Recommendations for Palau?

[RobPNW]

do the palau or rock island aggressor, rooms are on par with the mid level hotels on land, food is significantly better and once you do the math on a per dive basis, it is the same as land based. so unless if you enjoy spending 2 to 3 hours on a speedboat every day or want to sit around drinking red rooster ale in town in the evenings, go with the liveaboard.

for budget trips, southeast asia is still going to be more bang for the buck. thailand and bali should be sort of open.

I didn’t realize that the aggressor is basically a company that has live aboards in various places. Looking at the web site, it looks like there a bunch of different locations to choose from that I can look into that are more competitively priced.

I’m at the age where I’m hoping to do 2 dive trips a year as long as I can afford it and physically do so. This next trip, I may find one of the less expensive aggressor boat trips to see how it goes and learn the process. Then if I like it, watch for any discounted aggressor destination opportunities as they pop up.

Does anyone know if they offer any kind of loyalty thing, kind of like airlines do frequent flyer type perks?

 

[Dan]

I have been on 4 Aggressors (Palau, Maldives, Red Sea & Cocos). They are OK. Recently they are offering $1000 off for Palau, so I booked 2 back-to-back trip to Palau (Dec 12-19 & 19-26).

 

[RobPNW]

I have been on 4 Aggressors (Palau, Maldives, Red Sea & Cocos). They are OK. Recently they are offering $1000 off for Palau, so I booked 2 back-to-back trip to Palau (Dec 12-19 & 19-26).

It looks like the Maldives is one of the more competitively priced ones. Did you like that one for a trip?

 

[Dan]

It looks like the Maldives is one of the more competitively priced ones. Did you like that one for a trip?

Yes. I did two back-to-back trips to Maldives in March this year.

There is another sale now:

 

[RobPNW]

Dan, I like the idea of doubling up, especially when they’re running the discount. You only pay for plane fair once. If you consider the discount twice and single plane fair, you basically get double the dive days for what one normal trip would cost.

 

[Dan]

Dan, I like the idea of doubling up, especially when they’re running the discount. You only pay for plane fair once. If you consider the discount twice and single plane fair, you basically get double the dive days for what one normal trip would cost.

That’s what I did for Palau. Pretty much spending $100/dive for dive, eat, sleep.

 

[Damselfish]

I didn’t realize that the aggressor is basically a company that has live aboards in various places. Looking at the web site, it looks like there a bunch of different locations to choose from that I can look into that are more competitively priced.

I’m at the age where I’m hoping to do 2 dive trips a year as long as I can afford it and physically do so. This next trip, I may find one of the less expensive aggressor boat trips to see how it goes and learn the process. Then if I like it, watch for any discounted aggressor destination opportunities as they pop up.

Does anyone know if they offer any kind of loyalty thing, kind of like airlines do frequent flyer type perks?

FWIW, Aggressor only owns at most a few of the boats and is a marketing company for the rest which are basically franchise operations. Perhaps doesn’t matter unless something goes wrong, at which point Aggressor has a reputation of passing the buck to the actual owner/franchisee. Just something to be aware of.

Some of the price differnces will be due to the location (local costs, what the market will bear) and some will be due to the boat-franchises follow a set of standards but some are definitely much nicer snd/or better than others.

Some liveaboard companies have offered various loyalty type prigrams, dunno currently. I would not get wed to any because of that. If you get on Aggressor and whoevers mailing lists it is a good way to hear about deals. Also follow them on social media. There are lots of other liveaboard companies you should check out too. For a cheap one, look at the Blackbeards boats, part of All Star fleet. There are lower end liveaboards some places, even some with more of a backpacker vibe. You’d definitely want to research boats you’re interested in but if you’re not looking for luxury you can probably find some good deals. Go to a site like liveaboard.com and browse.

 

[Centrals]

Dive Komodo | Scuba Junkie Komodo

Dive Komodo with Scuba Junkie! We offer dive and accommodation packages with fantastic value. Have the holiday of a lifetime without breaking the bank!

www.scubajunkiekomodo.com

They have other locations eg. Sipaden and Derawan.
No frill package.

 

[RobPNW]

Thanks for the tip. That’s kinda what I’m looking for. Good diving, basic accommodations and not breaking the bank. I’ll check that out for sure.

I’m not super experienced like many people here. I’m basically a PADI MSD if you will- 50+ dives, rescue diver and a handful of specialty classes. Somewhere half way between a new diver and a Divermaster.

with that said, I would like to do my Divemaster in the next 2 years. But I’ve been out of the game during COVID. So, looking for a place to get my dive count up to around 100, work on my muscle memory with my own kit of gear, and just relax diving.

Once I do that, I think I’ll be ready to study for my tests and do the DM training formally.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Dan]

Dan, I like the idea of doubling up, especially when they’re running the discount. You only pay for plane fair once. If you consider the discount twice and single plane fair, you basically get double the dive days for what one normal trip would cost.

Roundtrip flights from Houston to Palau can get pretty expensive and a long haul. I paid $1744 for my upcoming December trip, 18h flight time, 2 flight changes in Honolulu & Guam, including 8h layover , a total of 26h trip, like going to Raja Ampat.