Palau - Short Trip report - Sams Tours November 2011

[pughio83]

Well I have to say Palau was well worth the time and money to get there and I did some fantastic diving there.

Flights are not cheap. We flew from UK Heathrow to Manila with Emirates, with a 2 days layover in manila, before flying to koror with Continental airlines - £365 return for 2.5hr flight is NOT cheap! Airline was fine though security checks were nightmarish - multiple bag searches, and passports need checking every 2-3 paces! However the 20kg allowance plus 10kg hand carry on was good! Arrived in Koror at 2am Wednesday. Palau airport minimal fuss, Sams Tours pickup waiting and transfered to hotel (30mins) - SEA PASSION resort.

Sea Passion hotel was nice, large spacious rooms, lovely big bathrooms with huge showers, lcd flat screen cabled tvs, mini bar with all the hotel perks. Next to opur room was a thai massage suite as well! wifi in reception was good enough, pool fine though you never end up using it if you are diving, small but pleasant beach. No snorkelling per se off beach except for small japanese war plane. Breakfast was all i ateat the hotel. Breakfast was a european- Japanese fusion, with french toast and coissants to Miso soups and fried fish. Each day was different, some better than others, but on the whole very enjoyable. Dont expect big fry-ups to be available daily.

Daily morning collection to Sams diveshop from hotel via boat. well organised and reception liase with them well. Dive gear is stored at shop so you only cart it across once. You are assigned a dive guide generally for your stay, we had Kostos who i would recommend - highly experienced safe diver, likes sharks!

Boats were ok, wonderful trips out through rock islands to dive sites. weather whole trip bar one afternoon was glorious sunshine and little wind!! Boats can be a bit small if the group is large. on board drinks are available, Nitrox is free.

Diving - fantastic for larger fish. Dont go to Palau for macro, albeit its probably there somewhere. Corals were great, some of the best hard corals i have seen anywhere, soft corals less so. Currents can be strong, especially around pelileu. These include downcurrents that are pretty severe so dive to your competancy level.

Blue corner, blue hole, new drop off, big drop off all good dives. blue corner a pain if you have millions of japanese divers hooking along the entire drop off there! But good place for sharks, but so is every dive. to be honest i did better dives at other sites than blur corner, blue hole etc..

German Channel was amzing, 6-8+ mantas on both dives, ultra close interaction. viz was reasonable.

Pelileu cut was the best dive on the trip - tons of large grey reefs, white tips, black tips, 3 x 10ft bullsharks, eagle ray, GT's and jacks, barracudas, napoleans and dolphins on the surface whilst on the boat!! But beware, downcurrents and upcurrents v bad!! But hence the big fishes!!

Day up north at satans corner, west channel and Devils playground - looking for bullsharks, lemon sharks, nurse and silvertips but to no avail that day. V large white tailed stingrays though, plus all the 'normal' sharks! loads of hawksbill and green turtles.


Jellyfish lake worth the trip, unique, nice boat ride also. was part of a day trip with sams, so visited other sites including shark city for snorkelling. Mandarin dive reasonable at sams macro wall, good for photo opportunities!

Sams' is nice place to chill post dive. food is standard American, wifi access, tv etc.. Downside is price - food and drink on palau not cheap. Cup of tea at sams was nearly 4.5USD in evening, same as some beers! Nb (tea/coffee free in morning!). snakcs run at around 10USD so not asia prices.

Overall stay in Palau was very nice. Diving varied, plenty big action to see, challenging dives, chance of seeing something special. viz v good, weather we had nov 22-29th was excellent, sea passion well recommended as close to sams, and other restaurants (kramers excellent place to eat - hammerhead hot wings!!)

Well worth the trip. any q's jst msg.

[deeper thoughts]

thnx for sharing