Is Palau worth a dive trip

IS PALAU WORTH A DIVE TRIP?
Palau is well known by divers as being among the best diving in the world. But! Is it REALLY the best diving in the world and can it live up to destinations like Cocos, Galapagos or even the Maldives! The answer is simple: it all depends on how you dive there. We recommend diving from a liveaboard for maximum diving fun.
Destination: Palau, Micronesia
How is the diving? All year around an abundance of big fish like reef sharks, manta rays and schools of bumpheads or groupers
Dive level? All levels can be accommodated, however, for the channels AOWD and good buoyancy is recommended
Best dive time? Nov – May, since the visibility is generally better, otherwise can be dived all year around
How to dive Palau? There are liveaboards and land-based dive operators
Water temperature? 28-29° Celsius
Visibility? 15-40 meters
Current? Expect medium to strong currents depending on the dive site
Dive equipment? 3-5 mm wetsuit, reef hook, SMB
What else you need to know? Jellyfish Lake is not a dive site, but spectacular site to go snorkeling with hundreds of jellyfish, which are harmless 
 
SERIOUSLY, CAN PALAU KEEP UP WITH THE TOP SPOTS?
Palau is one of the most fascinating dive spots on our planet with breathtaking landscape in form of small bee-hived islands, turquoise waters and white sandy beaches. A variety of channel dives and amazing dive spots are located off the Rock Islands. Since 2012 the Rock Island are a protected World Heritage site. The Rock Islands surfaced to form islands in Palau’s Southern Lagoon between Koror State and Pelelieu State. There are between 250-300 islands in the group, which you will see on the way from Koror City to famous dive sites like Blue Corner, German Channel or Ulong Channel. 
 
HOW IS THE DIVING?
Diving in Palau is sheer spectacular, if you happen to be there in the early morning or late afternoon! During the day expect 10 – 30 day boats surfacing on one dive spot. So what is it that makes Palau so fascinating for divers? Palau offers a great variety of dive sites including
Last, but not least, Palau is famous for the Jellyfish Lake, which is not a dive site, but certainly a spectacular place for snorkelers and a must-visit!  
 
LET’S BE CLEAR! LIVEABOARD IS THE WAY TO GO.
There are many land-based dive operators in Koror, which tempt divers with interesting hotel-diving packages! However, our clear opinion is – you need to know what to expect. Here is a list of insights you need to understand before planning your trip to Palau in terms of land-based operators vs. liveaboards.
 
Price & value for money
If you compare liveaboard options with land-based operators the packages seem to be double the price depending on the hotel option you pick. However, you need to compare the diving packages carefully, e.g.:
 
1 week liveaboard diving: approximately US$ 2800-3500 per person or up to 50% off with www.DivingSpecials.com  - we recommend monitoring our deals carefully, since we get regular liveaboard options at amazing price points!
 
17 dives in a dive shop: US$ 1275 per person plus hotel options ranging from US$ 700 per person – US$ 1600 per person (3-5* hotels)
 
You can see that picking a 5* resort in Koror City with a package of 17 dives might add up to the same price as one week on a liveaboard. So why still take a liveaboard? The reasons are simple:
 
  1. You are the first and last on the dive spots and see big pelagics the divers coming on day boats can only dream about! Massive reef shark populations at Blue Corner, 10-20 manta rays at German channels or 50+ groupers at Ulung Channel. Palau has it all. You just have to be there in the early morning or late afternoon. The diving you experience from a liveaboard is sheer more spectacular. That is why you came in the first place, didn’t you?
  2. You have 100% comfort including short transfers from the liveaboard to the dive sites (5-10min) and you are not exposed to the weather on your surface intervals, since you will be comforted back to the boat with a refreshing towel, hot tea and a little snack.
  3. The guests joining a liveaboard have to be experienced divers, whereas the ones joining the day boats could be open water divers. This can be problematic, if the unexperienced divers are running out of air quickly and the whole group has to surface.
  4. You can have the real Palau beach feeling conquering the hundreds of inhabited Rock Islands in the late afternoon and evenings. All the liveaboards organize a beach party or BBQ on spot! This is the real island feeling and for sure you will have some memories of a lifetime.
Our recommendation: take the liveaboard!
 
Dive operations
 
Why take the liveaboard with limited privacy, if you can have a 5 star resort? It all starts with the nature of the land-based operators in Koror City! Usually, you will get to the dive center at around 8.30 am and start the boat ride at 9.00 am. The operators organize a lunch on the dive days, which you can enjoy on the beach of the Rock Islands. This may sound beautiful and yes, it is, but be aware that you are fully exposed to the weather including heavy tropical rainfalls, which can come up unexpectedly, or the sun and potential sunburn. It takes approximately 1 hour to get from Koror City to the ‘outer reefs’, which are the more spectacular channel dives and what makes Palau so exciting for divers! The boats the operators use are rather uncomfortable touristy ‘day’ boats, which they adjusted for divers to incorporate the tanks. The engines can be very loud and the water splashing on the guests is a common thing to happen. Once you arrive at the dive spot the briefings are normally short, which lies also within the nature of the situation – you are on the open ocean, people might want to get ready for diving and it’s not easy to understand the dive guides on all angles of the boat. You jump, enjoy the dive and follow the dive guide. Once the first one runs out of air, you dive up. The problem is that once you hit the dive site for your first dive it is about10.30 am! Expect 10 – 30 boats on famous dive sites and 100+ divers on spot. The noise of the engines and the underwater tourism certainly scares away the pelagics and you might not see the overwhelming shark population or the big schools of fish coming close as usually.  If you are lucky, you see one manta ray and occasionally smaller groups of baby reef sharks.
 
Our recommendation: take a towel on the day trips, sun cream and pills in case your are sensitive to long boat rides. Better double check your equipment, since there is no spare equipment on the day boats.
 
Divers & level of experience
 
The land-based operators work on efficiency. This means that adding up as many divers possible to the day boats. Groups can be very mixed in terms of the experience and in Palau there is a clear policy – you follow the guide. Currents can be strong or pick up quickly. In order to avoid that the group gets separated and individual divers drift away, everyone would dive up, once the first one runs out of air. This comes at the big disappointment of more experienced divers you might dive up with half the tank.
 
Our recommendation: make sure that the level of divers is approximately the same before joining a dive shop or one of the boats.
 
Excursions & selection of dive sites
 
Expect dive sites to repeat with new divers joining the land-based diving operations. Everyone wants to dive the German Channel or Blue Corner. Within one week and 10 dives we ended up diving German Channel from a land-based operator 4 times! Also, don’t miss spawning events around full and new moon, esp. between Nov - Feb
Bumphead parrotfish spawning: new moon -> you will witness 100+ bumphead parrotfish to start the mating dance! With loud bangs male bumpheads bump their heads together like buffaloes to gain superiority over females with colour changes taking place as the fish prepare to spawn.
Red snappers spawning: full moon -> Not surprisingly, these huge aggregations also attract the biggest predators in Palau such as bull sharks, oceanic blacktip sharks, and hammerheads.
 
Our recommendation: discuss with the dive guides on new dive sites prior to the day excursion. Certain trips might require 4 or more guests to make it happen. There are options to go to Pelelieu or further off with an extra permit. It is certainly worth it to avoid the ‘normal’ day boat tourism and see something new for a fresh change.
 
If you wish to get more information on potential Palau diving options for your next dive adventure, we would be happy to help! Email us for your customized dive trip: service@divingSpecials.com and check out our deals on www.DivingSpecials.com
 
Yours,
Sarah  
service@DivingSpecials.com
 
published in January 2020

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