Different Arrival Options to Yap

I am piecing together a trip to travel to the Federated States of Micronesia (specifically Yap) in the next couple of months. I will be leaving out of Shanghai, China and am really looking for the cheapest option possible to arrive in Yap. I have found several inexpensive routes to get to Manila or Cebu, so really my main question is how to get to Yap from there, as conservatively as possible. I've read many posts wherein people state that the main option to get there is via a Continental flight that flies there, roughly, 3 times a week. However I looked into this option and it is quite expensive. I imagine that there must be a cheaper option of getting there. Can anyone help provide me with details about a chartered boat/ cruise ship/ cargo ship/ or helicopter that might be cheaper? Also I am flexible as to where I depart from. For instance, I can depart from Cebu, Philippines, Manila, Guam, or any other hub that would lend itself to being less expensive. Additionally does anyone have a time table for how often any of these methods of transport leave? Thanks for any help you can provide!

Continental is the only airline that flies to Yap, and the only way to get there is through Guam or Palau. There is no cheaper option.

Helicopter? You must be kidding. Sorry. I lived on Palau and the one time there was a helicopter all of us sat and stared in astonishment. And Yap is less likely although someone did tell me that some ship came in with a helicopter. Anyway, tilos is correcet- the only way to get to Yap is on Continental. It is probably cheaper from Guam than from Manila- it is closer.

I am sorry about the helicopter laugh- I should remember that about 20years ago we were in Calcutta on our way to Sikkim, with an 20 hour bus trip ahead of us. I HATE bus trips. At breakfast I was bemoaning this trip to some fellow travelers. One of them suggested we take the helicopter- a spectacular 2 hour trip. After laughing a lot I realized they were serious- there was a helicopter trip up to Sikkim. So, stranger things are out there. But sadly- no- to Yap you are hostage to Continental Airlines.

Are helicopters ever the cheap option in any travel situation? I've yet to encounter a trip where helicopter was the budget choice. Maybe I'm just traveling to the wrong places :P.

It wasn't the budget option but saved my sanity which surely would have been lost taking a bus from Calcutta to Sikkim. And it was an incredible trip over the mountains. But cheap- no. But there aren't helicopters in Micronesia- or only rarely there might be one, perhaps. Of course not sure they would be any more expensive than Continental at times. Micronesia has stayed isolated because it is so far and so expensive to get to.

the last time I was in Yap (last spring), a cruise ship stopped there. It was a German cruise line going around the world, and it is possible they will make the same trip this year, in which case , it mIGHT be possible to go to Yap from Palau or another spot. But I highly doubt it would be cheaper than flying from Guam or Palau even with Continental's ridiculous prices.

Cruise ships usually don't allow passengers to hop on for that kind of transit though. But how cool that a cruise ship stopped there. We were in Palau whan a cruise ship stopped there many years ago. It was huge and seemed quiet unreal anchored off shore of the Palau Pacific Resort. It seemed to take up about half of the ocean. But I'm quite sure that they would not have allowed a hitchhiker, as it were.

I am not sure how they booked it but there were a few people who took the cruise ship from Palau to Yap. THen they flew back to Palau. I live in Palau and I talked to one of them about it, but more about the trip not the logistics of how they booked it. They may have had connections. Probably not practical for most people though.

Continental Micronesia no longer flies to Yap from Manila. You will have to book a Guam-Palau flight with a brief unloading stop in Yap. And it is expensive. No getting around it.

Not sure I entirely understand- are you saying that the flight from Manila to Guam no longer stops in Yap? That you have to fly Manila to Guam then back to Yap?