Hi all,
I got quite some useful info from this board before leaving, so here's a short summary of our trip:
Hotel: Palau Plantation Resort. Great rooms (we had a jungle view cabin), very welcoming and good service. The food seemed to have been aimed mainly at Asians - not really my taste. It was also very quiet, even at the otherwise very nice 'Jungle Bar'. Quite a walk to the city centre, but there is a shuttle and dive ops will pick you up
Dive Op: Fish 'n Fins. Excellent service, very well organised, although sometimes a little 'factory-like' - about 40 divers every day. Dive crew was great and very friendly, reception was correct but less friendly. Both owners were very friendly also. Excellent speedboats. Very expensive, but not more than other Palau dive ops.
The diving: Well, what can I say... Egypt wil never be the same again. Sharks, Manta's (check the view into a Manta's mouth around the 9th minute in the video!), Napoleons, turtles, Barracudas, ... Flying in the current with a reef hook watching all of this and much more pass by, amazing. Don't worry about current - you're never asked to fight any currents and guides know the best times to dive all the spots. All you have to do is just fly along
Chandelier Cave: I started quite a discussion in another thread about this site before leaving. Reactions varied from 'almost an OW dive, no problem' to 'you will die, don't do it'. It is certainly not your usual OW dive, but you won't die. As long as you're not afraid of enclosed spaces, have decent buoyancy and have done at least one OW night dive, and you like caverns/caves, don't hesitate. Only a few metres of the dive have real overheads, elsewhere there are large air pockets. The exit can always been seen if you turn off your light.
Here's the video, hope you enjoy: Diving Palau April 2012 - YouTube
I got quite some useful info from this board before leaving, so here's a short summary of our trip:
Hotel: Palau Plantation Resort. Great rooms (we had a jungle view cabin), very welcoming and good service. The food seemed to have been aimed mainly at Asians - not really my taste. It was also very quiet, even at the otherwise very nice 'Jungle Bar'. Quite a walk to the city centre, but there is a shuttle and dive ops will pick you up
Dive Op: Fish 'n Fins. Excellent service, very well organised, although sometimes a little 'factory-like' - about 40 divers every day. Dive crew was great and very friendly, reception was correct but less friendly. Both owners were very friendly also. Excellent speedboats. Very expensive, but not more than other Palau dive ops.
The diving: Well, what can I say... Egypt wil never be the same again. Sharks, Manta's (check the view into a Manta's mouth around the 9th minute in the video!), Napoleons, turtles, Barracudas, ... Flying in the current with a reef hook watching all of this and much more pass by, amazing. Don't worry about current - you're never asked to fight any currents and guides know the best times to dive all the spots. All you have to do is just fly along
Chandelier Cave: I started quite a discussion in another thread about this site before leaving. Reactions varied from 'almost an OW dive, no problem' to 'you will die, don't do it'. It is certainly not your usual OW dive, but you won't die. As long as you're not afraid of enclosed spaces, have decent buoyancy and have done at least one OW night dive, and you like caverns/caves, don't hesitate. Only a few metres of the dive have real overheads, elsewhere there are large air pockets. The exit can always been seen if you turn off your light.
Here's the video, hope you enjoy: Diving Palau April 2012 - YouTube
