Palau or Fiji? Where to next?

[lep]

Hi everyone, thanks for the great posts. We have decided to go with Palau in late June early July. Now, I need some advice on great hotels and dive ops. We prefer to dive with the hotel dive op typically because we like to have a place to store the gear and not haul it back and forth to the room, and feel safe about it! Not sure how the diving there is set up... do most people go with the hotel dive op or outside ops that come and pick you up at a dock? What part of the island is the best to stay on.... things like that.

Thanks again for all your posts!

LEP

 

[Scared Silly]

June is the end of the season for Palau. For westerns there are two shops Sams Tours or Fish and Fins. We used Sams as that was were the live-a-board sail boat (Eclipse - Palau Diving) we dove with most of the time was based from. We found Sams to be well organized and very professional. The mornings are chaotic but do not let that fool you. There is no hotel at Sams but they come pick you in the mornings. They have on site storage for your gear (just communal racks that are locked up at night).

Now if I were to go back to Palau and do land based I would stay on Peleliu Island and dive with these folks: Dolphin Bay Resort & Peleliu Divers in Palau

The reason being much quieter than in Koror and closer to the dive sites. But more expensive.

I would also take Kev's advise and do two places. We spent a week in Truk before hand. But many folks go to Yap. Guam has some good diving as well as the rest of Micronesia.

 

[Mossman]

NECO Marine is another dive shop that caters to westerners, so that makes three.

As for hotels, THE hotel to stay at in Palau is the Palau Pacific Resort. However, it ain't cheap. Also, the on-site dive op at the PPR caters to Japanese, though other dive ops probably will pick you up at the dock by boat or shuttle you in a van, weather depending, and they can all store your gear for your for the duration of your trip. There are many cheaper hotel alternatives. You should be able to find a hotel/dive package from a dive travel agent that could save you money, no matter which hotel and dive op you choose.

 

[wowpalau]

I would highly recommend Sam's Tours, they have great staff, nice facility and an awesome dive shop Sam's Tours: Palau and check out their package with Sea Passion Hotel that is close to Sam's Tours with rooms overlooking the rock islands and they even have a small beach. Good restaurants around the hotel as well.

 

[robint]

I would highly recommend Sam's Tours, they have great staff, nice facility and an awesome dive shop Sam's Tours: Palau and check out their package with Sea Passion Hotel that is close to Sam's Tours with rooms overlooking the rock islands and they even have a small beach. Good restaurants around the hotel as well.

I have been looking at Sam's Tours and Sea Passion Hotel...
::: Palau Sea Passion Hotel :::
there are some reviews for it on Trip Advisor, too.
does anyone know how far it is from Sam's dock? Is it walking distance or do you need to use the shuttle?

Our one land-based day there after the liveaboard, we stayed at West Plaza by the sea and thought it seemed to be an okay hotel. Nothing fancy, very basic, but seemed clean and a good location. There is a restaurant there but we didn't use it, we met the rest of our group at The Taj for dinner.... mmmmm, awesome Indian food, and I love Indian food!

Fish N Fins has a hotel right next door to their dive shop/boats/gear storage room. We didn't go into any rooms but it looks nice from outside. We had lunch there at the dock's little restaurant and thought the food was pretty good and good prices. I'm not sure if it is open for dinner though.

WowPalau --- since you are Sam of Sam's Tours, I would suggest you put that in your signature so people are informed when reading your posts. I think it is important you are upfront with your identity.


robin

 

[wowpalau]

Robin, My apologies for not identifying who I am when posting and thanks for pointing that out. All corrected. Take care and happy diving, Sam

 

[gee13]

Just like to expand on the original question by lep -What's the best time of diving for Palau then weatherwise and what are good liveaboard recommendations?

 

[lep]

Thanks everyone! Such good advice. We have decided to go with Dolphin Bay in Peleliu and a few days in Koror. It seemed closer to the dive sites and more our "speed."

Now onto my next mission of finding a GREAT but not toooooooo expensive camera to capture all of these wonderful moments in decent color (not just all green)

Where to start? There are so many choices!

LEP

 

[robint]

Just like to expand on the original question by lep -What's the best time of diving for Palau then weatherwise and what are good liveaboard recommendations?

rainy season is Sept-Oct, so more rain that other times of year. Water temp stays the same year round.

shark mating season is Dec-Feb, sharks congregate in large numbers but you may see them on any dive in smaller number all year long

manta mating season is Mar-Apr (?) same as with sharks, but they are seen on a regular basis in German Channel if there is plankton present (we had 7 mantas on a dive there, then the next day the same, tons of plankton!)

I think I have read that there are other fish that congregate there for mating during spring but dont' remember which ones - anyone?

Liveaboards:
Aggressor Fleet | The ultimate in live-aboards since 1984
Scuba Diving Live-Aboard Excellence
Scuba Diving with Palau's True Liveaboards Ocean Hunter
and we did the Eco Explorer, sister ship to the Big Blue Explorer: Dive Destinations - Liveaboard Scuba Diving in the Philippines and Palau

all those liveaboards are doing exactly the same dives and they coordinate very well with each other to make sure they aren't at same dive sites at the same time. The only time we ran into any of them was the Aggressor group at the Mandarinfish night dive, up in Koror on the last night.

Price varies quite a bit between the boats as some are very nice and some are rather unique (the boat we did was a former Japanese whaler and very funky but we didn't mind, check out my trip reports and videos)

robin

 

[Travelnsj]

I've been to Palau 9 times....best time to go is mid Feb thru June....Sea Passion Hotel is nice and reasonable...I now do cheaper options like the West Plaza Malakal since I am not entertaining anyone....Sams is an excellent operation that you will not regret!...In Fiji now...gotta go dive master is calling!