My wife and I dove Palau once before and were disappointed with the operation that we went with.
On our next dive trip to Palau we decided to give Sam’s a try to see if they would fare any better. We were very, very pleased with our decision!
We were happy with every aspect of Sam's Tours. A boat came by to pick us up from our hotel every morning. When we arrived on the first day I was blown away with the size of the operation and staging area. Each boat was able to tie directly to the dock so there were not hordes of people trampling from one boat over to the next. On our past trip with another outfit, it was a nightmare having boats all rafted up and all sorts of people scrambling over your gear to get to their boat. There was tons of room to set up and move around. The rinsing area was large and easily accessible. The area where you get weights and other gear you might need is organized and easy to navigate. The storage locker where you store you gear for the night is HUGE, clean, organized and SAFE! The gals at the front desk whisked us in and out in a matter of a few minutes. The boat assignment list was on a eraser board right outside the check in desk, easy to read, in big bold lettering. The tanks were already there on the boat with the correct valves correct size and nitrox. The whole operation was a smooth as silk and we hadn’t even left the dock for the dive. Within 20 minutes we were checked in, got our weights, loaded on the boat, tested our Nitrox mix and heading to the dive site.
We had the same dive master and captain for all our dive days. Jay-C (aka Jay-Z) was a consummate professional. Cool, calm and confident. Diving was relaxed and fun. We were paired with divers of the same ability levels and actually got to choose where we wanted to dive. For the first time diving on Palau I felt like I was on vacation from the moment we arrived at Sam’s dock to the day we left. Everyone was very friendly, helpful, accommodating and relaxed. The whole thing turned out to be a true pleasure.
If I were to have any gripes it would be only that we chose to do three dives per day and the rest of the boat was only doing two. Unfortunately there were not enough three dive a day divers to make a whole boat till the last day of diving and consequently the boat went in to the dock to drop off the '2 dive a day' divers. Then we were taken out, just the four of us, me, my wife, the captain and Jay-C. We had to dive inside the reef for two days, on wrecks, in less than ideal visibility. Ideally, we would have preferred to dive outside the reef but we understood. The final day of diving we had a full boat of eight divers all doing three dives. The last dive of the day and the trip for that matter was probably the best of my life, maybe second only to diving with Great Whites in the Farallon Islands, no cage. The only other gripe is I wish we got a bit earlier of a start in the day but I can hardly whine about that though.
Half of me does not want to write this review as it might impact Sam’s with more divers and I just want to have all the other divers still go with the other operations on the island. The other half that convinced me to go ahead with the review rationalizing that Sam’s deserves the business and can easily handle any uptick in the number of divers this may create.
Go with Sam’s Tours and you won’t be disappointed, I strongly recommend giving Sam’s a try. If you are a repeat visitor to Palau, you might not ever go back to anyone else, I know that we never will.
