Palau or Philipines? Been to Solomons and wonder if anything could beat that?

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frontiernurse

Contributor
Messages
118
Reaction score
23
Location
san francisco
# of dives
200 - 499
Hiya!

I am contemplating my next adventure for 2015 and I'd love your feedback! I am based in San Francisco, California (US) so my "local" dive sites are Central America and Hawaii. For a bigger trip my research is leading me towards Palau or the Phillipines. Do people have strong preferences between those two locations? I'd be interested to hear comparisons regarding dive features, price/accesibility, culture, land-based activities?

I've been to the Solomons (Marovo Lagoon, Uepi) and I worry that I'm ruined for all other diving as it was so vibrant, teeming, and isolated. (Also quite expensive... can't afford to do that again!) Is Palau diving similar to Solomons?

Some considerations: I'll probably be traveling alone, I'm AOW just shy of 200 dives (all within the past 5 years), I prefer land-based, small groups. I don't care about night life. Probably would want to really explore one area rather than try to jump around a lot. I love cephalopods of all kinds, and still on my bucket list: Whale shark, Mola Mola, Mandarin fish, leafy sea dragon and lots of other stuff. But I get a kick out of pretty much every single breath I take under water regardless of what's in there. Thoughts?
 
I think theres a few places that could top the Solomons...Papua New Guinea and French Polynesia IMO were far superior to the Solomons. Have not dived Palau but did enjoy Philippines underwater although ive only dived PG/Sabang there. Looking at your bucket list animals have you thought about Indonesia...even though you wont see a LSD there you have a good chance of Mandarin Fish in N. Sulawesi. Indo has a lot of very diverse diving depending on where you choose to go - Komodo or Raja Ampat also are worth looking into. Philippines IMO is crowded and far from isolated but again, I only have one point of reference to judge by there. Lembeh/Bangka/Bunaken will give you lots of bang for your buck and be a little less crowded if you are into Macro. Whale sharks have been spotted there tho Donsol in PI is more known for whale shark encounters. Fiji gets good wraps and is very diver friendly for land based resorts.
Just a few thoughts :)
 
Thanks Wingy! What made PNG and French Polynesia better than Solomons for you? Also, I see you are from Australia. Another variable here is that I am supposed to go to New Zealand for 2 weeks next March. I looked into adding a week diving to that trip but getting anywhere I'm interested in from NZ seems absurdly expensive!
 
Biomass, diversity, remoteness - in the case of French Polynesia diving passes (I love currents) surrounded by hundreds of sharks - also a lot more BIG fish in PNG and FP although I will say id been at sea for 17 days diving by the time i got to Solomons from PNG so I may have been slightly 'dived out' . New Zealand is expensive - so is Aus lol - if you can fit it in a couple of dives at Poor Knights would be well recommended.
 
Sounds pretty juicy Wingy! Yeah, I wish I could pop over to Ningaloo (sp?) or GBR while in your hemisphere but it is soooo expensive. But gorgeous! Sounds like you might have been on a live aboard for your PNG/FP trip but if not, any specific resort/location info you'd be willing to share? Thanks for indulging me!
 
I've been to both Palau (Livaboard) and Philippines (Moalboal, Malapascua & Sabang).

Both are excellent regions for diving, both contain lots underwater. It is possible to see both macro and big stuff in both locations however, Philippines is largely dominated by Coral and Macro life (Thresher Sharks at Malapascua and Whale Sharks in the Central Islands aside) while Palau is mainly all about the big stuff, sharks, mantas, fish balls and currents.

Palau definitely has the upper hand on healthy sea life environment too, Philippines can suffer from over fishing, dynamite fishing etc.

Cost is where Philippines wins hands down. Everything is cheap, from accommodation to diving to food. Palau can be pricey. As mentioned we did a LOB so wasnt an issue for us but most of the key dive sites in Palau are 1-2hrs speedboat ride from the main and only town. Not sure how much land opps were charging per dive.

It would be hard to recommend diving only one spot in the Philippines, it really does need hoping from spot to spot to get the best of it. Most islands are connected by ferry services(some are long distance overnight, 8hrs or so) and there is a basic domestic airline service connecting most of the main islands and locations. No such traveling is needed in Palau.

Cost aside, I would lean toward Palau.
 
Sure. We went on board The Palau Aggressor. Not the cheapest, but for comfort, dive op, food and great crew, they were probably the best LOB we have taken in 8-9 LOBs.

All the diving is done from a very well equipped and spacious skiff that is carried by the main vessel on a hydraulic cradle and lowered into the water. This means that the larger boat does not have to do much travelling as with other LOBs but simply steams out of the main port about 1.5hrs and anchors there, centrally to the key sites with short skiff rides to the dive spots.

This enabled us to do 1-2 dives at the more popular dive sites such as Blue Corner and German Chanel before all the day boats arrived which was a huge bonus given that on most days, by midday there were usually 9-10 day boats at German Channel.

The usual itenary for Aggressor does include a trip down to Pelilu Island at the south of the island group to dive the corner and for the WWII land trip on the island, however a large typhoon passed through only 1 month before and did large scale damage to the key dive sites down there and the crew told us the vis hadn't settled and it wasn't really worth steaming down there at that time, when we could better use it diving elsewhere. Disappointing but you have to take the local advice.

As for the land opps, talking to other divers in Palau and others whop have dived tehre, Fish n Fins and Sams tours seemed to be the best established opps.

Referring to your OP, on the last day you have a very very high chance of seeing the Mandarin Fish, though as it is mid morning dive before heading back to port, you wont see them do "the dance". Jelly Fish lake also a great experience.

Others on the LOB who had traveled from N america had coupled the trip with Yap and/or Truck Lagoon.

Hope this helps, any other info I can provide on this or places i've dived in the Philippines,just ask.
 
Hutch has alot right about Palau and Philippines, except the boat rides in Palau are only about 45-6- min each way. If you want to avoid the crowds in Palau try the slow season. Early November is a great time to beat the crowds. Palau beats the PI for big stuff for sure, but the PI is cheap and lot's a varied places to go. Both are great diving, Palau for me was all about the sharks, but the fish life is abundant and diverse, and the coral is really nice. I'm also a huge fan of Indonesia, Komodo rocks but liveaboard is the way to go there, and Bali can be quite affordable and has excellent diving. Then of course you have Lembeh for Muck/ Macro and exotic critters and since your a cephalopod fan they have incredible variety of them, Lembeh is cephalopod heaven. Pick a spot in the coral triangle and Go!
 
I was on a private LOB frontiernurse in PNG and dived with Plongee Rangiroa in FP and topdive bora bora who i give a big thumbs down, they were the only op who would take a single diver out on their cattleboat and a guy named Mai in Moorea who had a spare tank a boat and a big smile. :D

In PG I really enjoyed South Sea Divers with Sky and could highly recommend them - long established op, lovely people. I also like Indo and have dived around Bali with Bali Dive Academy but also loved Alor, Komodo, Flores on a boat I crewed on using land based ops with local knowledge (thats the important bit!) , Bangka (Murex), Bunaken and Lembeh (Froggies), found this wicked little private island off sumatra called Cubadak (did I mention I like a lack of crowds?) - I totally agree with dirtfarmer regarding the coral triangle, throw a dart at the map and go. I am a huge ceph fan too so anywhere with ceph action gets my vote.

I often say im over asia as I really like big stuff like the sharks and napoleans and dolphins in Rangi and PNG and yes, the whalesharks at ningaloo, BUT...I seem to be unable to help myself..ive just booked a LOB trip to remoter parts of Indo in a few months time. Then thats it! Im going back to the south pacific....although madagascar and micronesia are on the list..Palau and sharks sounds like my kinda diving. Have fun and lets us know where the currents take you.
 
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