos are on the main road so getting around is really easy.

Getting there: Victory Liners has regular services from their three main terminals in Manila to Olongapo. Jeepeny(blue) right outside the bus terminal in Olongapo will drop you at the door step of Arizona or Mangos for P13.00. You night need to pay for a extra seat if you have big bag. Jeepney will drop you by the side road(by a 7/11) leading to Baloy Beach and a trike can drive you to Johan for P50.00.
There is a yellow jeepney in Olongapo to the main gate of the Free Port. You have to walk for the rest of the journey. I could be wrong here. Good luck.

 

[D_Fresh]

I highly recommend Arizona Dive Resort as well. Both the hotel and dive op are very well run. All of the dives in Suboc are boat dives, so really, location isn't a big factor.

If you want to go into Subic Freeport from Barrio Barreto, you can take a jeepney or trike to the intersection outside of the Freeport area and walk in the rest. It's not a far walk. Otherwise, you can ask the hotel about a ride.

 

[Jay]

I'd also highly recommend Arizona (both for accommodation and diving). I was very hesitant needing to do Wreck and Deep Specialities (as required by them to dive on some of the deeper (~40m) sites, but it was well worth it.

We did a lot more than just tick-off the required items. The extra stuff included: extra line work, black-out mask, checking SAC calcs, surprise OoG, DSMB launches on most dives, setting up/using a stage tank, securing it outside a wreck, proper drop-tank use, some q&a such as is O2 narcotic, etc ... net net I found these specialities well worth it.

 

[billywinter]

Ok, so it looks like there are 3 major dive operators from Barrio Barreto. I will look at these. So Coron surely has some better wrecks but for us, the convenience of traveling to Subic is big with our limited time. For those who have dove both areas, is Subic still a decent dive destination? Which wrecks here did you enjoy the most? Also, I saw some video of Camayan beach resort. That place looked like a nice
beach with a dive operator on site. Anyone know of this place: would the boat rides be longer and would it be too isolated for a group that likes a bit of nightlife?

 

[Goingforsound]

Its different... lower viz for sure, wrecks are less impressive except the new york. The new york was really really creepy when I was there. Terrible viz and torn metal and beams sticking out from nowhere. I had a hard time even figuring out what I was seeing.

Subic also takes the same time to get to (bus) as Coron (short flight). I recon about 4 hours on an overnight bus from Manila to Subic.

 

[Centrals]

Camayan Beach Resort is too isolated unless you have your own transport. It is indeed quite near to some of the wrecks. Barrio Barretto is great to those who enjoyed bit of evening entertainment as well as selection of restaurants.
USS New York is the top attraction but the viz is suck most of the time! And is prone to "off limit" when US Warship is around(not all the time).
El Capitan and LST are two decent sized wrecks.
There are some aircraft wrecks but in relatively deeper water eg. A1 is in 36m while "Taby" is 40m+.