Diving in the south pacific

Dear travellers

I'll be spendind 4 -6 weeks in the south pacific from mid may till end of june. My boyfriend and me are divers and want to enjoy the beaches and the reefs in the south pacific. I'm overwhelmed by the beauty of all the island, but I guess it's not possible to see it all :(

Do you have any advice for us, in terms of

what we have to see,

where we have to stay,

how to get around

or in general what is possible in 4-6 weeks ???

I'd appreciate it a lot!

With 4 weeks I'd stick with 2 countries, and 5-6 weeks I'd do 3 countries.

Of the three that I've been to, I'd highly recommend Fiji and American Samoa. I'd struggle to recommend independent Samoa.

There's plenty of difference from one country to the next, so you'll have to do some more research and come up with more specific criteria to narrow your choices. Lonely Planet's South Pacific guidebook is a good place to start.

Palau! Do not miss the spectacular diving, beautiful beaches, and friendly people. If you are coming from the U.S. on continental, you can break your stay for a week in Yap, FSM (where there is also great diving) and then continue to Palau. I spend three weeks (1 week in Yap, 2 weeks in Palau) and would have loved to have spent a fourth week. Only issue: diving is incredibly expensive, around $120 for a two-take dive.

See my earlier posts: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1931231
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1931212

You will find that many posters on this thread are biased towards places they have lived.
I would recommend Solomon Islands which has some of the most renowned dive spots in the world. If money is not an option, consider the liveaboard option on Bilikiki
If you are coming from Europe, and you haven't visited Australia before, the Great Barrier Reef is one of the best dive spots in the world.

With such a HUGE opening statement, I really truly would not know where to begin to tell you where to go, why to go, how to go, when to go, etc.

Here's the first thing you MUST do as it sounds like you have no idea when, where, who, how, why you are coming to the South Pacific. All that you know is you and your friend like to dive... and you like beaches.

Go to your local library or good bookshop... Pick (or order) the latest copy of Lonely Planet's South Pacific. Spend a couple of weeks mulling over this resource... There are other good travel books to the region as well... Rough Guides, Frommers, Fodders, Moon Guides... READ THEM.

You HAVE to get some idea where you want to go, how to get there.

have you purchased your tickets yet? Where are you landing initially? It sounds like at this time all you have is the time off for your holiday and nothing more...

Once you do some reading, decide what islands you may fancy, come back with your specific questions... Right now this is almost impossible for anyone to give any advice.

Sorry.

Have you checked the dive forum?

Thanks so far!!!

Of course I checked travelguides, but I chose too many destinations I wanna go to. That's why I wanted kind of the "best-of-south-pacific" advices from you... Keep on sending me your "best-of's"
:)

I'll be looking into it and plan more precisely.. I'm sure I'll have more specific questions then.

For now as much as I can tell about my trip is, that we'll be coming from indonesia. My trip starts in vietnam, then laos, cambodia, thailand, indonesia and at the end the south pacific.. I will be flying back to europe from there.
I don't have any flights booked yet.. My trip starts in january 2012, I have plenty of time till then..

If you are going to be relying on everyone else's advice to totally guide you on where to go, then you will end up being even more confused on your trip itinerary....

Have you looked in the Q and A forum at the beginning of this branch? It is the question and answer link to the South Pacific branch... You want everyone's feedback on where to go? What islands? You will have most of your questions answered.

Read this first... here

If you are going to be in the north, then Palau, Yap, and Chuuk ONLY if you are really into wreck diving. The Japanese WWII fleet. Far easier to get to since you are so close.

My dear islandboi321

Of course I'm going to rely ONLY on advices from the forum.. C'mon, not really!! And by the way, I CAN read, that's why I'm posting my question about diving in the south pacific in this branch...

The information about my travel before I arrive in the pacific was just so that people know where I'll be coming from and where I'm going to. It makes a big difference to know where the trip starts..

I think it was worth to try and post something because I've got some other travellers favourites now... You made it perfectly clear that it makes just few sense to post such a "open question" and that this kind of asking isn't very welcome. That's why I'm going to try later on again, with more specific questions if then needed...

My suggestions remain but to clarify- Chuuk only if you are a wreck diver. Palau especially is wonderful and Yap has great mantas.