Question Palau Diving Base Recommendation

[Franek]

My wife and I will be in Palau in December and January.
We have a question about a dive shop that you have had experience with and can recommend.
We are also curious about your opinions about Black Pearl Liveaboard, we have a preliminary booking, maybe someone has been on this Liveaboard and is able to recommend it.
We will be grateful for the information

 

[Franek]

We are arriving in Palau on Dec 16th, want to do 2 days of scuba diving before staying on Liveabord, check gear and balance before staying on LB. We are both short-term divers, we have been diving for 1.5 years, we prefer to prepare for LB
On December 20, we will start our stay at Black Pearl for seven nights
(Palau Snapper Spawning).
We have an extra 5 days as we finish our stay on LB we fly out on January 2nd.
Very interesting video from your dive, we hope to experience it.

best regards

 

[cozcharlie]

FYI It is possible to a shore dive from Sam’s tours. I think they call it their macro wall. It right off the dock and can be anywhere from 10-50 feet (according to my memory) depending what you choose to do. I think if you have boat diving booked with them the shore diving cost is minimal. We used that shore dive our first afternoon in Palau and then dove with them on the boat the following day. The visibility was only 20 feet off the dock when we did it but I gather it normally quite a bit better (it had been raining for a solid week ). We dove with Sam’s before and after our liveaboard . Other shops may have a similar shore dive option —I don’t know . Sams area is fairly quiet if Sams isn’t loading unloading divers. I think Neco area is probably a little busier .

 

[cetacean]

I've been to Palau 3 times, diving both land based and LOB. Headed back w/my son later this year.

If you don't mind the long boat rides, both Sam's and Neco Marine are the best dive operators available. If you want to dive Peleliu more than once or twice on a trip I highly recommend moving down to one of the smaller dive resorts on Peleliu, you will save yourself several hours each day (of travel time).

My preference for diving Palau will always be by LOB, just because of the extended boat rides to/from either Sam's or Neco Marine. The boats are fast, the water is flat (once inside the reef), however the 90 min to 2 hours of travel time/day gets repetitive if you are doing 5+ days of diving. It is fun for a day or two, but it gets old quickly.

The other aspect of this that most people don't consider is that the LOBs are able to get divers on the best sites earlier in the morning, before the day boats get out to these sites. Diving Blue Corner in a group of 5-6 is much different than diving it with a group of 20 other divers (from multiple boats). this is true for any of the best sites. The LOBs will sit inside the reef for the night, usually 5-10 min away from the sites to be dived the next day. It will take a boat from Sam's ~40 min to get to the same spot.

 

[Kendall Raine]

If you want to dive Peleliu more than once or twice on a trip I highly recommend moving down to one of the smaller dive resorts on Peleliu, you will save yourself several hours each day (of travel time).

We spent a weekend on Peleliu visiting the battefield sites between weeks diving with Palau Dive Adventures (PDA) and staying at Palau Pacific Resort (PPR) . Very moving and I recommend it if you know/interested in the history of the pacific war. Stayed at Dolphin Bay. They have a dive shop attached, although when we were there (December 2019) the shop was closed. My guess is they only open upon request/reservation-no such thing as walk-ins on Peleliu and it's very quiet. Palau Dive Adventures arranged to drop us off on Peleliu after our dives as well as arranging the hotel and contacting the guide (Tanjie Jesus). Staying on Peleliu and diving from there will definitely save a lot of time. Getting things set up (Dolphin Bay, Tanjie, transportation) is not easy/took a while and PDA's staff helped us out a lot in doing this.

DM me if you're interested in details.