Yap and Palau

[Velour]

Hi.

Planning a two week trip and we are trying to decide how to split our time between the islands. I have been reading (mostly about Palau-seems like there is more there?) and my initial idea is to split it 10 days palau , 5 days Yap. Any thoughts?

Monika

 

[Code Monkey]

Just got back from Palau -- skipped Yap because of cost so that much is probably not relevant.

I heard a lot, though, from people who'd just come from Yap and the big complaint was that the *ONLY* thing that anyone would do is the manta dive. I understand wanting to see the mantas but I'd want to see some of the other stuff, too. I dunno, maybe you can address this with the dive op in order to get a look at some of their other stuff...

 

[Diver Dennis]

Hi Monika. I think that is a good split but it depends when you are going. There is more to see in Yap than the Mantas but it's true Palau does have more varied dives. Most of the photos I sent you were from Palau.

 

[SharkLover]

They are sooo wrong. To miss the walls in the south is to miss Yap.
IMHO, kneeling on the bottom in low viz water to wait for a Manta just wasn't all that worth it to me. Cool but not something I want to spend 70-80 minutes doing.

In general the dive sites are better in Palau, but I had a much better overall dive experience (people, walking distance to restaurants and BTR, and cheaper) than I had in Palau a year ago.

See my trip report that I just posted

Just got back from Palau -- skipped Yap because of cost so that much is probably not relevant.

I heard a lot, though, from people who'd just come from Yap and the big complaint was that the *ONLY* thing that anyone would do is the manta dive. I understand wanting to see the mantas but I'd want to see some of the other stuff, too. I dunno, maybe you can address this with the dive op in order to get a look at some of their other stuff...

 

[Diver Dennis]

I Palau we were on the Eclipse, a private live aboard for for 12 days and on land for only a couple so in that respect it's hard for me to compare.

 

[Damselfish]

Yap is famous for the Manta's, but there's certainly other things to see and we enjoyed it. The walls were great, we did some almost-muck-diving and saw lots of interesting critters, and the Mandarin fish are interesting. And Yap is a neat place. 10 Palau/5 Yap is about what we did and I think that's reasonable.

 

[ishbaby]

Any other sites to see them great mantas besides Yap?

 

[cdiver2]

Yap Palau, we were there in Oct-Nov and split our time a week in each. If I were to do it again I would spend more time in Palau.

 

[Code Monkey]

Any other sites to see them great mantas besides Yap?

I enjoyed the manta ray night dive in Kona Hawaii. I suspect that it's not the same experience but it was still pretty cool!

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Just a thought...

While I experienced great diving in Palau, the experience that hit me hardest and has stuck with me longest wasn't underwater. We dove the invasion beach at Pelelieu. During the surface interval we went on a 3-4 hour land tour. We climbed up Bloody Nose Ridge, and checked out the Japanese howitzers still in the caves carved in the mountains, with their ammunition still there, stacked on pallets deeper in the caves. Taking that ridge must have been heartbreaking. There were tanks rusting in fields, and rifles and helmets peeking through the underbrush. Its like the battle ended and everyone simply walked away. There is a monument to those who died on both sides, thousands and thousands of young men died on Pelelieu. Standing in front of the black monument, all you could hear was the wind. I was a Marine Corps infantry officer at the time, so perhaps others would not find this as notable...but I don't think anyone could see the results of such savage combat lying around rusting all over the island and not be touched by the terrible dying that took place there.

I don't remember much about my second dive. But I haven't stopped thinking about that surface interval for over twenty two years.

Hope you're as lucky as I was. And welcome to ScubaBoard.

Doc