Flight trip advise for Palau & Truk & LOB

[FMmck]

Hi,
We are planning trip in Dec/Jan 08 to Palau & Truk Lagoon. Lot's of advise on the forum about LOB's, landtrips and location. We are thinking about LOB on both locations. Palau on Aggressor II (21/12-28/12) & Chuuck on Odyssey (28/12-4/12) or Thornfinn.

The one thing we struggle with is the flight scedule.

The one we have so far is Continental Airlines; $ 1300 (also seen on forum tread)
manila-Guam-truk-guam-Palau-Manila, but the arrival/departure times not always convenient.

Has anybody an other suggestions ? Or any other advise concerning trip.
Thanks in advance, MC

[robint]

there really is no easy way to get to these islands........ but it is ALL worth the hassles! Do it!!

[Kevster]

I did Truk/Palau in Apr.

I did a lot of research on flights etc. I originally wanted to do Yap/Truk/Palau, but the flights & liveaboard schedule was a nightmare.

I was on the Odyssey. It gets very busy & normally you have to book a long time ahead. In Palau there are a lot of options for live aboards so i would suggest you get the truk week sorted then start planning the Palau trip.

I think Cont is the only option. Getting to truk from Manila is good as there is only a few hrs in Guam. However on the way back i had to spend 18 hrs in Guam before heading to Palau.

Both are excellent locations , very different so they make a great combo trip.

[bwilcove]

Last I checked there were some flight options to go via Taipei (direct from Taipei to Palau).

[deepstops]

Do some diving in Guam (Tokai/Kitsugawa/Cormoran come to mind) if the timing issues are there.

[TheUWPhotographer.com]

I just got back from Truk. I had good intentions about writing up a detailed trip report, but just no time. I do have photos on SmugMug. We did our trip on the Odyssey. This was my third time on that boat and I cannot lower my standards now. If availability was the problem I would probably dive from the Blue Lagoon or Island Paradise. When we arrived, both Thorfinn and Odyssey were sitting side by side just offshore at the BL. Odyssey was glowing white and Thorfinn was billowing thick black, brown and red smoke out of its smokestack. YUK!!! I had made the right decision to choose Odyssey again.

Not only do you get a room so big that you could do cartwheels, the boat has many quiet areas where you can have alone time. The captain and crew are the most amazing I have ever experienced on any boat (I've done about 20+ different liveaboards over the years). They seem to have a sixth sense about what you night need, even before you need it. They are gracious and always willing to help. By the end of the week, you'll want to adopt them all. Captain Mike does the best dive briefings I've ever witnessed. Take a look at my pictures. I credit most my success to his very informative briefings. I always knew exactly where to go on each wreck to get the shots I wanted.

The one thing I would definitely do is avoid Continental Micronesia at all cost. This time I took the Island Hopper (not by choice) and paid BIG BUCKS to suffer through their horribly inconvenient schedule and even worse service. It was like a flying bus, that stopped at every island on the way. At each stop they made 1/2 the passengers get off the plane with all their carryon luggage, for a "security check". What a PIA! On top of this all, they wouldn't give me frequent flyer points for the route because they said that route was "ineligible". Never again! I'll elaborate on that when I do finally get to writing up that trip report.

I've been to Palau three times and always add a few days on land with Sam's Tours in addition to the boat. They are an awesome operation and I love doing some of the land tours they offer. Things like Nardmau (sp?) waterfalls, 70 Islands, German lighthouse, and jungle tour is amazing.