Fish 'n Fins Palau

Tova, Udi and the team hosted us for a magnificent week. During the 26th Shark Week we had a chance to experience their professionalism and wide knowledge, Udi located the best sights of hundreds of sharks, turtles and many many other sea creatures . Thank you Tova and Udi, I hope to return soon…

I was torn between a 4 and a 5. There are definitely some things that could be perfected for how long they have been operating. Pros: Friendly staff, expert dive masters, and excellent boat captains. They provide space to store your gear if you are diving for several days which was nice. Lunch is provided and you have a wide variety of options to choose from. After your first dive they provide coffee or tea which is a nice bonus. Love how the boat is laid out with forward facing seats and storage under the seat. This made it easier to get in the water and your butt doesn’t fall asleep from all your weight shifting to one side when forward facing as opposed to the bench style of most dive boats. The dive team tries to make sure you get to go to a variety of spots which can be hard if doing several days when you have one or two day divers. We had daily transport to and from our hotel to the dive shop and they were always on time. We also used them for airport transportation and they were prompt, friendly, and welcoming. Cons: The daily boat assignment board felt like a morning cattle call but it makes sense. If you had one pushy person on the boat they could easily dictate the dive sites of the day which was annoying. It sounds like there are some other dive operators out there that will cater to your needs more as far as gear set up, prepped, etc. but the local knowledge and expertise of this group is it’s strong point. They are one of the original diver operators on the island and it shows in experience and knowledge and that means more to me than all the bells and whistles. My husband and I always felt safe which is important. Also, the ladies at the front aren’t rude just don’t waste their time. You can tell they run the logistics of it all and it’s not easy so give them a break.

Excellent dive guides. Good boats. Organisation/planning is a bit chaotic. We were there for 6 days of diving. Had 4 different guides on 4 different boats. Had to do check out dive site several times as we were put on boats with new divers on multiple days. Mixing Nitrox and Air divers in same group also shortens dive time for Nitrox divers. Having 12 divers and one guide was a bit chaotic (on one day the second guide kept ending their dive early on their own). Diving in Palau was excellent but popular dive sites were extremely crowded with over 120 divers on one site on one occasion.