By brother Frank and his family were staying overnight at the Subic Yacht Club (SYC) on March 15, 2008 and he invited me and Tellie and our families to join them.  I brought along Jandy while Tellie brought along her daughter Mandy and a maid.  We all arrived at the SBYC by 3 PM and each of us checked in at an exquisitely decorated Club Room, each with top-level amenities such as  telephone, 29-inch cable TV, DVD player, internet-wired connection, a minibar, jacuzzi whirlpool bath with shower jets.

Entrance driveway

The premier yacht club in the Philippines, SBYC was built in 1998 at a cost of PhP2billion. It exemplifies luxury and style at every turn.  Aside from its 39 Club Rooms, SYC also has a 2 story presidential suite that has its own living, dining and receiving areas complete with a spiral staircase, a study room with 2 terraces and an outdoor jacuzzi. The 17,000 sq. m. main clubhouse has a 64-pax home movie theater at the 4th level and 3 function rooms (the 50-pax Victoria, the 50-pax Trinidad and the 20-pax Concepcion).

The Club Room

Venues for nightlife at SYC include a piano lobby bar (1572) offering relaxing piano music; a disco bar and videoke joint and the 150-pax Jacques Lounge reserved for private gatherings.  Restaurants here serving everything from Southern Italian cuisine (Cambusa Restaurant) to Japanese and Chinese favorites (the al fresco Skipper Verandah and the Caracoa Restaurant).  There’s even a casual deli called Providores offering informal sandwich and potato salad meals as well as vintage wines and spirits.  The Recreation Café, beside the pool, serves tropical drinks and light snacks (hamburgers, hotdogs, etc.) and other grilled specialties.

For the water enthusiasts, the club rents yachts, jet boats, speedboats, pontoon boats, Platu keelboats and water sports equipment such as picos, lasers, Hobie Cats, wakeboards, knee boards, water skis, jetskis and scuba diving and snorkeling apparatuses. SBYC also has one of the country’s few certified US designed hyperbaric recompression chamber for divers. They also offer escorted wreck diving.

The fitness center

For sports and recreation, there are basketball courts, world-class covered tennis courts with a spectator area, an 8-lane, tenpin bowling center with glow-in-the-dark alleys and pool tables; and a complete fitness center (Tetrix Virtual Reality Bike; Virtual Reality Climber; Trackmaster treadmills, stationary cycles and rowing machines; etc.).

The huge swimming pool

The huge, 2,500 sq. m., multi-level swimming pool actually has a beach with imported powdery sand from Perth, Australia; twin water slides and a pool bar.  The spa has a sauna and steam room, masaage/treatment rooms and separate whirlpool spas for men and women  featuring numerous jet tubs. For kids, there is a daycare and nursery center, a children’s pool complete with rafts, chutes, rings, water jets and water toys for babies and young kids; a children’s outdoor play area with lots of great play equipment and the popular, educational and creative Little Fingers Art Workshop.