Qantas flights to Palau

[eminere]

I'm in Palau now, hit me up if people need on the ground research ... I'll even attempt to put a TR together.

Would love a trip report!

 

[k_sheep]

.... oh yeah ....

Got a few flights coming up, will see what I can cobble together in the airport lounges!

 

[bPeteb]

I suppose the question is - is Palau worth visiting? Enough to do for a week? Accommodation, for us, is expensive. Is it just because of low supply and high demand? We'll soon have direct access to the Cookies, yes, with that airline that those of us without limitless budgets fly. We love the Cookies. Comparable experience if you've been?

 

[waimate01]

We just got back from a week in Palau.

First, the flights:

Departed BNE on time. Looong walk to the gate - we left the lounge at first announcement, but were among the last few passengers to board. We travelled J, and I happened to be sitting next to the engineer who puts the aircraft to sleep and wakes it up again in the morning, so that was nice. A personal "ask the engineer" session.

J was completely full, but I estimate Y was only maybe 40% full. Apparently they are weight limited, presumably for diversion purposes. Arrival into ROR very straightforward. ROR is *not* a busy airport - they publish all their movements for the month on a single A4 page (sparsely). Baggage came out quickly and immigration was painless as we had completed our arrival doco beforehand and had the QR code. Photo taken, Palau Pledge signed, and they wanted to sight our return ticket. We didn't get patted-down or even cross-examined about sunscreen, which was a bit surprising.

Return flight departed 15 minutes late. Hard to understand why, as there's certainly no traffic - air or ground. We ended up arriving at the airport absurdly early, but oh well. Exit immigration guy thanked us for visiting. No lounges worth mentioning, even for J. Not much food to be bought. Basic coffee. Basically, eat before you come.

Mostly the same people on the aircraft that had arrived with us and the general vibe on-board was very up-beat. No hot food, just dry snacks. But the flight crew did arrive with crushed ice so the french champagne was of an appropriate temperature. Spectacular track down the FFNQ coast.

Palau itself:

We came to Palau to dive. We dive quite a bit. A dozen or so trips to Fiji, also trips to the Solomons, Maldives, Tonga, French Polynesia, Wakatobi, Truk, Trobriand Islands. I say this not (just) to boast, but to establish our calibrated credibility that we are not one of those "omg I saw a fish, best dive ever" people. So how was the diving, you ask? Omg best diving ever !

Sharks, sharks, sharks. Turtles, mantas. Fish everywhere. Thick clouds of them. The first three dives were the three best dives of our lives. Obviously an aspect of luck to it, and even our guides were impressed. We did 17 dives during the week, and even the most ho-hum of the dives would have ranked as an excellent dive in Fiji.

The reef quality is exceptional. We did a couple of "coral garden" dives which usually I have a bit of trouble getting excited about, but the reef we saw was completely undamaged - lush and vibrant. Literally like from Finding Nemo. So good that I was swimming along thinking to myself that its so exceptional it almost seems fake

We did a good variety of dives. Wall, edge (reef hook), wreck, cave, cavern, drift, spawn (!).

Basically we are now worried that Palau has ruined us for diving anywhere else.

There are plenty of dive operations running out of Koror. We stayed on the Four Seasons Palau Explorer, which is an extremely luxe and kinda costly way to do it, but made everybody happy. The boat moves around from area to area, and then a separate dive boat heads out for the dives. Even with the mother vessel moving each day, the trips to the sites are still 20-30 mins in length. We were told the boats that come all the way from Koror are a bit faster, so really being based in Koror and going out daily would not be too much of a problem. There are also less costly liveaboard options.

I can't fault the FS Explorer. Very impressive. We were the only divers aboard, so each time we went out we had a boat team of three plus two guides (one a marine biologist) plus a videographer. Every time we got back to the big boat we were greeted with juice shots and cold towels. Our gear moved itself around by magic. The Explorer staff are all Maldivian, but they have sent a handful of Palauans to some Four Seasons properties in Maldives with the goal of soon deploying them on the Explorer. FS will also be opening a land-based resort.

Only downside is we didn't really get any time in Koror. I had planned for an afternoon there on departure-eve, but we ended up staying on the Explorer until 6pm so really didn't get a chance to go for a wander.

As such, I feel we have been to Palau, but only below water level.

Would we go again? In a heartbeat

 

[bPeteb]

We just got back from a week in Palau.

Only downside is we didn't really get any time in Koror. I had planned for an afternoon there on departure-eve, but we ended up staying on the Explorer until 6pm so really didn't get a chance to go for a wander.

As such, I feel we have been to Palau, but only below water level.

Would we go again? In a heartbeat

Thanks for the review waimate01. The reefs sound amazing but we're only snorkellers so hopefully there is just as good shallow coral as deep. We'll keep looking out for more reviews as they come in and hopefully the QF flights continue.

 

[waimate01]

Thanks for the review waimate01. The reefs sound amazing but we're only snorkellers so hopefully there is just as good shallow coral as deep. We'll keep looking out for more reviews as they come in and hopefully the QF flights continue.

The very best coral we saw was shallow, as is often the way

 

[RSD]

Palau itself:

We came to Palau to dive. We dive quite a bit. A dozen or so trips to Fiji, also trips to the Solomons, Maldives, Tonga, French Polynesia, Wakatobi, Truk, Trobriand Islands. I say this not (just) to boast, but to establish our calibrated credibility that we are not one of those "omg I saw a fish, best dive ever" people. So how was the diving, you ask? Omg best diving ever !

Sharks, sharks, sharks. Turtles, mantas. Fish everywhere. Thick clouds of them. The first three dives were the three best dives of our lives. Obviously an aspect of luck to it, and even our guides were impressed. We did 17 dives during the week, and even the most ho-hum of the dives would have ranked as an excellent dive in Fiji.

The reef quality is exceptional. We did a couple of "coral garden" dives which usually I have a bit of trouble getting excited about, but the reef we saw was completely undamaged - lush and vibrant. Literally like from Finding Nemo. So good that I was swimming along thinking to myself that its so exceptional it almost seems fake

We did a good variety of dives. Wall, edge (reef hook), wreck, cave, cavern, drift, spawn (!).

Sounds damn good!

A couple of quick questions - any info on the wrecks that you dived?

What were the currents like on the "non-reef hook" dives? And what was the moon phase when you was there?

 

[waimate01]

Sounds damn good!

A couple of quick questions - any info on the wrecks that you dived?

What were the currents like on the "non-reef hook" dives? And what was the moon phase when you was there?

We dived the Iro Maru, a 140m supply ship with a couple of guns mounted, depth 25-33m. Lots of penetration opportunities, but we didn't go far because everyone else were wreck n00bs. Very accessible and plenty to see even without going too far inside. There's a couple of decent spaces you can just drop into, so all pretty safe.

Also the Jake seaplane (Aichi E13A-1 ). Not a huge amount to see but nice and shiny and plenty of coral nearby . Fun for people who have never seen an aircraft underwater before.

In terms of dark spaces, the Chandelier Caves are also worth a look. Sunken limestone caves with three (four?) interconnected chambers each with a breathing space. Not much to see in terms of fish or coral, but an interesting dive nevertheless. Shallow and quite close to Koror.

We were there around the new moon. The bumpheads get it on a few days before. Different species do it at different times and places. You definitely need a guide who knows what they're doing, and even so it might take a couple of attempts because you've got to be in the right place at the right time, and the fish have to be in the right mood. It's all pretty hectic. For us it was a 5:30am departure.

The currents were generally pretty easy, but our guides said it's highly variable, usually stronger than we encountered, and the experience is best with a decent current running. We would have been absolutely fine without hooks, but I'd recommend taking one anyway.

 

[PERLHR]

Didn’t know where it is located
I do now View attachment 412137

But the next question is ...is it worth a few days visit? Who has been?

 

[RSD]

We dived the Iro Maru, a 140m supply ship with a couple of guns mounted, depth 25-33m. Lots of penetration opportunities, but we didn't go far because everyone else were wreck n00bs. Very accessible and plenty to see even without going too far inside. There's a couple of decent spaces you can just drop into, so all pretty safe.

Also the Jake seaplane (Aichi E13A-1 ). Not a huge amount to see but nice and shiny and plenty of coral nearby . Fun for people who have never seen an aircraft underwater before.

In terms of dark spaces, the Chandelier Caves are also worth a look. Sunken limestone caves with three (four?) interconnected chambers each with a breathing space. Not much to see in terms of fish or coral, but an interesting dive nevertheless. Shallow and quite close to Koror.

We were there around the new moon. The bumpheads get it on a few days before. Different species do it at different times and places. You definitely need a guide who knows what they're doing, and even so it might take a couple of attempts because you've got to be in the right place at the right time, and the fish have to be in the right mood. It's all pretty hectic. For us it was a 5:30am departure.

The currents were generally pretty easy, but our guides said it's highly variable, usually stronger than we encountered, and the experience is best with a decent current running. We would have been absolutely fine without hooks, but I'd recommend taking one anyway.

Many thanks! I've just had a look at Google Images for Iro Maru - looks like a lot of photography opportunities with the masts etc. - might be well worth a trip!