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Dive Review of Splash At PPR/Palau Pacific Resort in
Micronesia/Palau

Splash At PPR/Palau Pacific Resort: "Always the unexpected", Apr, 2015,

by Rose Mueller , TX, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 27 reports with 13 Helpful votes). Report 8191.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 4 stars
Snorkeling 5 stars
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments How many times can a person write about their visits to Palau, especially if it's 24 times? Each experience is unique given the time of the year and the phase of the moon or just being at the right place at the right time. The Palau Pacific Resort is nestled in the island of Koror, the capitol. It's secluded with immaculate, manicured grounds and a golden beach. Regretfully, the rates have increased dramatically and some amenities have been slashed. There are many flights from mainland China and the hotel is abundant with Chinese. The breakfast buffet is excellent and the chef, Tony, is an artist with his pancakes. I've never seen him without a smile. The dinner buffets are good, but not as sumptuous as in the past. A treat is to go to Dragon Tei in town and have a whole snapper deep fat fried, accompanied with their garlic fried rice. We have been with the dive shop, Splash since our first visit in 1991. Steven has been our guide for over 8 years. The groups are small with a maximum of five to a guide. There is great freedom during the dives, but there is always a watchful eye. This year we dove Peleliu Island for five days. It is the southern most island of Palau. The seas were calm and our group was eager. With too many divers on the main dive sites around Koror, Peleliu is a great choice for the extra dollars. We saw no other dive groups for the five days of diving there. The Yellow Wall is too dangerous for most divers. Typhoon Bopha destroyed most of the yellow soft coral on the wall, but there is still enough to identify the wall. We arrived at the new moon. The tides are the greatest in Palau at this phase in the months of April and August and the currents are the most powerful. We hit a down current during the dive and dropped from 40' to 107' in an instant. Experience saved us. The current then blew us off of the wall. Two days later had a manageable current along the wall with a view of a school of 50 plus gray reef sharks at 150'. Using NITROX it's a memory instead of a video. The dive ended spectacularly with over 50 turtles on top of the wall. The Coral Garden on the inside of Peleliu has pristine 15' table corals, massive brain corals, stag horn and cabbage corals. The Moorish idols, butterfly fish, wrasse and a multitude of other juvenile fish add color to this incredible vista. We spotted a cuttlefish at 80' and had great photo opportunities. Sadly the Helfrick Dart fish weren't at the Blue Corner. We did see oceanic eagle rays and extremely large schools of black snapper, jacks and trevally. There were smaller schools of sweet lips, spade fish, bump headed parrot fish and trumpet fish. As a macro photographer the most exciting find was a newly hatched tall finned bat fish. There were more thermoclines than I'd cared to encounter. It's the first trip without seeing a manta. I can report the sharks are returning to Palau after a bout of shark finning. One can only hope that the craving for the soup ceases. It is rare to find a spot in the world as beautiful as Palau with the amazing biodiversity in the seas, pleasant inhabitants, safety and pleasant accommodations.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Caribbean, Solomon Islands, Galapagos, Papua New Guinea, Siladen, Sipaden, Red Sea, Coral Sea, Maldives, French Polynesia and Flathead Lake!
Closest Airport Koror Getting There We went Houston, Narita, Seoul and Palau

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm, currents
Water Temp 74-82°F / 23-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 5
Water Visibility 40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions We set our own limits as we've been with Slash so many times and they know our experience. The Palauans are such excellent divers, they know immediately the capabilities of the divers. They usually accommodate the mix.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins Schools Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales > 2
Corals 5 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 3 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 5 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 3 stars Shore Facilities 2 stars
UW Photo Comments Splash isn't ideally set up for photographers, but they will accommodate. There are 2 professional photographers with Splash so they are helpful if need be. We take care of everything so there is no problem. There is water on the boat and great care in handling the cameras. As there is great current, macro photography is difficult at best. The Go Pro is becoming the camera or video of choice.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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