Sam's Tours Palau

Sam's Tours Palau Features

• Complimentary coffee and tea all day
• Safe-to-drink water from triple filtration system
• Recently renovated training room, fully equipped with all amenities, where the PADI courses are conducted
• Secure Guest Gear Locker and a Rental Gear Center
• Three separate freshwater rinse tanks for cameras, gear and wetsuits
• Restrooms with hot and cold shower facilities
• Wireless internet access
• Wheelchair accessible
• Compressor room with two Bauer air compressors, one Nitrox membrane
• Covered parking area for loading and unloading our customer shuttle 

How To Get There

Several airlines departing from the western United States make 1 stop and then continue on direct to Palau. Sam's Tours can provide guests with airport transfers. 

Dive Overview

This area offers epic diving along a breathtaking archipelago with underwater highlights including Jellyfish Lake, World War II wrecks, and stunning wildlife. Sam's Tours offers specialized service and caters to all levels of diver.

[Read More: Palau Dive Travel Guide]

Accommodation Overview

Palau Pacific Resort 

                                                   

Palau Pacific Resort is your dream getaway resort! With its own private beach, guests enjoy the incredible sunset views. The hotel offers spa, restaurant and shops, a poolside bar, seamless pool, and a great variety of activities. Relax and indulge at Palau Pacific Resort after your dive days or tours with Sam's for an unforgettable vacation! 

Palau Royal Resort 

                                                          

Located right across the street from Sam's Tours, Palau Royal Resort offers a private beach, swimming pool, tennis courts, pool table, kids corner and a gym. Our partner for our Kids Sea Camp activities, we offer dive and hotel packages at Palau Royal Resort!

Aliiibamou Resorts - Carolines 

Situated on a cliff facing the incredible sunset view in Myunes, The Carolines Resort offers 8 handcrafted private bungalows, surrounded by beautiful island vegetation. Each bungalow is built from local materials such as bamboo, mahogany and mangrove, inspired by Palau's centuries-old architecture, with all room amenities for the modern traveler. Breakfast is served on the balcony, where you can begin your day with the view of the beautiful Rock Islands and end it with a stunning sunset.

Palasia Hotel 

Right in Koror center, Palasia Hotel offers the proximity to numerous shops and restaurants. An excellent choice for our dive and hotel packages, the hotel features a large pool, open-air bar with excellent views and breeze, and great town or Rock Island bay views. On your diving days, our complimentary daily pickups will get you to Sam's Tours within 10 minutes drive!

Rose Garden Resort 

Tucked away on a hillside with a spectacular view of Babeldaob Island, the Japan-Palau Friendship Bridge, Koror, Malakal Island, and its surrounding lagoons, Rose Garden offers 20 rooms, all wooden cabins, in a lush green garden.

Palau Plantation Resort 

Tucked in one of the residential neighborhoods of Koror, Palau Plantation Resort offers traditional styled cabins, cottages and villas surrounded by the natural beauty of a tropical paradise. Palau Plantation Resort is a chic resort brimming with Palauan inspired flavors set against the relaxing natural environment. Each room is equipped with an in room safe, shower and tub, TV and a hairdryer. Ground level rooms have a veranda, while family rooms have an in-room laundry.

West Plaza Hotels 

The West Plaza chain offers a great variety of rooms at five different locations in Koror. Whether you are looking to be close to Sam`s Tours, downtown or right by the sea, book a dive and hotel package with us at West Plaza Hotels.

Comfort Suites 

Looking for great value? Comfort Suites offers both rooms and long-stay apartments with kitchen. A short walking distance from Sam's Tours, Comfort Suites is a wonderful place to stay for dive enthusiasts... and don't worry, we'll pick you with our complimentary pickup service if you don't like walking.

Lehns Motel 

Lehns Motel, located close to Koror center and a short drive from Sam's Tours with our complimentary pickup service, offers short-stay rooms or long-stay apartments and studios at a monthly rate.

Dive Information

Daily Dive Tours 

Palau is considered one of the world's premier dive destinations, with dozens of dive sites in a rare variety: walls with fascinating coral formations, reef corners where the currents attract sharks, rays and schooling fish, channels and other sandy bottom sites, tunnels, holes, caves and caverns, and plenty of WWII freighter and plane wrecks! From macro to mantas, Palau has it all!

Although Palau is considered an advanced dive destination due to frequent currents and depths, there are plenty of easy dive sites for beginners, or for those who wish to become a diver!

A typical day of diving with Sam's Tours beings with an 8:30 a.m. (unless otherwise stated) complementary pickup from various hotels in Koror to our dive center in Malakal.

Most dive sites are located about 45 minutes from Sam's Tours, offering our guests picture-perfect scenic boat rides through the mushroom-like Rock Islands. Surface intervals and lunch breaks are normally spent on either a virgin white sand beach with wild green vegetation, equipped with cozy seating benches and toilet facilities, or on top of snorkeling sites with stunning shallow reef plateaus.

Depending on your daily schedule, most boats return to Sam's Tours around 3-4 p.m. You can hop right back into the water, with our offer of unlimited free dives at Sam's Macro Wall right off our dock, where mandarin fish are often spotted mating at twilight.

We dive a maximum of three tanks a day on our day tours, not counting Sam's Macro Wall and night dives.

The tanks are aluminum 80 cft (or 11.1 liter) tanks. We also have several 80 cft compact tanks, available upon request. We do not carry 100 cft (15L) tanks.

Sam's Tours Palau offers complimentary shuttle services back to your hotel, available whenever you choose to return. Many guests stick around to enjoy a deco-beer and snacks with friends and fellow divers at Bottom Time Bar and Grill while enjoying the beautiful sunset views.

Unique Dive Expeditions

Sam's Tours Unique Dive Expeditions are tailor-made, exclusive expeditions specializing in spawning events and animal behavior. This Unique Dive style based on the monthly lunar cycles offers an once-in-a-lifetime diving expedition.

Experience these expeditions and Palau's premier dive sites in Sam's Tours Unique Dive style. Take advantage of diving in a small and flexible group that enables us to show you the full potential of these exceptional sites. The flexible dive itinerary is based around currents and lunar cycles to maximize your diving experience.

During certain lunar cycles (Full Moon and New Moon), different species of fish gather in huge aggregations to spawn. Numbers can vary from hundreds to thousands, depending on the species. These mind-blowing spawning events usually attract bigger predators as well. Through local knowledge, thousands of dives and documenting our experiences, we have been able to discover some of Palau's best kept secrets.

• Full Moon Expedition
• For several days leading up to, and around the full moon, huge numbers of red snappers (Lutjanus bohar) aggregate, ready to spawn. Our expeditions will start on Palau's premier dive sites where conditions can sometimes be challenging due to strong currents and early starts. However, the rewards are high! As the sun rises, we will begin our dive to watch the spectacle about to unfold. A huge aggregation rises from the deep to ensure a continuation of their species. You will witness what only can be described as an underwater display of 'fireworks' that also attracts the biggest predators in Palau.
• New Moon Expedition
• A common favorite is the Bumphead Parrot Fish (Bolbometopon muricatum), often seen patrolling the reefs in smaller schools. These encounters are amongst favorites for divers, but imagine an aggregation of nearly a thousand individuals. This expedition takes us to a remote site where aggregations begin forming early morning. Hundreds of individuals from all around the area join for what is about to be an unforgettable site. Building up to a spectacular show-down, males begin their display of dominance, attempting to attract as many mating partners as possible. As females continue to gather the school spills out in the blue where tension erupts into a climatic mating dance.
• Seabream Expedition
• Sam's Tours Unique Dive Expeditions' latest offering is the spawning aggregation of Bluelined Seabream, also known as the Sailfin Snapper (Symphorichthys spilurus). This phenomenon is arguably more special than the spawning of the Red Snapper and Bumphead Parrotfish as it only occurs in March and April for a select few days in each month. It is estimated that this aggregation could contain more than 50,000 fish and the predation on the aggregation by the Bull Sharks and Oceanic Blacktips is simply awesome. Adding to this the fact that the aggregation only occurs in Peleliu makes this the spawning aggregation that the guys from Sam's Tours Unique Dive Expeditions relish the most!!!
• Blackwater Night Dive
• As divers, we know the adventure of night diving on the reefs –the thrill and anticipation of rolling off the boat into the inky waters below, seeing creatures rarely seen during the day. Now, imagine diving in the pitch black of night, relying solely on GPRS to lead us to the exact spot where meters of water lies below us. A lit hang-bar is lowered to 16 meters, attracting the ocean's most bizarre creatures. Test your photography skills as creatures no bigger than a few centimeters drift pass and countless members of the jellyfish family pulsate in every color imaginable…
• Note: Blackwater night dives cannot be offered on nights of the Full Moon and New Moon Expeditions.

Technical Diving 

Whilst the diving in Palau is world renowned, there is a side to diving in Palau not everyone is aware of, and very few have experienced: technical diving. Drop-offs and walls that plummet to hundreds of meters, caves and caverns, wrecks remaining from the Japanese occupation of Palau, offering opportunities for exploration for qualified and experienced tec divers.

Tec diving at Sam's Tours is conducted by the highly trained and experienced instructors from our Unique Dive Expeditions. With many years' experience as technical divers, the Unique Dive Expeditions guides have more technical diving hours in Palau than probably anyone.

From extended range air dives to 180 ft/55 m with twin sets, through decompression gases to deep rebreather wall dives to 490 ft/150 m and beyond, Unique Dive Expeditions specializes in taking experienced technical divers to the deeper side of Palau. Non-tec-qualified divers may also complete a number of TDI and PADI Tec courses, allowing them to experience a side of Palau very few people have been privileged to visit.

Tec diving is much more than just depth; at Sam's Tours, we also offer technical wreck diving, which allows for greater time on and inside the wrecks, exploring areas recreational divers cannot experience.

Sam's Tours' facilities cater to all levels of tec diving, including diving with twin sets, various sizes of decompression cylinders, and hang bars for your comfort during decompression stops, while oxygen, helium, booster pumps, and Sofnolime are available upon request.

Packages & Rates

Dive & Snorkeling Tours 2024

All rates are in USD and per person. Exclusive of the 10% Palau Goods and Services Tax (PGST).

*Requires Peleliu Government diving permit

Inclusions

• Hotel transfers within Koror
• Lunch and refreshments
• Professional dive leader
• Tanks and weights
• Free Nitrox up tp 32%

Exclusions

• Mandatory government permits
• Dive gear rental

Dive Courses 2024

All rates are in USD and per person.

 Sea Kayak & Snorkeling Tours

All rates are in USD and per person.

*Specialty Kayak Tours (only available at certain tides)

Blackout Dates 2024

• January 1 - 8
• February 17 - 18, 22, 24, 26 - 27
• March 6, 7, 9, 10 - 11, 13 - 15, 17 - 18, 21 - 25, 27 - 28
• April 4 - 8, 14 - 18
• May 1 - 11, 15 - 19
• September 1 - 2, 4 - 8
• October 31
• November 7, 10 - 14, 25 - 30
• December 1 - 5

Practical Information

• Local Currency: USD (US Dollar)
• International Airport: Palau International Airport
• Languages: Palauan, English, German, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog, Italian, Dutch, Hebrew, & Irish
• Time Zone: UTC+9
• Electricity: 110 V

Underwater Gallery

 

© Sam's Tours/Marc Stickler

 

© Sam's Tours/Marc Stickler

 

© Sam's Tours/Wendy Capili Wilkie

 

© Sam's Tours/Christoph Hoppe