CAPTAIN SINBAD
Contributor
Can anyone give an estimate of how much it costed you guys to do tech trip in Truuk lagoon? I mean flight from mainland USA, hotel stay, boat and gas fills?
Thanks.
Thanks.
Cost of Truk tech trip?
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CptTightPants21
Contributor
TL;DR - 1 Week on Odyssey budget $6,500 all in. 1 Week shore based budget 4,500-5,500 all-in the wide range is caused by how many dives you plan on doing, nitrox vs air, how much alcohol you plan on drinking. These are OC prices, I don't know CC. Helium is $6-7 a cuft----yeah, I didn't dive helium.
Flights-Depends on your starting location
East Coast is 1$,900-$2,300 Coach, 2700 extra space seat, or if you have credit card points you can fly business for ~200,000 depending on airline which translates to a little over $3,000. I have seen West Coast starting points go for a few hundred less and some for about the same.
Best plane routes are either Honolulu >Guam>TKK or Tokyo>Guam>TKK. There is also a puddle jumper that might hit several small islands before going to Truk--but I focused on the quickest route and fewer stop overs.
Odyssey Route:
Odyssey is mostly all inclusive so there is no need to calculate gear rental, food, or drink costs--food is on average very good, wouldn't call it excellent, butI don't think anyone on the trip had any issues with it. The open top shelf bar is pretty sweet and one of the key drivers of value (along with the diver lift) when attempting to compare shore vs liveaboard based. Odyssey will be 3 dives a day plus an optional night dive that not many people did because they wanted to drink at the bar. Most people did 18 dives.
Odyssey pricing is $3,609 + 350-400 tip + gas bill of $175-$225. 30% nitrox is included and banked so diving 50% is considerably cheaper (~$16 per 30cuft bottle) than 100% O2 ($60 per bottle). My gas bill was $175 and $75 of that was on one wreck dive when we needed 100% O2--The San Francisco. All other dives I decoed on 50% and the Odyssey did a good job of alternating between deep sites and shallower sites so that deco never got out of hand and I only breathed one 30cuft bottle of 50% per day.
Shore Based:
Can be very variable--how many dives a day are you doing? Doing 3 a day shore based to match the Odyssey requires being a little more gungho because of the time spent getting back to shore and picking up fills--boats aren't really the proper size to hold all the extra tanks and you will need a solid surface interval after a long deco dive anyway. How large is your group? Staying at Blue Lagoon or Truk Stop or L5? Truk Stop and Blue Lagoon both have price lists--$15 a day for doubles, $10 per day for stage, boat rides $75 per trip, room rates $125-$140,etc.
If you are comparing apples to apples--18 dives a day
Dives $75 x 1,350.00
double tank 75 for week
stage 50.00 x 2 = 100 for week
Room 875 437.50 (split with buddy)
Food/drink 60.00 x 7 =420
Nitrox 300 --hard to gauge. Shallower depth use less deco gas and have nitrox, but deep wrecks you dive air and only pay for the deco gas because air is included.
Dive permit 50.00
Tip 250
I would probably budget $5,500 for shore based, but expect to end up closer to $5,000 maybe even below if I didn't drink a lot of alcohol and didn't do as many dives.
Flights-Depends on your starting location
East Coast is 1$,900-$2,300 Coach, 2700 extra space seat, or if you have credit card points you can fly business for ~200,000 depending on airline which translates to a little over $3,000. I have seen West Coast starting points go for a few hundred less and some for about the same.
Best plane routes are either Honolulu >Guam>TKK or Tokyo>Guam>TKK. There is also a puddle jumper that might hit several small islands before going to Truk--but I focused on the quickest route and fewer stop overs.
Odyssey Route:
Odyssey is mostly all inclusive so there is no need to calculate gear rental, food, or drink costs--food is on average very good, wouldn't call it excellent, butI don't think anyone on the trip had any issues with it. The open top shelf bar is pretty sweet and one of the key drivers of value (along with the diver lift) when attempting to compare shore vs liveaboard based. Odyssey will be 3 dives a day plus an optional night dive that not many people did because they wanted to drink at the bar. Most people did 18 dives.
Odyssey pricing is $3,609 + 350-400 tip + gas bill of $175-$225. 30% nitrox is included and banked so diving 50% is considerably cheaper (~$16 per 30cuft bottle) than 100% O2 ($60 per bottle). My gas bill was $175 and $75 of that was on one wreck dive when we needed 100% O2--The San Francisco. All other dives I decoed on 50% and the Odyssey did a good job of alternating between deep sites and shallower sites so that deco never got out of hand and I only breathed one 30cuft bottle of 50% per day.
Shore Based:
Can be very variable--how many dives a day are you doing? Doing 3 a day shore based to match the Odyssey requires being a little more gungho because of the time spent getting back to shore and picking up fills--boats aren't really the proper size to hold all the extra tanks and you will need a solid surface interval after a long deco dive anyway. How large is your group? Staying at Blue Lagoon or Truk Stop or L5? Truk Stop and Blue Lagoon both have price lists--$15 a day for doubles, $10 per day for stage, boat rides $75 per trip, room rates $125-$140,etc.
If you are comparing apples to apples--18 dives a day
Dives $75 x 1,350.00
double tank 75 for week
stage 50.00 x 2 = 100 for week
Room 875 437.50 (split with buddy)
Food/drink 60.00 x 7 =420
Nitrox 300 --hard to gauge. Shallower depth use less deco gas and have nitrox, but deep wrecks you dive air and only pay for the deco gas because air is included.
Dive permit 50.00
Tip 250
I would probably budget $5,500 for shore based, but expect to end up closer to $5,000 maybe even below if I didn't drink a lot of alcohol and didn't do as many dives.
lermontov
Contributor
back from chuuk a few days ago but can only give you costs from my side of the world (NZ) but here are some other costs in US$
i didn't find the shore diving a problem at all in fact id prefer it - its only 30 minute on the boat to most wreck sites
extra costs for twins or side mount $15 per day
food - allow $30-40 a day
50% deco gas $50 a fill
departure tax $30
dive permit $50
diving as per the schedule on the website
tips
clownfishsydney
Contributor
From experience over six trips, shore based is best. For the cost of one week on a liveaboard, you can do 2.5 weeks shore based. Diving two dives a day rather than four on a liveaboard is safer and you can do longer bottom times. You can also dive more of the deeper (more than 33 metre wrecks) this way, on a liveaboard you can only do five or perhaps six. Runs from shore are not long and it is nice going back for a relaxed lunch and then heading out again.
bamafan
Contributor
It's been over 5 years for me but I seem to remember it being a 3k flight and about $3500 for a week on the Odyssey. I didn't dive helium but the deepest wreck I did was the Oite at 210' ish if I recall correctly.
When you guys say shore diving, you mean taking a boat from shore rather than walking in?
bamafan
Contributor
Yes Blue Lagoon or the Truk Stop Hotel.
$50 for an S30 stage of 50% though, wow they are really milking this monopoly.
W W Meixner
Banned
Cap...
Originating from Toronto...I could probably double that...plus add another $5000. for contingency...
We haven't been on any ''bucket list'' vacation yet that didn't eat up anything less than $16,000/$18,000...that's for two...
And...for this or any real adventure you need nothing less than 10 days...14 days is preferable...7 days is a rat race...again from Toronto...with lay-overs/transfers...and contingencies...I'd eat up the better part of four days...getting there and getting back...
I wouldn't think of trying to do Truk in a week...for those who are based along the US west coast it may be easier and ''slightly less expensive''...although I still don't think 7 days is long enough for door to door...and if you're not sitting in the house with your feet up...you're burning money...and constantly slamming the credit card to cushion a tight budget...
W...
CptTightPants21
Contributor
I agree that 7 days is too fast for the amount of travel and 10-14 day trips either split half liveaboard/half shore based or all shore based are preferable. This isn't some tropical vacation where $500 fancy restaurant bills or extra excursions can really run up the tab. Dive.Eat.Sleep.Repeat. The costs are known and fairly fixed. Those are the costs for 7 days. A 14 day and 27 dive trip cost me 9,100 all-in, but that was also spending a night in Guam eating out, etc.
Sorry this wasn't clear, that is just the rental fee for the tank ($10 per day, $50 per 7). The 50% and 100% was in the nitrox number. When you do a lot of the deep wrecks you are using air so the gas bill is essentially your deco gas bill. It gets charged by the cuft so you only need to pay for what you are breathing.
This is true with caveats. It depends on what your diving goals are for the trip. 4 dives a day on Odyssey would require a night dive--only one person did one night dive on my liveaboard. Everyone was doing 3 dives a day comfortably. So in terms of total dive number the costs aren't apples to apples. Apples to Apples, I calculated Odyssey was about $1,200 more for a week. The Odyssey benefits are unlimited free booze, the dive lift, slightly nicer comforts-set up in the shade and jump out of boat, large movie library after hours, cookies/fruit after every dive etc.--I honestly felt a bit like a hobbit with the food--so is this 2nd breakfast or 1st lunch or perhaps mid morning snack? I'm a young guy so I had no problem with the small shore skifs, but a ton of older divers absolutely loved the diver lift aboard the Odyssey. No backroll entry or climbing back in the boat.
If I was going with a smaller group of likeminded divers and wanted to do the deeper wrecks, I would probably operate shore based. If it is a larger group with a variety of diving skill and personalities, I would look a little harder at the Liveaboard.
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