Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Island hopper ticket, Chuuck or not? Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Micronesia, Federated States of
synnestvedt 03:31 UTC 20 Oct 2010 | Hey Im being the Island hopper ticket from continental from Guam and around FSM. I want to see Yap, Pohnpei and Kosrae. Should I go to Truk/Chuuck as well? I want to dive but I do not have money to do on every Island, so which island is best? I want to see big fish and fabulous underwater landscapes. Hope someone can help me Best Regards Eva |
tilos 01:36 UTC 21 Oct 2010 | I was in Yap this summer, and spoke with travelers who had recently visited Chuuk (most recent was a woman who was there in June for an education conference). Apparently the locals have a reputation for beating up tourists. So if you go, make sure you splurge for a live-aboard or one of the few hotels that are known to be safe. Try to get current information. The divers who I spoke with said the wreck diving is out of this world, so if that's your thing, don't skip it, just take precautions. Personally, I wouldn't travel to Micronesia without going to Palau--the diving is out of this world. I bought a round-trip ticket to Palau (by way of Hawaii, Guam, and Yap) and then broke my stay in Yap for one week. The diving was fantastic (better in Palau, but still great in Yap). Keep in mind that diving is very expensive in both places--$120 with gear rental for 2-tank dive during low season in Yap (with Yap Divers, who are excellent) and $120 without gear rental in Palau (this included lunch). Palau had incredible reefs and tons of sharks and fish. Palau has fantastic snorkeling too, which is useful when you run out of diving money. see: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1931212 http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1931231 | 1
synnestvedt 04:45 UTC 21 Oct 2010 | Okay then, not Chuuck. But would it be a shame if I only went to Yap and not Pohnpei and Kosrae? Or Yap and Palau and not the two others? | 2
tilos 21:10 UTC 21 Oct 2010 | I can't say, because I haven't had the chance to go to Pohnpei and Kosrae. That being said, it would be a shame to miss Palau, including Peliliu and Kayangel. There can always be a second Micronesia trip to cover what you don't see the first time. My recollection is that Yap is actually closer to Palau then it is to the rest of FSM, so I think it makes sense to group them together (especially given that you can get the Yap stopover for free with your Palau ticket). | 3
futtrup 13:32 UTC 25 Oct 2010 | Consider a Round the World ticket with Star Alliance, since Continental are servicing most of the northern Pacific - then you can do all the stops you want. We are doing this, and are flying copenhagen - Washington - Honolulu - and then a bunch of islands (Majuro, Kosrae, Guam, Saipan, Palau). Home thorugh South Korea and Japan. You can plan and dream on their website - great planning tool :-) About the difference, from what I can read, Kosrae is more 'beautiful' with mountains, Truk is for wreck diving, and Pohnpei is for ruins (which also are found in Kosrae). Erik | 4
Laszlo 23:45 UTC 26 Oct 2010 | Just out of interest - how much did you get that RTW for futtrup? When I checked on the star website, an RTW with lots of Micronesian stops (maybe 2 more than yours) came to over 4000 USD. Quite expensive by RTW standards, and not necessarily the cheapest way to do that Micronesian leg. | 5
synnestvedt 03:24 UTC 27 Oct 2010 | I decided to go to Palau, Yap and Guam, I bought the ticket trough continental for 965 USD. But It was not possible to buy it on the internet, so I called them. There phone number are +16716458500 | 6
futtrup 10:42 UTC 27 Oct 2010 | Star Alliance RTW cost 3750$ and taxes 624$ for 16 coupons. It depends on your starting country. I calculated that to buy single tickets: Denmark-Tokyo (1120$)-Seoul-Tokyo-(500$)-Guam-(600$ return Tokyo)-Palau-(800$ return Guam)-Kosrae (1400 return Guam) it would be 4420$ - about the same price. Now I get the same ticket + Saipan, Marshall islands, Hiroshima, Hawaii, USA, A380 home from Tokyo :-), and connecting flights in my home country - and I can select from all departures. No doubt that just to visit some of the islands, this will never be cheaper, this also applies if you are based in the States, but hey, when going RTW, why just go Singapore, Sidney, LA when you can go to places your friends have never been for the same price. Star Alliance have 3 price levels, based on miles - the trip mentioned here is all well below the first miles level. If you want to take a look at the RTW tool, go to Star Alliance, select 'book and fly' (tab in the search box), press 'start now' and 'book around the world journey'. I can see that they also soon are going to introduce a 'round the pacific' ticket, which might be interesting in this aspect. | 7
Laszlo 01:33 UTC 28 Oct 2010 | Sounds like you've fund much the same RTW fares that I did. The cheapest way to visit several islands in Micronesia in one trip now seems to be to fly between to US and Manila on Continental, and add them on as paid stopovers. I agree that it's a waste of money to buy a RTW ticket just to visit common destinations, but it also seems that careful planning is required to make them really worthwhile. The Oneworld RTWs still seem best value to me, though not really good for Micronesia. | 8