There's really not much "fun" to be had in Micronesia, save for the
excellent diving.  This ain't Hawaii or Cancun.  I can't speak to Majuro,
but the only touristy things to do on Truk are covered in a several-hour
island tour that includes a cave with a long gun at the end and a tour of
the high school that used to be a Japanese administration building.  On Yap,
you can attend a "cultural presentation" featuring native dancers, a
demonstration of basket weaving, and a taste of local fruit and betel nut.
Palau is a little better, offering attractions such as jellyfish lake and
kayaking in the rock islands.  Other than that, Truk is sort of seedy, and
Yap, outside the town, is privately owned and you need permission to stray
anywhere (there is some hiking along the old stone paths, but they're very
slippery and it's pretty darn hot and humid to go tramping through the
jungle).  Palau too is mainly privately owned.  I recall one place where we
stopped for lunch where we were allowed to snorkle around in the shallows
but weren't allowed to trespass onto the beach.

If you want to maximize your diving, consider a liveaboard for Truk.
Otherwise, the Blue Lagoon hotel is nice enough and right on the water.
There are some other places in town, but then you're in town.  Yap is more
rustic.  There's the Manta Ray Bay Hotel, right on the water and complete
with its own dive op, that is my recommendation.  Others prefer the Trader's
Ridge Hotel up the hill - they have a swimming pool and their restaurant is
classier.  There's also a place in town that's really rustic, but I forget
the name.

Palau has plenty of options, from the upscale Palau Pacific Resort that has
beaches and a pool, to the native-style Carolines Resort where you stay in
hand-carved wooden cabins that are a long walk up the hill, to more
motel-like accomodations in town like the mini-chain of Desekel properties.
Don't miss diving Chandelier Cave and taking a snorkel trip to the
aforementioned Jellyfish Lake - both of these can be easily included in a
dive package.

Since you're there a while, you'll really want to get an updated copy of the
Lonely Planet's Micronesia guide.  If you need a good Micronesia-savvy
travel agent, try Trip-N-Tour at www.trip-n-tour.com.

Wish I could go - maybe someday - have a great trip there are plenty
here who have experience in the area

Before i start rambling on about this and that......take a look at our
stay on Yap and our time diving Chuuk......

http://www.seatreker.com/Yap.htm

http://www.seatreker.com/Chuuk%20Lagoon.htm

If there is anything specific i can help with, just ask........

www.seatreker.com
Dave Morgan @ Work in the UK

Cancel your trip pronto and head to the rain soaked paradise of the PNW.
There is an aquarium in Seattle where a octopus eats sharks. Thrills for the
whole family!!!!! Micronesia or PNW..........the choice is obvious.

Would you & your wife considering adopting me? I could be your 43 year old
son that you never wanted. Come on, please?

Too bad you already bought your tickets, both for cost and itinerary. Your schedule
may be different than ours would have been, but when we considered Truk and Palau we
decided that there was too much hassle, mostly in the form of a ridiculous layover,
to stay both east and west of Guam on the same trip. Like Greg, I think more time in
Palau would have been a better idea, though not being that big on wrecks my interest
in Truk is probably a lot less than that of the average diver. Our total trip was 24
days, with 5 in Yap and 15 in Palau, and an overnight in Hawaii on our way there. For
you it's a moot point now, but doing it again we'd stay in Hawaii on the way home.
The jet lag nearly killed us, leaving us damn near useless for a week after getting
home. OTOH, staying in Hawaii meant leaving a day earlier than our flight to Guam,
which gave us a cushion in case we had a weather delay getting out of the northeast.

Besides Trip 'n Tour I'd suggest looking into Island Dreams Travel
(www.divetrip.com/). FWIW, their wholesale cost for Newark to Yap to Palau to Newark
was just under $1800 when we were booking in Summer '03. Also flying to Truk would
have added a bit, so your airfares may not be that much more than what you'd have
gotten with a package deal, unless perhaps you're taking the island hopper route on
one leg, rather than two out and back hops from Guam.

Yap is most famous for mantas, but we happened to get almost completely skunked
during our stay. A tribal property dispute that kept us away from Mi'il Channel for 2
of the 4 dive days didn't help. We still had an outstanding time, as the rest of the
diving in Yap is excellent. My suggestion is to make sure that you get a dive at
Vertigo, which is 15 minutes outside of Mi'il Channel. That was our very first dive
in the Pacific, but I think it would have been magical even if we had done Palau
first. We still consider it to have been our single best dive of the trip. My logbook
entry for the viz was something like "125+" but my friend insists it was easily 200
feet, and the water was some amazing shade of purple that I've never seen before. Of
course I can't promise you'll find the same thing, but for us it's like the stories
about why people smoke crack. The first time is such an incredible high that you'll
try again and again hoping it will be even half as good. We started the dive by
seeing a school of 30+ sharks, and the wall drops to well over 200', which should
make your wife happy. The proximity to Mi'il Channel means there's also a chance of
seeing mantas in good viz. I'd also suggest making sure you get to the southwest
sites. Without pulling out my logbook I think Yap Caverns and Lionfish Wall are the
ones I'm thinking of, but we may also have done Magic Kingdom and Spanish Wall. The
wall in that area isn't as dramatic as Vertigo, but IIRC these were good places to
stay a bit shallower. Both of our night dives stayed inside the bay at the same area,
perhaps a mile from the dock (we used MRB and Yap divers). At first I was
disappointed that we weren't headed out to a "real" dive site, but we had an
excellent time both nights. I maxed at just over 40' on the first night and just
under 40' on the second, and spent 90 and 91 minutes. The viz was probably only 40
feet or so, but this was a place to be looking closely. We lost count of the
lionfish, anemones and anemone fish, pipefish, and others.

With such a short stay in Palau you may have some tough choices. If you don't get
your fill of mantas in Yap, Palau offers a second chance, though you mostly hear
about the wall and drift diving. German Channel is one likely spot (IIRC we saw 4),
but Devilfish City was better for us. We didn't see any on the first dive but
snorkeled with several during the SI, watching the looping that is typical when
they're feeding. On the 2nd dive we saw 3 mantas, including 15 minutes of watching
one at a cleaning station. That one was all of 8 to 10 feet from me and one wingtip
came within 2 feet of my head when it finally moved off. Low air sent us up while
another one was still hanging out. The downside of Devilfish City is that the viz
isn't nearly as good as the wall dives (which should be expected when you're looking
for big filter feeders), so if you don't see (m)any mantas it may not be a memorable
dive. It's also in the opposite direction from the other sites and a bit further
away, which means you'll have to ask ahead of time and have a reasonable boatload of
interested divers.

The most famous site in Palau is Blue Corner and it can be an excellent site, but
with only a few days I might be willing to miss it in favor of other places. That may
be an easier choice sonce I've already done about 4 dives there. The reef at Blue
Corner starts at about 40', so when you get low on air or NDL the dive is basically
over. Other sites offer the chance to finish shallower and have a longer dive. Big
Dropoff is likely to be your first site since it's one of the easier ones and gives
the DM's a chance to watch you before going to a more advanced site. There's good
stuff right up to the surface, so it can be a nice long dive if you'd like. It's a
very good wall dive as well, though not as much chance of pelagics as Blue Corner.
Ulong Channel is another excellent site that is fairly shallow. I forget if the
outside end has anything really shallow, but on an incoming tide you can finish right
at the surface for another long dive. Our 2nd dive at Ulong was one of our favorite
dives in Palau, possibly even better than the mantas at Devilfish City. We did a dive
at Shark City that was easily our worst and shortest dive in Palau, but of course all
thinsg are relative, and one of our dives had to be the worst. Our DM somehow got
fixated on swimming in the direction we started out, which ended up being against the
current. Since my wife and I were at the back of the group and nobody else was
abandoning him we went along too. We worked moderately hard, hoovered our air, and
then had to ascend after only 35 minutes or so a reef that was at 50'. We did see
plenty of good stuff, and it would have been a far better dive if we'd gone with the
flow. That may mean my opinion of the site isn't objective, and by now you've
probably noticed that I prefer sites where I can have some pretty reef up to the
safety stop. With only a few days for diving, though, I would argue against Shark
City being one of them.

For night dives we went to Short Dropoff and the Buoy 6 wreck (we also did a very
nice day dive there). Both were excellent, and the Buoy 6 wreck was much better than
the helmet Wreck which seems to be popular for reasons I don't understand.

We dove with Sam's Tours and definitely recommend them. We'd also be more than happy
to dive with the same DM despite the Shark City dive. Your budget may make other
accommodations preferable, but we stayed at the Palau Pacific Resort. As with other
real estate matters, it's best features are location, location, and location. It
claims to be a 4 star resort but I wasn't impressed by our room. I've stayed at Super
8's that were just as good on the inside. Outside is what makes PPR a great place.
The grounds are very nice, but the beach (really the stuff just off the beach) is
easily the best thing about the place. If you haven't already seen them elsewhere you
can see your first giant clams right at the hotel, and there's plenty of other good
stuff. Because it's a long boat ride to most sites you won't have much daylight away
from the dive boat, so I'd suggest making a point to spend some time snorkeling after
dinner if you stay at PPR.