Anyone on the board snorkeled Palau?

We are not divers but are we are very interested in Palau...I hear it is great, but do you need to dive to see the abundant life, or can it work as a snorkeler?

I would appreciate hearing from any of you who have snorkeled Palau.
Thanks....

John: Marcia and I went to Palau twice. On our first trip in 95, we ended up on Palau, after visiting Chuuk and Yap. At the end of three weeks of diving, on our last-non-diving-day, we snorkeled at the Palau Pacific Resort beach and saw at least 10 species of fish we had not seen in the previous weeks of diving!

I would contact Sam's Dive Tours..Superb operation... and they have (had) marine biologists and naturalists on staff.

Have them take you to Mandarin Fish Lake, and of course, Jellyfish Lake. Lots of great snorkeling around Palau!

Some of the dive and snorkel sites are a bit far away from town, but, you get to boat through the incomparable Rock Islands.

There is a bit of us snorkeling at Mandarin Fish lake in this Palau video.

The link above to the "Rock Island" images is broken (seems the BT software took it has a relative link and added the http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/22932/%22 prefix).

Try again: Rock Island Images.

A bit of synchonicity...Just ran across Patterns in Nature: Island Aerials Beautiful images of various islands, including Palau.

Cheers,
Roger

Roger, thank you so much for the wonderful links and your video of Palau!! Absolutely breathtaking visions!! Carole

Hi
I think that Palau offers some of the best diving and sights world wide both above and below water. It even has good wrecks. I personally feel that the reefs are for advanced divers. Drifting off into the blue while ascending is not comfortable for beginners. I only recently read about "reef hooks" which stood my hair on end. Literally hooking into the reef. I guess its the thing there now.
The long rides out to the reef are not a problem because the Rock Islands are so beautiful.
Anyhow I loved Palau and Truk, but it would be one helloffahaul to take for snorkeling.
My 2cts. Mick

John,
my husband & I snorkeled Palau Dec '07. We did some days on the dive boat & some days on kayak trips, all w/Sam's Tours. We freedive to about 30'. On the trip to German Channel, we got to see giant mantas. They would have been easily visible from the surface. We were maybe 15-20' down & the divers were anchored at the bottom 60 or 70' down. The mantas were halfway between us. Other times on the dive boats were pretty much a waste of time because it was very choppy, strong current or just not good snorkel sites. They really just cater to divers. Jellyfish Lakes was amazing. If you just surface snorkel, the kayak tours would be mostly good (except on Sundays when it's very crowded), but some are just kayaking & really no snorkeling. There are other Rock Island tours where you'd get a decent amount of snorkeling in. Just keep in mind that the tour operators go out in just about any conditions. You might save a little money by booking in advance, but you may get better value by choosing what day you want to go out in a boat. There is no shore snorkeling that we found out about.

All said, seeing the giant mantas made it one of the most memorable snorkeling trips we've done.

John,
I forgot to add that the area called 'Einstein' has some of the most amazing, colorful brain coral we've ever seen. Very worth doing the tour that goes there. They only permit snorkeling without fins so as to avoid damaging the coral.

A lot of the coral outside of the sheltered areas was bleached. But good drift wall snorkeling if the current doesn't scare you. Lots of sharks, too. The usual area for dive boats to go to is the Blue Corner which is good for divers, but a pretty good current & most places (there are many dive sites at Blue Corner) aren't so good for snorkeling.