[QUOTE=av1]I have heard a lot about the famed "island hopper", but it wasn't coming up on the CO site - I have to take a closer look. We'd like to do the Truk Odyssey, then spend 5 days to 1 week somewhere else (land-based) - Yap, Palau, perhaps. I don't care one way or the other about BF or first transcontinental or on an island hopper...but I do care about being stuffed into coach all the way to Guam!![QUOTE]

The island hopper is flt 956 and 957. Hawaii then to Majuro then to Kwajalein, then to Kosrae, then to Pohnpei then to Chuuk then to Guam, and then the same in reverse the next day. It goes across the date line so sometimes you have to factor that in to get it to come up on co.com but it is there I know it is.

Personally, I'm not a fan of Chuuk. It's a dirty nasty place and the people are not that friendly. The live aboards the only way to go but I've had even my items stolen from the live aboards when I went there and we were only on dock for one night. I've been there many times as I've lived out here for many many years and am a Padi / Naui / Iantd instructor, which I dive for fun now adays as I got a "real" job or as real as you can get in the islands. However you gotta go there for the wrecks, as they are incredible. But all the other islands are nicer then Chuuk which is the toilet of the FSM.

For a land base, in all reality Yap is as far as Palau is as you have to go to Guam first, then catch a flight over to Yap or Palau. When I first moved out here I spent three years in Yap and that's were I met and married my wife who is from the outerislands of Yap, which was over 10 years ago since we've moved from Yap to Kosrae. Lamotrek is her island if you wanna try to find that one. I've dove all the islands and I might be biased but the Yapese are a great people and it's a super wonderful island full of culture and history. The stone money, the traditional villages etc... The corals and walls and aquatic life are fantastic in Yap and you'll never find a better place to watch the magical dance of the manta rays which normally are about two feet above your head. It's just amazing to see these animals so close up and you can't find a place like this anywhere else in the world.

I enjoy Palau and they have some incredible diving; however as far as land based diving goes to get the to most special sites in Palau you still need a live aboard. Yes there's great diving from land based sites and it's a wonderful place, more modern and commercialized then the FSM. Palau's probably more famous of the islands and they've been doing it a long time, so really you can't go wrong with your choice of either Yap or Palau for your stay. It's just that the really specatacular sites for Palau diving is far away and best done from a liveaboard. All of this is just IMHO.