On Palau a couple of days early

[It is me]

Hi Everyone, I am going to be diving on Palau Christmas week 2022 (Aggressor Liveaboard). There are no flights from Guam to Palau on December 24th, so we will be coming in a couple of days early (after midnight on the 22nd).
- Any advice on where to stay or what to do for a couple of days?
- Since we land at that time of night, will the hotel pick us up?
- We have to get off the boat the morning of Jan 1st, but don't fly until 2am Jan 2nd. The Aggressor folks are recommending us taking a day room at the cover - but it is nearly $500. That seems excessive for somewhere to hang out, and no overnight stay. Any other advice?
Thank you so much!

 

[cozcharlie]

I posted a trip report back in June that might be helpful, but a few thoughts :

Almost all the flights arrive at night so hotel should be able to arrange pickup. There may be a small fee but they do it all the time.

There are several decent hotels to stay in when you arrive early. Palau Pacific Resort is probably the nicest but it is kind of by itself and has a big price tag. Palau Central Hotel, Cove Resort, and Palau Royal Resort are all nice middle/upper middle range options. There are several others too.

$500 USD is a whole lot for a day room. You are there at New Year’s , so things are going to be pricey, but hopefully not that pricey. Maybe you can talk to whatever hotel you are staying at before your trip .


Depending upon when exactly you get in, you might try to do one day of land based diving before boarding the boat. We actually dove with Sam’a Tours the day of our aggressor departure (just left our luggage at Sams while we dived and went to drop off bar afterwards to wait on Aggressor skiff). There are also some land tours you can take or kayak. Think some people hiked to waterfall but I didn’t go.

 

[lermontov]

I was there a month ago and stayed at cove resort- very nice -its about 5 min walk to Sam's tours that run land based dive trips to various reef and wreck dives - theres also a land tour that takes in the ww2 memorbilia - Richard runs some really nice trips and if your timing is right you can see the fish spawning on the full moon -driop Richard a line on: info@unique-ocean-expeditions.com

 

[Centrals]

Check in in the morning and leave in the same evening can be regarded as TWO days stay!

Agoda has some places for around US$110.00 per day.
Aggressor is being incompetent to suggest $500.00 for a day room.

 

[Damselfish]

Palau hotels or any airport transport are used to picking up people at whatever wacky hour the flights arrive, not like you'll be the only one. Same goes with getting checked in/out of places there will be some provision. (Sadly as Centrals hints, much harder to get them to redefine a days stay in a way you would prefer.)

This is generally true throughout the region, where lots of flights arrive/depart at odd hours. When you've got such long flights it's just the nature of the beast, the math doesn't allow "normal" times on both ends. And they may have to work around airport time restrictions or landing slots at some bigger airports. If just one end gets to be normal it's not going to be some little island in the middle of the Pacific. The tourism industry in these places just has to deal with it.

 

[Damselfish]

We've stayed at Palau Pacific a few times and it's nice enough, though not really worth what they charge. You can do a decent warm up shore dive from the shop there, and there's some other interesting stuff to see on the property. Snorkel even, off the beach had the best collection of giant clams I've seen.

We did an all day kayak trip with Sam's which was great.

One thing we have done on group trips is get a couple shared day rooms where people can leave luggage, shower, change, nap - assuming people will mostly be exploring or hanging at the pool. Less painful if you get stuck booking 2 days for less than one day of day room. (It's been a long time, but FWIW we found PPR very much _not_ flexible on that sort of thing.) At least for the end you can see if anyone on your LOB trip is interested.

 

[pintodog]

Dove in Palau in August aboard the RI Aggressor. Came a few days early and really enjoyed myself. Info:
1) We stayed at the Sea Passion. Nice place and very convenient.
2) We did several activities..

• Half day snorkel/kayak in Risong Bay with Paddling Palau. Risong Bay is a beautiful area to kayak and you also get to snorkel Mandarinfish Lake (where we did see mandarin fish).
• Sightseeing flight with Smile Air. This was fantastic (we chose the open door option). It was great to do this before the live aboard so you can see all the areas that you are going to dive. Very cool
• All Day tour with Swings Tours. This was fantastic! Swing is an awesome guy. He really tailors the tour based on what you want to do. We did a mix of snorkeling (on some wrecks, Cemetery reef, etc), a bit of fishing for lunch, a bit of swimming with black tip reef sharks, and a visit to Jellyfish lake. I highly recommend these guys. We did this tour right before boarding the live aboard and Swing actually dropped us off right at the RI Aggressor at the end of the day!
• 2 tank dive with Sam's Tours. Very good outfit and it was a great day. Good thing we did this because it was the only dive we saw a manta!

3) Day rooms: Agreed with others. $500 is ridiculous. We decided to stay in town for something different. We ended up with a simple air-conditioned airbnb with 2 bunkbeds...cost $120 for the 4 of us.

 

[DreadnoughtNH]

I just returned from the RIA. Here are some recommendations:

- Stay at the Palau Central Hotel pre-Aggressor. Rooms are great, and the hotel is centrally located. Hotel can coordinate pickup at the airport.
- RIKE (Rock Island Kayak Expeditions) is a great operator for a first day adventure. Includes lunch and some snorkeling in saltwater lakes and lagoons.
- Do some diving with a land operation pre-Aggressor. We used Sam's and were very very happy. It allowed us to get acclimated to the strong currents and dive conditions before getting on the liveaboard. Sam's is very professional while also being low-key. Ask for Ray to be your DM, he's a hoot and a turtle whisperer.
- Visit L'Amarena and have the gelato. An italian couple opened the cafe a few years ago, and it is excellent.
- Both Elilai and The Taj restaurants are excellent!
- We stayed at The Cove following the Aggressor and it is 'fine' but nothing special. It's near the marina, has a nice pool and Sam's but not near downtown or good food options. You're better off getting a room again at the Palau Central Hotel. OTOH, if all you want to do on your day before flying out is lying on a sunbed next to a pool, The Cove is hard to beat!

Hope this helps!

 

[peeweediver]

Thanks for the update on your “before boat” stay. Our group will be there in about a month. Don’t mind current but hope some dives have little to none. Sometimes you just want to chill.

Rob

 

[Doc Harry]

Any thoughts on the Palua Hotel?

PALAU HOTEL

PALAU HOTEL presents you the Authentic Palau. At the hub of Koror and right in the front of the WCTC, the Palau Hotel always welcomes passengers with its warmest regards each day and night

www.palauhotel.net