Palau scuba diving features

Sharks

Jellyfish lake

Caves

Walls

DESTINATION OVERVIEW
Flying in to Palau, you get your first view of just how breathtaking the landscape is. Looking down over the islands is quite a sight especially when you know you are about to dive there!

Palau sits between the North Pacific and the Philippine Sea so her marine life is influenced by two environments. This creates an incredible amount of dive diversity with reefs, walls, wrecks, lakes and caves. Geographically, the islands are either limestone or volcanic in origin. Nearly all are ringed by reefs with many extreme walls perforated by caves and tunnels.

Most scuba diving takes place around the islands to the south of the chain: Koror (the capital), Malakal, (the harbour) and Pelilu island in the far south. The lagoon near Malakal has enough wrecks to give Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon a run for its’ money but Palau's major attraction is her pelagic life. Dives like Blue Corner are a magnet for sharks, barracuda, jacks and rays although the currents can be strong. Likewise, the walls of Pelilu can be quite a rush but the colours of the soft corals are amazing.

The limestone Rock Islands are where you find the stunning Jellyfish Lake, one of several marine lakes in the area. It's an unmissable experience to be able to snorkel with literally millions of velvet soft jellyfish – these have evolved without any stinging tentacles as they have no predators.

Seasons
Year round
Visibility:
10 – 40 metres
Water temperature:
28 – 30º C.
Deco chambers:
Palau

Flights to Manila or Guam with a connection to Palau. The only airline is Continental.

Accommodation
Plenty of hotels at all standards. Fish n Fins dive centre organise packages. They also run the Ocean Hunter liveaboards.

PROS AND CONS
Palau is not an easy destination to reach. From Europe it will take two days to get there and flights cost a lot more than many people would normally consider paying. However, if you want to see pelagic species, these islands do have extremely good diving. Hopping on a liveaboard will mean you can make the most of your time – and for even better value for money try going to Yap or Chuuk (Truk Lagoon) at the same time.

SCUBA DIVING
Conditions in Palau are variable with substantial currents at times especially around the channels that attract sharks. Blue Corner gets ripping currents – which is why the sharks are there – and many dives are drift dives.

OPINION
This may well be a once in a lifetime destination but you really do have to do it. We planned a three week long trip to do Palau, Yap and Truk together but combining them wasn't easy as liveaboard schedules for each place do not coordinate with each other.
We don't feel we saw the best of it, but at least we saw it.