SY Palau Siren is an elegant wooden-hulled Phinisi schooner cruising around the very best dive sites of Palau. Most safari trips are of 7 or 10 nights' duration. This 40m long liveaboard comfortably accommodates 16 divers who are well looked after by the crew of 12. As you would expect from the excellent Siren fleet, there is plenty of space and comfort on board and a high service level.
You can choose to relax in the air-conditioned saloon which comes equipped with full audio-visual entertainment system, a library of marine and general interest books and board games. Meals can be enjoyed in the saloon or, more commonly, in the open-air dining area where you can enjoy the fine cuisine against the spectacular backdrop of the iconic verdant islands of Palau.
Cabins all have ensuite bathrooms, plus TV, DVD & music player. Additional facilities include a laundry service, massage service, on board boutique and sea kayaks. Add to that the numerous camera workstations inside and out, large storage drawers and large camera rinse tanks and you can see why this is a popular boat among regular divers and photographers alike.
So if you are looking for a Palau liveaboard safari which ticks all the boxes, Palau Siren could be the one for you.
The SY Palau Siren has 8 Standard cabins: 4 twin bed cabins, 2 with double beds and 2 with a double bed and a single bed. All cabins are on the lower deck and have en-suite private bathrooms. Guests are advised to bring their own adaptors.
All the liveaboard cabins have:
- Air-conditioning
- Portholes
- Toilet, hot water shower and hand basin
- Toiletries, towels & bathrobes
- Personal TV, DVD & music player
- Bedside reading lights
- Safety box
- Cabinet and shelves
- Bedding
- Space for luggage
- Round 2-pin mains outlet 110 & 220 Volts - 24 hours per day
- Fire warning and fire extinguishers
No. of toilets / showers - 10 / 10 - hot water
Palau Islands
Trip highlights: shark action, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: from Palau: Chandelier Caves, German Channel, Iro Maru, Jake Sea Plane, Peleliu, Big Drop-off, Blue Corner, Ulong Channel, Siaes Tunnel, Devil's Playground, West Passage and Devilfish City; Jellyfish Lake snorkelling tour
Day 1
There is a 40 minute transfer from the Koror International Airport to the Sam's Tours Palau dive centre, located in Malakal Harbor and from where your Palau Siren cruise departs. The cruise director will meet you and take you on board the elegant wooden-hulled Phinisi liveaboard schooner. The crew on the boat will offer you a refreshing drink and then ask you to unpack and set up our dive gear for the first dive the next morning. Dinner will be served.
Core Days
Time to get wet: up to 4 dives per day, with 3 day dives and either a sunset or a night dive. A typical day will start with a light breakfast followed by a briefing and a 1st morning dive. Full breakfast and a bit of relaxation time will be followed by a comprehensive and informative briefing before the 2nd dive. Enjoy a lunch and work on your tan before the 3rd dive. Dinner will follow the 4th and last dive of the day.
Dive sites are chosen to fit the tides and currents. If you have never been diving in Palau before then be ready to be blown away by the abundance of marine life around you! Sharks, eels, mantas, eagle rays, turtles, and so many different species of fish swimming in large schools that will add colour to the amazing crystal clear waters. Prepare yourself for a great variety of diving conditions. You will dive inside caverns, drift dive along ocean walls, wonderful night dives on reefs, and dive a number of Japanese WWII wrecks. Dolphins are often seen swimming on the surface both in the day and night time around the Palau Siren.
Each meal on the liveaboard is served buffet style in the rear deck dining area. Hot breakfast and eggs cooked to order start the day, while lunch features 2 choices of chicken, fish or red meat with fresh salad and vegetables. A 3 course dinner will fill you up nicely after all the diving, starting with a hot soup, then a main dish followed by a freshly prepared dessert. Asian and international meals each evening will have a different influence, like an Indonesian or Italian night. During your vacation there will also be a special BBQ evening. Fresh fruit, snacks and cookies are available throughout the day.
Please note that the on the last dive day the number of dives will depend on the 18 hours before flying-after-diving rule. The boat returns to port in the evening and the crew will look after your dive gear, wash and hang it to make sure it will be dry and ready for packing before you go to bed.
Final Day
Disembarkation is after a light breakfast. The end of an amazing Palau diving safari!
Palau Spawning Trip
Trip highlights: shark action, turtles, great macro life/ marine diversity, schooling fish & big pelagics
Diving environment: advanced divers, beginner divers, drift diving, healthy reefs, off the beaten track, wall diving, wreck diving
Dive sites and activities: from Palau: Chandelier Caves, German Channel, Iro Maru, Jake Sea Plane, Peleliu, Big Drop-off, Blue Corner, Ulong Channel, Siaes Tunnel, Devil's Playground, West Passage and Devilfish City; Jellyfish Lake snorkelling tour
Day 1
There is a 40 minute transfer from the Koror International Airport to the Sam's Tours Palau dive centre, located in Malakal Harbor and from where your Palau Siren cruise departs. The cruise director will meet you and bring you on board the elegant wooden-hulled Phinisi liveaboard schooner. The crew on the boat will offer you a refreshing drink and then ask you to unpack and set up our dive gear for the first dive the next morning. Dinner will be served.
Core Days
Time to get wet: up to 4 dives per day, with 3 day dives and either a sunset or a night dive. A typical day will start with a light breakfast followed by a briefing and a 1st morning dive. Full breakfast and a bit of relaxation time will be followed by a comprehensive briefing before the 2nd dive. Enjoy a lunch and work on your tan before the 3rd dive. Dinner will follow the 4th and last dive of the day.
During the new moon dives, you will witness hundreds of bumphead parrotfish aggregating to start their noisy climatic mating dance. With loud bangs male Bumpheads bump their heads together like buffaloes to gain superiority over females, with colour changes taking place as the fish prepare to spawn - it is no surprise that they have oversized foreheads! Rising from the deep, sandy bottom to the surface like a firework display, the fish release their gametes in the water column over and over again. A truly unique spectacle!
If you're diving at full moon, you will experience tens of thousands of Red Snappers rise up from the deep and aggregate to start their mating manoeuvres in a spectacle full of energy and excitement, while they change their colours from red to white. Not surprisingly, these huge aggregations also attract the biggest predators in Palau such as bull sharks, oceanic blacktip sharks, and hammerheads. Watch how they hunt actively within the large school of spawning red snappers. It is something only a select few people ever get to witness and you can now be one of them!
Dive sites are chosen to fit the tides and currents. If you have never been diving in Palau before then be ready to be blown away by the abundance of marine life around you! Sharks, mantas, eagle rays, turtles, and so many different species of fish swimming in large schools that will add colour to the amazing crystal clear waters. Prepare yourself for a great variety of diving conditions. You will dive inside caverns, drift dive along ocean walls, wonderful night dives on reefs, and dive a number of Japanese WWII wrecks. Dolphins are also often seen.
Each meal on the liveaboard is served buffet style in the rear deck dining area. Hot breakfast and eggs cooked to order start the day, while lunch features 2 choices of chicken, fish or red meat with fresh salad and vegetables. A 3 course dinner will fill you up nicely after all the diving, starting with a hot soup, then a main dish followed by a freshly prepared dessert. Asian and international meals each evening will have a different influence, like an Indonesian or Italian night. During your vacation there will also be a special BBQ evening. Fresh fruit, snacks and cookies are available throughout the day.
Please note that the on the last dive day the number of dives will depend on the 18 hours before flying-after-diving rule. The boat returns to port in the evening and the crew will look after your dive gear, wash and hang it to make sure it will be dry and ready for packing before you go to bed.
Final Day
Disembarkation is after a light breakfast. The end of an amazing Palau diving safari!
[Information is best estimate in ideal circumstances and subject to changes beyond our control. The itinerary is a guide only and may be adapted to best suit the weather, tides, currents, availability and other prevailing events. Price is for the cruise, not for an exact number of dives].
The crew of 12 comprise:
- Tour leader / Dive Instructor
- 2 Divemasters
- Captain
- 2 Cooks
- Engineer
- Steward
- Maid / Masseuse
- 3 Deck hands
Enriched air nitrox - 2 motorised dive dinghies - Dive platform with hot water showers, toilets, camera table and rinse tanks - Air-conditioned saloon with bar, TV, DVD video & music - Movie and book library, fish ID books, diving magazines and games - Open air social and dining area - Sundeck with sun chairs - Massage service - Laundry service - Boutique - Sea canoe - Water dispenser.
You will dine in an open air dining area on the main deck so meal times will be set in the open, balmy air and against the ever-changing Pacific island backdrop of Palau. Each day you will enjoy a light pre-breakfast prior to the first dive with main meals following dives 1, 2 and 4. Snacks are available during the day. The menu consists of a great variety of dishes and can be described as a blend of western and Asian cuisine.
- Asian and international meals; 4 different dishes per sitting.
- Buffet style dining with waitress help in the main deck open-air dining area.
- Pre-breakfast, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks in between.
- Coffee, tea, soft drinks, fruit, water, snacks and biscuits are provided free of charge.
- Wine, beer and spirits are available for purchase.
- All dietary needs can be catered for - please advise us of special requirements in advance.
- The dining service begins with dinner and snacks on the first evening of the cruise.
"
Pros: Lovely spacious rooms. Nice to sit outside for all meals. Nice vegetarian food (nice but not amazing). Good space on dive boat. Dive gear stays on the dive boat so we're not carrying it around.
Cons: Was made to share a room even though there were spare rooms available (boat only had 7 guests). I expected a single room where possible given increased risk of covid. We were lucky no one had covid but had I got it from my roommate whilst other rooms were empty I would have been very upset. Vegetarian side dish was always tofu. The tofu was always delicious (I happen to love tofu) but it would have been nice for there to be more variety with the vegetarian protein option, eg beans, chickpeas, quinoa." -
Kelda Bindel, New Zealand, 4 September 2022 ...
