Easy to reach Pacific reef destinations

[bmag78]

Cleveland ---JFK. 1 HOUR
JFK -Manila 15 hour on PAL
Manila - ANILAO 2 hours BY CAR
18 hours plus waiting.
MANILA-PUERTO Galera 3 hours

 

[Dan]

As I already said, I am not looking for Raja-Ampat quality dives in Nebraska. I understand none of these places are easy to get to, but asking which are the easiest, along with possible suggestions of places I haven't thought about much. Of everything so far, Dan's suggestion of Mermaid makes the most sense.

You now have pretty good list of dive destinations in Indian-Pacific region for few years to come.

 

[bvbellomo]

Viti Levu or even Taveuni seem much easier than Philippines, and much cheaper as far as flights go, especially if I can fly DFW to NAN. Reading on here, the drawback to Taveuni seems to be the last flight where they might expect you to split luggage into 30lbs max per bag. Nothing land-based I've found has straightforward pricing for a single traveler, or maybe land based is simply above my price range.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Fiji. Nai'a liveaboard. Easy peasy.

 

[runsongas]

@bvbellomo for land based on taveuni the issue is that they expect two people to be sharing, so going as a solo you have to pay a supplement. unfortunately, dive shops don't like to run trips to taveuni and pretty much solely focus on BLR which is inferior diving, so joining a shop led trip where they can find you a roommate isn't really an option either if you want to do taveuni. imo, namena/bligh is better diving though for fiji.

as a solo traveler, a liveaboard is generally the better option if you don't mind possibly having a same gender roommate for the week and can't wrangle up a friend to split the cost of sharing at a land based resort. or look into cheaper destinations where paying to stay by yourself isn't as cost prohibitive (eg indonesia/philippines).

 

[bvbellomo]

Is this room sharing typical of everywhere or just Fiji?

 

[runsongas]

typical for land based, think of it like cruises where they don't assign roommates. booking a cruise by yourself typically costs a lot more than the per person rate booking two people.

you break the package down as the room + dives + meals. the room component in effect doubles with only one person staying (because you aren't dividing by two).

 

[also_anon_dc]

as a solo traveler, a liveaboard is generally the better option if you don't mind possibly having a same gender roommate for the week

Always confirm with the liveabaord that they will only assign you a same gender roommate. Mermaid specifically said they won't guarantee a roommate with the same gender so I chose to pay the single supplement.

 

[runsongas]

that seems crazy they would attempt to do that, I had never heard of a liveaboard that would before

 

[Centrals]

Always confirm with the liveabaord that they will only assign you a same gender roommate. Mermaid specifically said they won't guarantee a roommate with the same gender so I chose to pay the single supplement.

There must be other options. I would simply kick Mermaid to touch