I am am booked for a Palau live-aboard in 6 weeks; the specials were enticing. I booked about 3 weeks ago but already had 3 flight schedule changes and have discussed the situation with the operator. What they are currently recommending is to arrive on the same day the boat departs. In a normal world, no one in their right mind would ever recommend this, but I'm comfortable because the Guam to Palau flight is only once a week and its the only commercial airline available from North America. Since the operator is recommending, maybe requiring, that specific arrival, most or all of the other divers for the boat will be coming on that flight so I'm not concerned about being left behind.
The operator did say that the boat's itinerary had been modified to facilitate the required testing on day 5 and will be making a stop for that purpose before resuming the trip. I did see several of the other dive and liveaboard operators on the list of certified businesses.
Pandemic Safety Certification - Pristine Paradise Palau
Once the trip is complete, I will stay for another 5 days of land based diving. Unless the flight schedule gets reduced again to once a week and then I will have to decide if I stay on land for a full week, or leave on Sunday after the liveboard.
As for the flights to get to Palau, I am required to make connections in Chicago (44 mins), Honolulu (85 mins), and Guam (was 5 hours, now almost 30). When my connection time in Chicago dropped to 44 mins, I decided to improve my odds of getting there by starting out a day earlier, spending 30 hours in Guam (HNL-GUM is once a day) rather than miss one of the other connections to a once a week flight.
I hope that in a little over 2 months, I'll be post a trip report when I return. But until then, it certainly appears possible to get to Palau with some patience. The Philippines however is showing no signs of reopening to tourism any time soon. This is where I have rebooked and rebooked and rebooked since November 2019. My initial cancellation was due to a typhoon, and I have trip credits that I plan to use when the country reopens. Entry requirements are restrictive and the mandatory quarantine has made the trip impossible. I'd be cautious with making plans to the Philippines since the national and local governments seem to be unpredictable and erratic with travel restrictions and health measures. I agree that trip insurance with "cancel for any reason" coverage is a smart investment at the moment for traveling anywhere besides Mexico and the Caribbean given the fluidity of international travel at the moment.
