What is your exotic dream dive?

Lion-o

Lion-o

Member
Hi All,

I am planning my honeymoon for January 2013. We are looking to do something exotic and expensive in (probably) the Pacific. We've done lots of diving in the Mexico/Caribbean area.

Right now I am looking at things like Palau/Yap, Sipadan, Fiji, Wakatobi, Cocos Islands, etc. I am leaning towards Palau/Yap as my fiance really wants to do the famous jellyfish lake ( http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/jellyfish-swarm-palau-pod/ )... and Yap is so remote that it doesn't show up on google maps :)


If you have experience diving these locations please let me know your experiences and whether you would recommend them or somewhere else! I'm sure all of them would be amazing but I want it to be special for the honeymoon :) Overall I am planning two weeks of diving, so if the locations are close enough it can be two places. Two liveaboards, or a dive resort + liveaboard are fine too. If there is another forum I should be posting on, feel free to let me know that as well!

Last thing... if you have been to Palau, whom did you dive with ? Fish n Fins seems to be the big one.

thanks,
danny
 
Np, thanks for the dancer fleet reference :)

Has anybody gone on a liveaboard with them before? It looks like they go all over the place!

-danny
 
Palau and pohnpei get quite a bit of adventure diving traffic. a lot of europeans make the trek out here. hard core wreck divers, but tons of coral diving to do as well. it would be nice if you had your AOD before coming....january is a nice time too, i believe it will be the doldrums, so the water is pretty flat.

c
 
I have done Yap, Palau and Pohnpei. All nice dives. Depends on what you want for your diving. Palau had multiple sites and several shops to serve you. Loved it. Yap was also great, but different. The big attraction there was the Manta rays. If you go there I think the best shop is Yap Divers. Great people to work with. Pohnpei, at the time, had only one shop at one end of the island. The dives were very good but not as good as Yap or Palau for me. My favorite of the three would be Palau. Lots to see there and you'll never get tired of diving it and you won't be hitting the same spots over again. Yap was cool too with the stone money and WWII debris all over (Japanese airfield with a Betty bomber in the jungle!).

Let us know what you choose and how the trip goes.
 
Thanks for the reviews!

What is AOD..? I was thinking we'd probably go get the official nitrox cert since that is free on most of the liveaboards.

My goal is to find one of the most pristine areas possible. Tons of corals / fish / sharks, and overall variety. In the Caribbean, there is some really cool fish but the coral doesn't feel thick and thriving like you see in the dive magazines etc... that's what I'm going for :)

Any reviews for the liveaboards in that area? :)
 
Advanced Open water. I'm too lazy to get my nitrox cert. everyone says u feel better afterwards. FSM takes good care of their reefs, you'll have good dives
 
Lion-o said:
Ahh, duh. Were there any specific dives where AOD was required? It seems kind of like a waste of $, considering the path you need to take and the $ for the courses required. I think our dive experience should be sufficient.

What is FSM? This is the first thing that pops up on google :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
Click to expand...

My apologies. You are quite correct. The rest of the world permits diving to 130' without AOD.

It's a local requirement here that you get your advanced within 6 months of getting your basic open water here and you are limited to 60' in the mean time. Sorry, force of habit on my end.

I think this is official PADI recommended limits, although not routinely enforced elsewhere.


I'm not sure if its enforced on chartered live aboards, will have to check yourself. Every blue moon, you will run across an operator that can and will enforce limits on this basis, whereas he has to maintain insurance. Doesn't hurt to check.



FSM is Federated States of Micronesia....they go thru great lengths to protect their reefs, look buoys available instead of dropping an anchor on dive sites, fishing limitations close to the islands (long line trawlers etc). If you allow fishing too close, all the top predators are taken or driven away, less sharks to see.

c
 
Mine would have to be Truk Lagoon (Chuuk) on the MV Odyssey liveaboard! There are plenty of "real" ship wrecks from Operation Hailstone in WW2. It is easely the best wreck diving in the world, there are over 40 wrecks to dive. About half of the wrecks are in recreational limits (130 feet) while the other half are below that depth. To get the best out of the trip you should have some tec diving training. If you are onboard the Odyssey they request you be at least an extended range diver. The training leading up to extended range is into to tec, deco procedures, advanced nitrox. Those classes will teach you how to safely complete decompression dives using higher levels of oxygen to speed up deco time. However its not for everyone, but if it sounds cool you should look into it.
 
I'd cross Sipadan off your list. Its gone downhill...
What about Papua?
Misool eco resort or Sorido Bay (or both...) or Komodo on an awesome liveaboard, with a week of muck diving in Lembeh.
I haven't been yet to Papua or Komodo (planned for Sept. 2013...) but I've spent 7 weeks diving in Lembeh over 2 trips, and I can't wait to go back. There is nothing quite like it. (Stay at the Lembeh Resort - miles above the other resorts nearby with an awesome house reef - they're are also helping out local communities).
This way - you'd have some nice blue water diving before staring in the sand :)
Lembeh is awesome for pygmy seahorses and pipes, about every odd invert around, flambuoyant cuttles, tons of different types of ocotopi.. Lembeh resort has a new weekly video rundown of what they've seen by their videographer Steve Fish (his real name :) ) - check it out...
If you're set on doing a dive in a jellyfish lake, there is also one in Indo, near Maratua (I think its called kakaban?). But Tony Wu, one of the best underwater photographers, is in palau right now, and just posted stuff about it on his blog.
Bongo shrimp - the conditions in Lembeh are fine to be a place to learn diving :) Just know that from that point on, diving will rarely be as good!
 
That muck diving does look super awesome. So many frogfish! However, for this one we're looking for something where the corals and the fish are equally beautiful :) Palau seems to be winning because of the diversity.

What happened to Sipadan?

Thanks for all the replies! Keep em coming :uzi:
 
Lion-o said:
That muck diving does look super awesome. So many frogfish! However, for this one we're looking for something where the corals and the fish are equally beautiful :) Palau seems to be winning because of the diversity.

What happened to Sipadan?

Thanks for all the replies! Keep em coming :uzi:
Click to expand...

Yeah I guess I never really thought of it. Not many corals in the muck!
 
Well, I haven't been to Palau, but if you want to see great corals, I still think indo is awesome. Check out Gangga: its half way between Bunaken and Lembeh. The diving is spectacular - blue water but with lots of macro, too, and awesome coral.
www.ganggaisland.com/

Sipadan has had its share of problems... the amounts of trash floating around between Semporna (nearest place on the mainland) and the island is ASTONISHING. The fish market in Semporna says it all: Mantas stacked one on top of the other, dolphins, and every reef fish you can imagine... Mabul, an island in the same chain as Sipidan and Kapalai, had shark finning operations in situ until recently, and may still, although several people had been attempting to put a stop to it.
I can't say that Lembeh is without its problems: I spent 6 weeks volunteering there this summer, and installing several artificial reefs as part of a project on recruitment and succession. The trash - oh the trash... But I tested the water repeatedly, and there were no contaminants. The diving there is spectacular - it says a lot that the best underwater photographers in the world can't help but go back again and again...
Palau looks like a great place to honeymoon. But make sure you get to Lembeh at some point - you won't regret it :)
Here is a link to Tony's site:
http://www.tonywublog.com/20120229/jellyfish-lake-in-palau.html#axzz1o6utlc6x

And to the Lembeh Resort:
http://www.lembehresort.com/

I've been diving all over the world... But I will always go back to Indo. As far as I'm concerned, it has everything, and its diversity cannot be matched.
 
I will definitely check it out. That could make for nice liveaboard diversity I think :)

Is Fiji still considered the top spot for soft corals?
 
Lion-o said:
I will definitely check it out. That could make for nice liveaboard diversity I think :)

Is Fiji still considered the top spot for soft corals?
Click to expand...

Fiji is superb for soft corals but for the corals to be spectacular, you will also experience current, sometimes severe. Best sites are via live aboard. I lost a friend to the currents. I spent a couple of months there.

Lembeh is amazing for critters and bizarre fish life. Very easy diving, very, very good guides. It has endemic fish not found elsewhere. One of the few areas to reliably find blue ringed octopus and hairy frogfish. I have been there 8 times (2 weeks at a time) for photography.

Palau is ok, but for me over dived. I was there once and would not return. Live aboard is best way. Yap for mantas is excellent, but North Papua New Guinea also has great pelagics and mantas. Once, even an Orca.

Papua New Guinea. Depends on area. North is superb for corals and large fish. A couple of wrecks have incredible soft corals. Middle is good diving as well. South is superb for corals and some areas of Milne Bay are incredible critter sites. Live aboard for best diving. I am been to all areas of PNG multiple times, always on a liveaboard.

Solomon Islands are a mixture of critters, good corals, large animals. Liveaboard best (I always did the Bilikiki). Nice warm water.

Maldives in their summer has large animals including mantas. Corals when I was there last had bleaching. Liveaboard best.

Hope this is helpful.
 
Hi, I'm new to Reef Central but I love that they have a scuba forum here. Been reading this thread with interest since I'm also interested in diving in the Indonesian area for some time.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but since the topic is about dream dives, diving in the Californian kelp forests has interested me for awhile. I'm now planning to spend my vacation in San Diego to do that (not exactly exotic though compared to the above locations but of interest to me). Has anyone had any experience there?
 
Snorvich, Very helpful. Thanks :)

jck16 said:
Hi, I'm new to Reef Central but I love that they have a scuba forum here. Been reading this thread with interest since I'm also interested in diving in the Indonesian area for some time.

Don't want to hijack the thread, but since the topic is about dream dives, diving in the Californian kelp forests has interested me for awhile. I'm now planning to spend my vacation in San Diego to do that (not exactly exotic though compared to the above locations but of interest to me). Has anyone had any experience there?
Click to expand...

I've done the kelp forests :) Lots of fun. Lots of sites off Catalina for this, and there are the giant black sea bass down there too =) However! You will be cold! :D Not too much color out there - most of the fish are a grey tone except the bold orange girabaldis. Being from Arizona, this was my 'discount' dive trip a couple years ago. Its not for everybody though.
 
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