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

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Splash At PPR/Palau Pacific Resort: "Always the unexpected", Apr, 2015, by Rose Mueller , TX, US ( 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		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
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
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
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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Dive Review of Splash At PPR/Palau Pacific Resort in Micronesia/Palau

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

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 Splash At PPR/Palau Pacific Resort in
Micronesia/Palau