Zambales

Crystal Beach – A Summer’s Prelude

Posted on March 30, 2012

Finding a stretch of empty beach in the summer was heaven-sent! Ever since summer has started, I’ve been yearning to spend some time at the beach. Last weekend, an invitation to visit CASA San Miguel in San Antonio, Zambales was a perfect excuse for me to take a side trip to Crystal Beach in the neighboring town of San Narciso, a choice spot for surfers during the rainy season, but no less appealing to mere beach-bummers like me, especially inRead More→

CASA San Miguel Bed & Breakfast – A Dreamer’s Retreat [SP]

Posted on March 26, 2012

CASA San Miguel, a community-based arts center, now offers a bed and breakfast. Cozy, rustic double rooms Last weekend, Starbucks Philippines invited me to join a visit to CASA San Miguel, a community-based school for the arts in San Antonio, Zambales – a destination better known for beginner’s surf, and as a jump-off point to the camping beach coves of Anawangin and Nagsasa. The coffee brand currently sponsors six-month residency-mentorship programs at the arts center, wherein professional artists can shareRead More→

CASA San Miguel Bed & Breakfast – A Dreamer’s Retreat [SP]

Posted on March 26, 2012

Zoobic Safari (Subic, Zambales)

Posted on December 10, 2008

Want to have a roaring good time? Perhaps the closest you can get to a ferocious feline in the Philippines is at the Zoobic Safari—the one and only tiger safari in the country. It is located at Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Zambales province, a former US naval base. When the Americans left in 1993, the Philippine Government converted the area into a Freeport Zone that has now become an industrial estate with an international airport, shopping malls, hotels, techno parks,Read More→

Tree Top Adventure (Subic, Zambales)

Posted on December 2, 2008

Here ye, all you tree-huggers! The most exciting way to explore a tropical rainforest in the Philippines is to zip line through one. Tree Top Adventure in Subic, Zambales offers the world’s first motorized canopy tour with jungle trails comprised of platforms attached high up on tree trunks using an environment-friendly tree clamping mechanism that doesn’t harm the trees. Traversing four suspension bridges and nine motorized cable rides, you will get lifted up to 100 feet above the forest floorRead More→

Camara Islands (San Antonio, Zambales)

Posted on May 13, 2008

Closer to Pundaquit Beach at San Antonio, Zambales–just two kilometers offshore–are the small Camara Islands (interestingly, often misnamed Camera Islands). Cascading foliage sparingly laurels this pair of huge volcanic rocks amidst the South China Sea, where a Lilliputian statue of the Virgin Mary facing the mainland on top of a giant boulder blesses visitors who spend hours enjoying the shallow surf and clean sand. These craggy islands with pockets of white sand and smooth stone strewn with glistening seaweed, polished shellsRead More→