Pacific Island Recommendations

For next year I am considering taking a small group of divers for a two week trip to the Pacific islands somewhere. The group are all advanced divers and seriously into photography and video. We were considering somewhere in the French Polynesia, Cook Islands or Fiji. We are looking for a place for great diving. Night life and fancy restaurants are not required. We would rather dive hard and then relax in the peace and quiet. This would be the first trip to this area for everyone so we are looking for any recommendations.

Thanks.

Jeff

We did two days of diving in Rangiroa last fall, and that was some of the best diving I've done anywhere, period. The outer reef is unbelievably healthy and vibrant -- the reef fish are so thick you feel as though you need to part them with your hands to swim. We saw schools of jacks and other larger fish, and lots of sharks (although we didn't see any hammerheads). We swam with a school of dolphins, and had a huge manta swim right through our group.

There's nothing there but diving, which is undoubtedly why it's so good -- no agriculture, no construction, nothing to cause runoff to damage the reef.

I'd go back in a heartbeat.

We dove with Top Dive, and they did a good job for us. The young dive guide we dove with, whose name was Serge, was so full of enthusiasm and excitement and the desire to share the beauty of the place with us, and it just added to the fun.

I've heard that Rangiroa has good diving. Were you island hopping that you only had two days of diving there? Do you think that one island would be good for a 10 day trip or would you recommend staying on a few of the islands?

JRRKAR:

For next year I am considering taking a small group of divers for a two week trip to the Pacific islands somewhere. The group are all advanced divers and seriously into photography and video. We were considering somewhere in the French Polynesia, Cook Islands or Fiji. We are looking for a place for great diving. Night life and fancy restaurants are not required. We would rather dive hard and then relax in the peace and quiet. This would be the first trip to this area for everyone so we are looking for any recommendations.

Thanks.

Jeff

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do you have a price range? how about a liveaboard?

for photo and video, advanced diving, you really can't beat a liveaboard in Palau or Chuuk. We did a liveaboard to Palau in Dec 2008 and were absolutely blown away by the diving (sharks, mantas, WWII wrecks, deep walls, huge schools of fish, blue holes..) see my videos. Friends did the Chuuk liveaboard twice and say it is the most incredible deep diving with WWII wrecks, tons of fishlife, history.

It looks like we are leaning toward a liveaboard in Palau with a few day layover in Yap. Do you know if there are any good topside sightseeing on these islands?

Forget the Cook islands ; hopeless.
Fiji beautiful, but Palau...AMAZING!!
I would strongly recommend Fish N Fins with Tova and Navot Bornovski. They're great with either land based or live aboard diving. The Ocean Hunter is a beautiful boat. The crew can't do enough for you, the food is terrific and the diving is unforgettable. I have been going back a lot.
Speak/e-mail either Tova or Navot and they'll help you out with all your arrangements.
Good luck! You'll never regret it.

Welcome to Fish 'n Fins - Scuba Diving in Palau

Palau is very very nice! And Fish 'n Fins indeed have an excellent operation, land-based and 2 liveaboards. Fiji is truly awesome, beautiful corals, marine life and thrilling shark action (Beqa) Usually there are good deals to be made here. You can opt for some island hopping too. If you wish more info feel free to contact us!

Hi Jeff,

How big is your group?...you could charter Island Dancer II which takes ten divers.

She will take you to Nigali Passage, Wakaya, Koro and Namena Islands out from Suva in Fiji.

Remote sites without the crowds full of colour and life - excellent for photographers.