Palau: Sam's tour or Neco Marine

[scjoe]

I've only been diving with Sams and like them a lot. PDA is a much smaller and quieter operation than Sams or Neco. Neco has the newest facilities. Sam's has the most activity at the bar and restaurant and appears to be the largest operation. It has a lot of boats. All three operators use the same size boats for the most part. 6 to 8 divers and 2 to 3 crew per boat seemed to be about the norm, but that probably varies by season.

If you stay at the Sea Passion, PDA is on site. Sam's is about two blocks away (if you take the short cut through the equipment yard) and Neco is maybe a block and a half away on the other side of the street. It is closer to Palau Royal Resort. Sam's will come get you in the morning by boat (at least at the Sea Passion) and take you home in the afternoon by van. I'm not sure about Neco, but I assume it is the same. Neco and Sams pick you up at the airport. Not sure about PDA. Sam's has the nicest view from its bar area and has the mandarin fish dive at its location.

My recollection is that Neco has newer and slightly faster boats with front facing seating as opposed to benches along the sides.

You will have a great time with any of the three operators.

 

[drbill]

You can arrange for airport pickup and dropoff by PDA. The charge for me was $30 US RT.

 

[jake11]

When we went we split our time between Sea Passions( one week) and PPr. I did like the short walk to Sam's through the equipment yard and being within walking distance to several great food places! On the other hand, it was pretty special staying at PPR!!! Loved it there!

 

[travelem]

Cumulatively since Feb 2013, I have been out with Neco on 14 day trips. The most crowded of the trips was when I (foolishly) chose to go to Palau during Chinese New Year-not a good idea. On a few of those days, I saw perhaps 12 divers on the boat and a minimum of 2 DMs. On most of the day trips with them, there were usually 4-6 divers total, with 2 DMs. I cant recall going out with only one DM on the boat except once when there were only 3 divers of pretty high-and comparable-dive experience. One of the nice things about Necos is that they are big enough to run multiple boats when there is too much discordance in the experience of the divers, and/or when there is a group of divers that wants to stay together, and cramming them in with a few other random divers would be possible but unpleasant. Most dive ops (IMHO, and speaking in general terms about dive ops I have known in various dive locales) want to do that and state an intention to do that, but often can't afford that.

---------- Post added January 25th, 2015 at 11:11 PM ----------

BTW-I have no doubt that Chris-the US based co-owner of PDA-keeps his word about the guaranteed group size (I think they set the limit at 10 divers)-so I think you could expect a group no larger than that if you go with them. You could theoretically be on a boat with more divers if you go with Neco Marine. If you dont have hotel reservations yet, you need to get on that ASAP. There is a crunch with hotel rooms because Chinese agencies are booking entire hotels for long blocks of time, even without customers to fill them, now that there are multiple daily direct flights from 3 Chinese cities to Koror.

We will stay at the Palau Pacific Resort. Is Neco far from Palau Pacific Resort?

Neco will pick me up anyway.

 

[jfcl01]

PPR is far (relatively speaking) from everything, as it is on an adjoining island. It is several minutes by car, but probably too far to walk into town (and the road is twisty and not ideal for pedestrians). There won't be any real shortage of hotel cars, shuttles, dive shop employees, taxis, and other friendly people hanging around that will be willing to take you wherever you want to go, whenever (or nearly whenever) you want.

 

[scjoe]

There are also cabs available. If you want to explore, just get the cabby's number when he drops you off and have a shop keeper call him when you want to be picked up to go to the next spot. As long as you let him know about how long you want to be in a given spot, it seems to work out just fine. It is the Micronesian version of Uber.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Use the Blue Bird Shuttle Bus from Palau Pacific Resort, which services most of the major hotels and goes into "downtown" Koror with stops at where the popular shops/restaurants are. Flat rate $7.00 for a whole week, it runs approx from 6pm to 11pm.

 

[travelem]

Use the Blue Bird Shuttle Bus from Palau Pacific Resort, which services most of the major hotels and goes into "downtown" Koror with stops at where the popular shops/restaurants are. Flat rate $7.00 for a whole week, it runs approx from 6pm to 11pm.

Yes, we plan to use the shuttle bus.

 

[redgym]

I have dived with all three of the above named ops over the past two years. Neco Marine for best all around and most professional service. Ask to be on Fabio's boat. He is in the top three DMs I have dived with, ever.

We had the exact opposite experience with Neco and Fabio. I found him to be unprofessional and lacking in safety. For example, as soon as we walked in the shop we were encouraged (almost pressured) to use Nitrox despite being very clear that we weren't certified for Nitrox. I could post a other examples, but suffice it to say I wouldn't not recommend Neco.

 

[drbill]

I just returned from 2 1/2 weeks in Palau diving with Palau Dive Adventures. I had a fantastic time with them. Fun crew. The boat goes out with 7-8 divers or less so you get personalized service and it is fairly valet... they bring your gear to the boat and clean it after the day is through. The crew takes requests (we did Blue Corner 6 times in the two plus weeks) and everyone on board had a great time both weeks. I know Sam's and Necco have good reputations, but I was a bit put off by the size of Sam's operation... seeing their boat board with as many as 13 divers per boat would have created a less than ideal situation while diving the walls where one cannot spread out too far to film without diver's bubbles interfering. I did know someone who dive with Sam's while I was there and she said she had a great time.