Pacific Vacation Around April 2014?

[rickeyf413]

Hey everyone I'm looking for some advise and recommendations.

I turn 50 next April and want to do it BIG!

I want to do pacific vacation for at least 2 weeks (I've already been to Hawaii) and here's my criteria:

Cert 1989, AOW, Nitrox, over 500 dives
Underwater photography - mostly macro but some wide-angle as well
Wife cert too but doesn't dive much (1 dive past 5 years) but she loves the water and loves to snorkel and hangout on the beach (sun, read, and drink not necessarily in that order )
Topside activities would be a plus - restaurants, culture, history, tours, etc)
Not oppose to live-aboard but would prefer land based (island)
Traveling from Louisiana, USA
Would like to stay in budget of $15,000 USD or less

Any help, guidance, recommendations would be greatly appreciated


Thanks in advance

 

[Rooster59]

Hopefully the Pacific Ocean will be back open by then.

 

[Shasta_man]

<<Hawaii>> There's a whole lot more to see than that. And exponentially better diving.

You could probably get more than 2 weeks out of 15 grand, particularly if you do land based. It depends if you want this to be a dive vacation with some land stuff thrown in, or if it is a land vacation with some diving thrown in. If your priority is diving, you could consider going somewhere nice with the wife (maybe more than 1 somewhere), and then go diving by yourself on a liveaboard. Some places will have some of the land interests she has, but not others. For example, Tahiti is great, expensive, place for beautiful islands, but there isn't much on them to do besides that. Some choices would be Tahiti, Fiji, Phillipines, Bali (history, diving, people, critters) or even go closer to Komodo and dive it from land. Palau and Yap are very beautiful with history and diving. There's Australia, but you'll have to go to some of the more remote corners to get the really good diving, but you could do the easier places again depending on your interest. Look in the list of forums we have. That's pretty much the list right there.

 

[Elixa]

You have a quite specific criteria there but Hawaii seems like a place that can suit you or some other Caribbean Island.

 

[cbm32]

You can do two weeks in Fiji for much less what you are ready to spend. I would suggest a week at each of two different resorts or a mix of land based and liveaboard, with more days being land based given you wife's limited dive history and apparent disinterest in diving a lot.

I am affiliated with Naigani Island resort and could easily hook you up with a very nice small (up to six guests) liveaboard for three or four days. The diving at Naigani includes many close sites that are both easy and yet fantastic in terms of both the abundance and variety of marine life. We are 45 to 60 minutes from E6, Wakaya, and Makogai, which are world class dives.....or you could dive these farther out sites from the liveaboard for a very comfortable and relaxed experience.

I think you could do two weeks in Fiji with a ton of diving, snorkeling, kayaking, together with memorable excursions (village tour, Dolphin trip, historical tour, fishing etc etc etc) from a combination of land based and liveaboard for 10K or less, if you set it up right, and have a GREAT time. If you have the 15K to spend, you could probably stretch it out to 4 or even six weeks in Fiji. I am including air fare in these rough estimates as well.

My wife and I did 9 1/2 weeks in Fiji two years ago (I dive but she doesn't). We did four resorts on four different Islands (no live aboards) for far less than you are talking about spending.

If you would like to discuss more specifics, I would be happy to share any insights I have on doing Fiji and doing it right

 

[Dive Wananavu Fiji]

Bula Rickyf413,
Congratulations on the big 50. The Pacific is a great place to plan a holiday and you have A LOT of options for all sorts of different diving and tour options. My wife and I currently live and work in Fiji at Wananavu Resort and both have no intentions of leaving Fiji any time soon because of how nice Fiji is. Everything from the diving to the people to the landscape creates a wonderful place. It's really the people that make Fiji such a great place to live and visit. No matter where you stay the Fijians make you feel like family. Plus the diving. There is only really one word to describe it... colorful. Lots of great photographic opportunities both wide angle and macro. I do tend to dive with my wide angle lens more than my macro but am happy with either. Areas like the Coral Coast (on the main island Viti Levu) of Fiji have a lot of day excursions like Jetboat tours, zip lines, booze cruise etc. The diving off the Coral Coast is just OK. The best diving from the CC would be out of Pacific Harbor around Beqa Lagoon which has the famous Shark Dive and some nice coral bommies. The resort we work out of on the main island (on Fiji's Sun Coast) also has culture tour packages from waterfalls, natural water slides, village tours etc and most resorts in Fiji should be able to offer similar land tours.

But Fiji does have a few limitations. For one, wrecks. Yes we do have a few wrecks but not the massive amazing wrecks of say Truk Lagoon or Iron Bottom Sound in the Solomon islands. The WWII history in these two country's is amazing. If you are looking for a little bit more than WWII history then you may continue a bit further west to Indonesia. I enjoyed my visits there and there is some well known dive ares and some beautiful temples and sight seeing opportunities throughout.

My recommendation would be to narrow down your general area then work with your chosen resort to put an itinerary together that will help you hit most (if not all) your requirements. Please let us know if we can be any help with your travel needs. We live and work in Fiji but have visited a few other areas around the S. Pacific as well. Good luck planning your milestone holiday and maybe it works out we will be able to dive together next April (which by the way is one of my favorite times to dive Fiji because we've coming out of our "wet" season and the trade winds have not yet started, plus the water temp is still around 80-82 deg).

Cheers,
Chris

 

[Kevrumbo]

Using USA Territory of Guam as your hub, island hop across tropical Micronesia/Oceania/Australia/SE Asia.

Easy "Beginner Itinerary" to start: The incredible walls, corals, schooling big fish/pelagics/sharks & drift dives of Palau, then Guam hub, and finally to the beautifully soft coral adorned Truk Lagoon WWII Wrecks in Chuuk. No currency exchange needed -all conveniently use US dollars. Flights are easy to book online with United Airlines out of mainland Pacific Gateways such as San Francisco/Los Angeles [middle Int'l Gateway can be Houston] -or even Denver to Tokyo whenever they get that Dreamliner 787 fixed. Whatever is left in the travel budget, add a couple days stopover in Oahu/Pearl Harbor/Honolulu-Waikiki Beach on the way back to the mainland to gradually "re-acclimatize" back to hectic urban life. . .

Palau Visitors Authority - About Palau
Federated States of Micronesia - Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, Kosrae
Guam travel guide - Wikitravel

Spa stuff for the female dive buddy in Palau:
http://www.palauppr.com/spa-en.html

http://www.samstours.com/
Ocean Hunter I & III - Palau's most luxurious liveaboards
http://www.dive-truklagoon.com/
Scuba Diving Truk Lagoon Aboard Odyssey. The best way to explore Truk Lagoon in Micronesia​

 

[rickeyf413]

Thanks Chris for the great info about Fiji we may take you up on your offer

---------- Post added October 13th, 2013 at 08:03 PM ----------

and thanks everyone for the great feedback and recommendation you guys have given me a lot to consider

 

[luciferwillis]

Have you explored the areas of South Pacific? Solomon Islands is a fantastic vacation destination which you can enjoy with your complete family. Recently I visited there and enjoyed scuba diving the most. Some other popular attractions can be found here:- Solomon Islands Honiara Attraction- Solomon Islands Diving. I spent around 12 days there and it was wholesome fun.