Dive Review of Neco Marine/Cliffside Hotel Palau in
Micronesia/Palau

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Neco Marine/Cliffside Hotel Palau: "excellent diving operation; okay hotel", Feb, 2014, by Peter Rae, CT, US ( Reviewer 3 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 7820.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I have been with a number of diving operations in several countries, and think I can say that Neco Marine has been overall the best of the lot. The facility, the operation, and the personnel, including the office staff, are outstanding. The divemasters (Dale and Fabio) and the boat captain (Nick) I was fortunate to have for my trips are highly knowledgeable of the Palau sites and diving procedures, and are great people as well. It was really fun being with them. The nitrox was EAN28, and I dived in a 3mm shorty. We did repeat visits during the week to the two iconic dive sites, Blue Corner and German Channel, and that was okay since the second visit to each was far better than the first. For Blue Corner, a re-do was important because the first time we approached it against a pretty strong current and had little time/air to hang watching the sharks, trevally and bumphead wrasses go by; the second and third times were smoother, and we were able to hook on and admire for a long time the abundance of big fish that cruise past the Corner. Re. German Channel, where giant mantas commonly feed, we had not so much luck during the first visit, but were very successful during the second one, during which one particular manta made repeated passes quite close by us as we knelt on the sandy bottom. Other sites visited were Sandy Paradise (twice), Ulong Channel, Ulong Wall and New Drop Off, all of which had very nice diversities of hard and soft coral, and a wide variety of fish. I took Neco Marine's Special 2014 Cliffside Hotel single occupancy Package (7 nights, 5 days of two-tank diving), it being significantly less expensive than the corresponding Palau Pacific Resort Package. The Cliffside hotel was comfortable enough but a little worn. The staff were very kind and attentive, but the restaurant was just okay, and the bar kept irregular hours (due, probably, to the fact that there weren't too many guests that hung around the Cliffside in the evening; restaurants in the town - Koror - will send a driver to pick you up at the various and somewhat remote hotels). I did walk over to the Palau Pacific Resort one day (the Cliffside provides free day passes for use of the Palau Pacific facilities); it is a beautiful place located in a beautiful cove, but probably not worth it if you are alone and are principally in Palau for the diving.
Websites	Neco Marine
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean, Baja California, US Atlantic coast, Indonesia, Croatia
Closest Airport	ROR (Koror)	Getting There	I took United from Newark, NJ, to Houston. Had to overnight there for an early United flight to Honolulu, then to Guam, then to Koror. Not bad, just took a long time.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	76-80°F / 24-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-150 Ft/ 12-46 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	we didn't go below 90 ft., and the average depth was about 50 ft.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	No camera tank on the boat, which was okay. My one grouse was that several times at the end of a day I was only able briefly to hose off my photo equipment, as there were often wet suits in what was said to be the facility's camera rinse tank.

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Dive Review of Neco Marine/Cliffside Hotel Palau in Micronesia/Palau

Neco Marine/Cliffside Hotel Palau: "excellent diving operation; okay hotel", Feb, 2014,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Neco Marine/Cliffside Hotel Palau in
Micronesia/Palau