Diving Palau -- FishnFins or Sams?

[Rand]

I'll be posting a thorough trip report soon, but I just spent a week in Palau with Sam's and a week in Yap with Yap Divers from April 8-24.

I really liked Sam's operation. I was told it was a Thai holiday when we were there and Sam had to actually rent boats, drivers, and tanks from other shops to handle the number of people booking with him. Even with the extra traffic at Sam's it never felt chaotic or crowded.

Our DM, Dexter, allowed people to stay down as long as they wanted. When he saw people starting to go shallow around 50-60 minutes into the dive, he sent up his sausage and usually stayed down with those below. He was a pro at reading the currents and we would have made some tough swims had he not helped us dive the site with the current.

We also got to pick the dive site for every dive. If Dexter advised against our choice, it was for good reason and he made every effort to get us back to that site when conditions or currents were more suitable. He also tailored our departure time, either earlier or later than the other boats so we minimized the crowds on the sites.

He also obtained AL100s for a guy in our group who used his gas a little sooner than the rest to help keep everyone around the same consumption.

Also, I'm not sure if this is the norm or what, but we were able to use the Sam's vans to get rides all over Palau instead of calling taxis. On more than one occasion, the driver gave his number to a restaurant we were at with instructions to call him when we were almost finished so we didn't have to wait for a ride. He was tipped well. Some driver's refused payment.

It was the little extras like the vans, tanks, and DMs that make me want to go back to Sam's the next time I'm in Palau.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

+1 on Dexter.

We had Dexter as our dive guide the first time we were there. Our last trip, over spring break we made sure to call Sam's Tours and arrange to have Dexter as our guide.
We had a lot of flexibility on our trips because of him.

-Mitch

 

[Centrals]

I'll have to add the Ulong Channel to my wish list and likely avoid the Express.

Peleliu Express is one of the most exhilarating dive in Palau. Miles away from Koror though.
F n F also has liveaboard package(expensive) but as far I am concern it is the ONLY way to dive around Palau.
If you want to be the frist group to arrive at eg. Blue Corner, then liveaboard is the ONLY option. We left Blue Corner/Blue Hole before the appearance of the day-boats!!!
If you are land based please remember that the diving is a whole day affair. The speed boat is fast but bumpy and you will get WET all along.
Dived with Sam on my first visit but did not enjoy the ride to the dive sites so I switched to liveaboard(Big Blue) on my next visit. Much more civilized and relaxed.

 

[Deep Water Dan]

The boat rides out and back are really quite smooth; you're inside the reef almost all the time. Plus, cruising through the Rock Islands in the dive boats is half the fun (Well, OK, not quite half). The scenery is breathtaking. And even though the trips average around 45 minutes you'll be so busy taking pictures and oogling the scenery you'll be back at the dock before you know it.

 

[Rand]

Sam's also has a small liveaboard vessel as an option. I believe it is a sailboat and holds only 4 or 6 guests. Not sure about the prices.

The rides out were 45 min. or so, but like was said above, you don't really notice it with all the scenery. We didn't really get wet save for two days where it was raining. Just throw a towel and/or rain coat in your dry bag and you'll be fine.

On the days the sun was out, we just got the occasional splash, not a big deal at all.

 

[HiQPen]

I dove with Sam's in 2002, and it was the best experience I have ever had with a dive operator. They grouped us with similarly experienced divers and we stayed together the whole week and had the same DM (Johnas?) the whole time and he catered to our every need and really worked hard to get us to all the sites we wanted to see, found all the animals we wanted to see, he once dove an entire dive with one fin so that a customer that forgot one of his didn't have to go without, dropped non-diving sig-os on their own little island to sunbathe while we dove, and he even hung out with us at night and had dinner with us each night.

We initially did have one guy that was blowing through his air faster then the rest, so the DM quietly and subtly asked another employee (DM in training?) to go with us and then when the Hoover was getting low on air, he sent him up with other DM and the boat picked them up while we continued our dive.

Man that was a great trip! Going to Sam's and Palau first almost ruined our second week of diving in Yap because we were missing Palau and our new friends.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I've dove with both SamsTours and Fish n' Fins and y'all can't go wrong with either choice --the only aspect that's tipping my personal choice to Sam after nearly ten years of diving with Fish n' Fins, is the convenient & short walking accessibility of SamsTours to the hotels (Sea Passion, Palau Royal Resort and West Plaza Malakal). It's a long, dusty and smelly walk past the Koror Garbage Dump landfill to get to the docks, liveaboards & dive-ops of Fish 'n Fins. . .

 

[sanjac]

I did two trips and used Sam's. Their DMs will try to pair people up with like experience. During my last visit, we had two groups - those with long air consumption times and those with shorter ones. The first dive, they keep an eye out and do their own determination of who is a long air diver and who isn't. I was very happy with my group. We stayed down over an hour on many dives. The other group surfaced earlier with one DM and the other group (mine) stayed down longer with the other DM. I am sure any of the dive shops there will do the same as long as they have at least two DMs or instructors.

Jim

 

[farsidefan1]

In Feb. I spent a week on the Aggressor and then a week with Sam's. Both were first class operations. Virtually all the divers on our boat (with Sams) were very experienced and air consumption was never an issue for anyone. We had one diver from Germany on the Aggressor that ran out of air first on every dive but we had extra divemasters on every dive and he had a personal escort whenever it was an issue. It was not an issue very often. Sams provides 100's for divers less efficient. Nearly all our dives ran an hour or slightly more.

If you feel you are a strong diver I would not miss the Express. It is a ball and we saw tons of great stuff. Peleliu corner is not to be missed either. It seemed to be a bit less crowded too, perhaps because of the reputation (well earned) of having pretty exciting currents.

 

[Centrals]

Peleliu corner is not to be missed either. It seemed to be a bit less crowded too, perhaps because of the reputation (well earned) of having pretty exciting currents.

It is the distance from Koror rather than the strenght of the current.
We did not go because the sea was too rough!!
No such problem when we were on Big Blue.