Palau - Travel Advice

[ScubaGil]

Hello Fellow ScubaBoard members.

Looking for some advice on traveling to Palau. I am booked for 2 weeks on the Ocean Hunter boats in December (one week on I and one week on III) and I'm hoping to get some advice on two topics:
1. Flights
2. Luggage

Flights
Question #1
Leaving the New York area I'm looking at flights and it seems as if the most reasonable trip is 48 hour long trip going from Newark-->Honolulu (23 hour layover) -->Guam-->Yap-->Koror. Anything else that United has to offer has more connections or connections that are less than 2 hours. JAL, Korean, and Delta aren't offering anything better.

Can anyone recommend a better route?

Question #2
Is anyone aware of flights that leave ROR in the afternoon? It seems as if I'm looking at flights that depart only at 1am so I need to spend another day in Koror.

Question #3
How is the connection in Yap? Is it a small airport? I only have about an hours time to connect.

Luggage
I'm a light traveler and usually carry on my gear and another small bag with clothes. Will I have "challenges" boarding flights in the smaller airports like Guam, Yap and Koror? I'm also contemplating purchasing a Dive Caddy...do you think that the smaller airports will have issues with carrying it on the plane?


Any advice and help will be greatly greatly greatly appreciated.


Many thanks in advance,
ScubaGil

 

[Scared Silly]

A 23 hour layover in HNL is not so bad, we had something similar. Get a room near the airport, rent a car for the day, visit Pearl Harbor and go snorkeling in Hanauma Bay.

Delta does have a direct flight from NRT->ROR but you might end in NRT for a long layover. HNL is an easier layover.

Flights leave ROR in the middle of the night - just the way it is. We spent the day seeing over parts of the island via car.

You probably do not have a connection in Yap but a stop-over. You will just sit on the plane for a hour.

GUM is a not a small airport more of medium sized. You should not have any problems with whatever you carry on they are used to divers. But remember you will be transiting and go through immigration/customs/tsa in GUM.

 

[Woodiver]

We planned two day stop overs in HNL in both directions and it did help on the jet lag. The United outbound flight does leave ROR in the early morning so instead of staying the last night on the boat, most of the guests departed for the airport.

The flight to Yap is less than an hour and Yap has a unique security policy. If you are sitting in the back of the plane and seated on the ABC side, you have to deplane and take all of your carry on bags. Security boards and inspects the ABC side and then the people on the DEF side have to move to the ABC side along with their carry on bags. After security inspects the DEF side, the people who are on the plane need to move back to their original seats. After all of this is done, the people who deplaned can reboard. The flight to GUM is about an hour from Yap, needless to say but it is hard to get any sleep until you are the GUM to HNL leg.

 

[Akimbo]

I have some neighbors there now. He got the best price and travel time through Asiana. I believe the flight included two 50 Lb checked bags as well. The flight out of SFO was delayed due to weather but there was a person that met them at the plane in Korea and guided them to their connecting flight to Koror.

 

[Doubler]

Personnaly I would do anything to avoid Guam. Fly through Japan or Korea. TSA in Guam are a bunch of bullies.

 

[ocdiver1]

Might be worth checking into going via Manila, then picking up the United flight r/t Koror.

 

[RVBldr]

I went over last November from Seattle, flew Asiana from Seattle direct Inchon, did a 4-hour layover, then a direct flight to Koror, arriving at about 0300 local. Same with the reverse flight. I figured that was better than doing the island hopping route!

 

[jfcl01]

how about delta NY to portland, seattle, or san fran...they all get to narita with about a two hour layover, which was perfectly long when i went last february....the gates are close, and it was nice to have a reasonably short layover. The united itinerary is absurdly long and complicated-which, IMHO, increases the chances your bags wont make it when you do. And isnt the connection time in guam only like 50 minutes?

---------- Post added October 7th, 2013 at 04:35 PM ----------

Delta - Book a flight

---------- Post added October 7th, 2013 at 04:39 PM ----------

i dont know if that link will takr u to the right place, but i found a 20 hour itinerary on delta NY to NRT to ROR for 400$ less than i pay for pdx to nrt to ror

 

[ScubaGil]

Thank you all for the advice. I have to remember that I'm on vacation I will be booking through United as I have enough miles to upgrade myself, and don't see any harm in spending the morning on Waikiki Beach before heading out to ROR, drinking coffee and watching people surf. I also saw that United is flying a decent fleet there and back so flying Business Class I don't foresee any issues with carrying on my gear and a small backpack for clothes.

Once again...thank you.

 

[Woodiver]

You may want to check the metal that United is flying on the HNL to GUM route, they are usually domestic 777-200 with domestic first class seats and not lie flat seats.