Fiji or Palau in June?

Hi everyone, I've looked back through this forum to try to get an idea of diving in Fiji or Palau, but I still have questions about which each has to offer. I'm also looking for the best dive operators/resorts to stay at. I keep hearing Beqa resort in Fiji named again and again.

I'm trying to avoid liveaboards. Personally I love liveaboards but my family that I'm going with wants to do some land based activities as well.

It seems everyone recommends Fiji for beautiful soft corals and amazing spur-and-groove reefs, and Palau for the megafauna and wall dives. Is there any megafauna to be found in Fiji and beautiful reefs in Palau, or is it one or the other? Also, my family seems hesitant about the 1 1/2 - 2 hour boat rides out to the dive sites in Palau. Are the rides always that long? Thanks!

If your family wants to do "topside" activities, then you don't want to go to Palau. Koror is a small island and very poor locals, a jail, some small hotels and restuarants, not much else. The diving is stellar, but not much else to do. We loved the diving in Palau, but we did a liveaboard so no long boat rides... the last day we spent on land and ran out of things to do after about an hour. :cool2:

Fiji, on the other hand, has some cultural interests. Most of the resorts have all types of activities, local dancers coming to perform, etc. I can see non-divers having fun there.

robin

robin

Hi Austin,

Beqa Lagoon Resort is a great choice. There is a daily events programme so you wont get bored, shore diving and snorkelling and the ledgendary shark feed dives! Its easy to get there too with transfers from Nadi and Suva Airports included.

Beqa Lagoon sounds like a great resort, and there's great reef diving, not just their signature shark diving? And Palau definitely doesn't have shore things to do? Are there any locations that might have a bit of a younger crowd as well, but are still diving focused and not crowded? I'm 22 so It'd be fun to have some younger people as well, but I'm obviously going for the great diving!

Austin:

Beqa Lagoon sounds like a great resort, and there's great reef diving, not just their signature shark diving?
And Palau definitely doesn't have shore things to do? Are there any locations that might have a bit of a younger crowd as well, but are still diving focused and not crowded? I'm 22 so It'd be fun to have some younger people as well, but I'm obviously going for the great diving!

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Palau has a few small bars and restaurants, as I said. Not much more than that.
IMHO, the coolest thing in Koror was visiting the jail and bargaining with the guy for a storyboard. Most of the tourist coming to Palau are from Asia and they stay at their own hotels, dive with specific dive ops for them. The westerners who go to the island are there to dive and most are gone all day on the boats, back at night for dinner and then sleep.

There were 5 people on the Palau liveaboard with us who stayed on in Koror for a few days afterwards. One couple did some kayaking one day, camped out on some outer island (through the dive op), and that was it, said it was fun. The other couple rented a vehicle and along with the other guy, drove up to a waterfall they had heard about. It was a very eventful trip (car was falling apart, water splashing up through holes in floorboard, road full of potholes) and they finally made it there, hiked into hot jungle and jumped in the water to cool off as the car had no a/c. Then they drove back to town saying it wasn't all that exciting and not worth an entire day in that car. Some others we spoke with booked at boat trip out to Peleliu island for the WWII memorial tour but we never heard back from them how they liked it. I assume it was really good as that is what I have heard, but it is an all day thing.

robin