Palau and Somewhere else April 2024

[electric_diver]

Hi

I'm booked on a liveaboard in Palau next April. I want to go somewhere else as well as its a long way to go from North America.

Can anyone recommend a second destination in the vicinity that has reasonable connections. Flights seem to be a major problem in and out of Palau.

 

[LFMarm]

Truck?

 

[rongoodman]

Phillipines?

 

[rmorgan]

Hi

I'm booked on a liveaboard in Palau next April. I want to go somewhere else as well as its a long way to go from North America.

Can anyone recommend a second destination in the vicinity that has reasonable connections. Flights seem to be a major problem in and out of Palau.

I believe there are nonstop flights on Air Niugini between Palau and Port Moresby, Papaua New Guinea. A short connecting flight puts you at world-class diving, both liveaboard and resort.

 

[Brant Emery]

Yap.

 

[cetacean]

@electric_diver

The traditional pairing with Palau was always Yap (when Air Micronesia was stopping 3 times a week on the way to Palau).

Depending on day of the week you get off the LOB, the connection to the Philippines is short, and there are a number of very good options to dive there.

Guam has some good diving, but it's a bit like stopping in Honolulu (if you like crowds). Pohnpei (on the other side of Guam) is very good (sharks, mantas) if the flights work out for you (this is also the home of Nan Madol, ancient rock-based ruins with waterways as streets, very cool to kayak). Farther east, Kosrae is completely off the beaten path, but also offers very good diving and exploring (although the reefs are all hard coral and the diversity of fish/critters is lower than Palau).

 

[electric_diver]

Thanks.

None of the convenient connections to elsewhere seem to exist in a post covid world. Philippines would be a great option but it takes longer to fly Palau-> Manilla than it does back to North America.

 

[cetacean]

@electric_diver

The flights vary by day. There is a direct connection from Palau to Manlia (on United) every Tuesday and Friday. The flight is listed as 3 hours (usually takes a bit shorter).

Yap is now harder because you have to fly back to Guam, then catch the flight to Yap (the flights are actually short, the layover in Guam is long). You can fly to Pohnpei 3 days a week (M,W,F) easily. It's listed as an 8 hr trip because that includes two stops... the flights are actually only <5 hrs (and 2 of those hours are back to Guam).

The route this takes is the old island hopper. 2 hr flight back to Guam, You then take off in Guam, 1:45 flight to Chuuk, another 1:15 min. to Pohnpei. The flight from Guam to all the islands east (all the way back to HNL) is on the same plane , it's just up & down to each island. Easy to do, can't miss the flight - they've been flying this route for years.

Take a look at:

Island Hopper - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[cozcharlie]

If you don’t mind puddle jumpers you might ping Pacific Mission Aviation to get you from Palau to Yap directly to see if they are planning to fly on or around the dates you need . I have never done it but several people had done it the last time I was in Yap. You would then just take United home from Yap.

If that doesn’t work , using the United ROR-MNL on the days @cetacean mentioned would be an option. The cleanest would be to go to Manila and then use land transport(3 hours ish ) to get you to Anilao (famous for muck diving ). United is adding a direct MNL-SFO route at the end of October so getting back to US would be fairly easy on a United ticket (also a bunch of other options out of MNL but fairly few options to get to Palau/ROR.

If muck diving isn’t your thing , Chuuk (Truk) is famous for its WWII wrecks. Visibility isn’t that great and fairly deep , but there are a lot of them.

 

[cetacean]

@electric_diver

As @cozcharlie mentions, Pacific MIssion Aviation might be a good option to get directly to Yap (avoiding the trip back to Guam first). This year they have scheduled flights between Palau and Yap every Wednesday (1 hour flight). Flew them once (to Ulithi from Yap), small planes but very competent.