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Dive Review of Truk Stop in
Micronesia/Truk Lagoon

Truk Stop, Nov, 2013,

by Robert S Kuhn, IL, US (Contributor Contributor 14 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 7418.

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 4 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 1 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments Chuuk – Truk Lagoon is the place to go for World Class wreck diving especially if you are a history or WWII fan. Every dive is on a WWII boat or plane wreck dive with several wrecks over 100yds. in length. Most of your diving will be in depths of 60 - 135ft. often doing some penetration into the wrecks with limited light. Over the course of 2 weeks we dove on over 20 different wrecks. Most of the wrecks are also covered on the exterior with beautiful lush soft and hard corals often with schools of fish around the sunken structures. On the optional afternoon dives Truk Stop divers often take you to shark island where you will have the opportunity to swim with silver reef and black tip sharks that were 2 – 5ft. long on a shallow reef.

We were hoping to do some reef or drift diving on the outer edge of Truk lagoon but this was not the case. You are in Truk Lagoon for wreck diving plain and simple. We were impressed the condition of the wrecks and the wrecks did not have silting conditions that can limit visibility. During our 2 weeks of diving only a couple wrecks had very minimal currents on the exterior. Water temperatures of 82 – 84F made for easy diving with a skin or thin wetsuit.

The Truk Stop has an excellent team of instructors and dive guides who can lead you to the best wreck diving in the world. Most dives were done on Nitrox 21% - 31% due to the depths of diving. The Truk Stop has 2 dive boats that hold 8 divers and a staff of 3 with some shade and fresh water after dives. No camera buckets are provided on the boat. Back on shore the Truk stop has your personal dive locker where you can hang your items up to dry after rinsing in the rinse tank. The shower near the dive lockers barely works due to lack of water pressure.

My wife and I spent two weeks at the Truk Stop for some world class wreck diving and were not disappointed. As others have said, you need to put things in perspective, as this is a small remote island in Micronesia. The combination of the restaurant, hotel and scuba operations provide some great Scuba diving on the island all at one location with some small stores nearby. There is also an onsite bakery that operates with the restaurant that sells some very good chocolate chip cookies and brownies. Everyone was friendly at the hotel and around town. The AC, TV and hot water worked and we always had power. We did experience spotty and slow internet connectivity but we were able to connect daily.

We also took an evening trip to visit the Blue Lagoon resort for dinner. If you want to dive 3+ times a day you might want to consider one of the two scuba liveaboards that operate at Truk Lagoon in Chuuk.

Suggestions: Get Nitrox certified before you arrive. Bring along a good flashlight and backup light as you will be diving into the depths of deep dark WWII wrecks.

The Truk Stop resort and dive center has an excellent website and (Cindy H) was quick to respond to questions with additional details. If you want to see typical diving in Truk Lagoon, visit Youtube and search on “Truk Lagoon”
Websites Truk Stop   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 251-500 dives
Where else diving Palau, Philippines, Caribbean, Hawaii, Belize, Bonaire, Cozumel
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 83-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility 45-75 Ft/ 14-23 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile ?
Enforced diving restrictions Computers are mandatory, dive guides are required.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish N/A
Large Pelagics N/A

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

Subject Matter 5 stars Boat Facilities 2 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities 1 stars
UW Photo Comments If you want WWII Japanese wreck photos - this is the place to dive.
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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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