3 Important Factors you should consider before buying an Asian and South Pacific Dive Holiday

1. Working with a trustworthy company: Whenever you are booking and paying in advance, you need to make sure you are dealing with a  trustworthy and reputable company. After all it is your money and vacation that is at stake here.
   
   Dive Fish Snow Travel has been specializing in customized dive holidays  to the South Pacific, Asia and Micronesia and beyond since 1986 and is a fully registered travel agency, bonded with:
   - IATA (International Air Transport Association)
   - TAANZ (The Travel Agents Association of New Zealand Incorporated)
   - AFTA (The Australian Federation of Travel Agents Limited)
   
   
2. Deal with Experts who are passionate divers and know the intricacies of travel: With so many remote dive locations and such a variety of marine life and diving experiences to choose from, it can be difficult to know which locations to visit, that will suit your passion and budget.
   
   Dive Fish Snow Travel’s specialist Dive Travel Agents are passionate divers and have first hand knowledge of diving in 75 dive resorts, 20 liveaboards, and in 9 different South Pacific and Asian Countries. They can offer you unbiased and objective advice and match your needs with the right location.
   
   
3. One stop shop: When arranging a Diving holiday so far from home, it can be daunting task to organize all the flights, diving, accommodations, transfers, and know you are getting a fair deal.  A company who can co-ordinate every aspect of diving vacation can really come in useful to save you time, money and stress.
   
   Dive Fish Snow Travel is your one stop shop for advice on coordinating the best airfares, flight connections, dive resorts, liveaboards, transfers and overnight Hotels . Our Specialist Dive Travel Consultants will make your booking hassle free, easy and your next diving experience one to remember.

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Getting to the South Pacific.

USA/Canada to Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Cairns, Micronesia, Asia

Coming from North America to these countries is really easy and airfares can be easily booked from your local Travel Agency.

Whether you purchase your international airfares locally or through us, we have all the best deals from Australia and New Zealand to the South Pacific countries.

South Pacific Tri-Country Airfare

Price guide: US$1000 - US$1100 + Taxes

There are a range of Tri-Country Airfares, that will save you money and cheaper for us to book and ticket.

USA/Canada to Vanuatu, PNG, Niue, Solomon Islands

Coming from USA or Canada to PNG, Niue, Solomon Islands, your Gateway airports will be Brisbane, Australia or Auckland, New Zealand. Often the overnight Trans Pacific Flights have excellent onward coonnection from both Brisbane and Auckland.

Whether you purchase your international airfares locally or through us, but we have all the best deals from Australia and New Zealand to the South Pacific countries. We recommend you get 2 quotes from your preferred agent:

1. From home to your final destination (like Fiji, Tonga or Solomons)
2. From home to Gateway Airport: Brisbane, Australia or Auckland, New Zealand then we can provide you the cost of additional airfare to your final diving destination (like Fiji, Tonga or Solomons).

Have a look at price guide airfares to give you an idea of our airfare prices:

Flight Information:

• FIJI: There are direct flights from Los Angeles to Fiji with Air New Zealand, United Airlines, Qantas and Air Pacific. If Vancouver is a more convenient departure point, there are also Air Pacific (Fiji’s national airline) flights from Vancouver to Honolulu and Fiji 3 times per week.
• TAHITI: There are direct flights from Los Angeles to Tahiti with Air Tahiti Nui, Air NZ, United Airlines and Qantas
• TONGA: There are direct flights from Los Angeles to Tonga with Air NZ and United Airlines.
• COOK ISLANDS : There are direct flights from Los Angeles to Tonga with Air NZ and United Airlines.
• AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND: There are direct flights from Los Angeles, Vancouver and San Francisco to Auckland with Air NZ, Qantas, United, American Airlines or Air Canada.
• MICRONESIA: Flights operate from Honolulu to Micronesia
• SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA: Frequent flights operate from many US cities to Ecuador for Galapagos trips, and to Costa Rica for Cocos diving.
  
• Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Queensland.
  As well as being one of the world’s top diving locations, Fiji is also the gateway to the Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. Auckland, New Zealand is also a convenient gateway for Vanuatu, Tonga, Niue, Brisbane - Australia, PNG and the Solomon’s.

Convenient Connections:

Many of these are overnight Trans pacific flirghts depart the USA in the late evening and arriving in the morning, making for good daytime connections to onward destinations.

There are also many flights to Fiji, Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane that stopover in, or depart from, Honolulu, from where it is a 5-8 hour flight to your destination.

You can book flights with your preferred airline or travel agent, or through us. We are more than happy to help you with the flights, and we do have competitive through airfares not always available in the US or Canada. Regardless of whoever arranges your flights, Dive Fish Snow Travel can book all your hotel and diving arrangements.

Luggage entitlement is 2 pieces of luggage with a combined weight of 46 kgs (100lbs), including your dive gear and camera equipment.

NB: Most domestic airlines in the Pacific may have problems with taking this amount of equipment. We therefore suggest you pack as lightly as you can and limit weight to 25kgs (55lbs)

Other Destinations:
There is excellent diving to be found in:
Thailand (Similan and Surin Isands)
The Phillipines (Puerta Galera and Coron)
Malaysia (Sipadan, Layang Layang)
Indonesia (Raja Empat, Bali, Komodo, Flores and other islands)
Maldives

While there is currently little information on these destinations in our website, we are familiar with the premiere dive locations here and will be happy to assist you with information and bookings.

REMOTE LOCATIONS:

Many of the dive resorts we recommend are located in relatively remote areas. Forget the hustle and bustle of busy tourist centers and crowds of divers; in the South Pacific you’ll mostly find peace and quiet, friendly locals and uncrowded dive spots- most operators will take a maximum of 10 – 14 divers at any time.

Do take the time to read on our website about the culture and history of the countries you plan to visit to get a good understanding of just how unspoilt and pristine are the locations you are going to dive.

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ABOUT DIVE FISH SNOW TRAVEL
Click here to visit our About us Page »

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Contacting Us.

Phone us Toll Free on 1-866-838-3604

We understand your travel plans and queries cant always be answered by email.
If you would like to talk with one of our dive travel consultants who’s been there done that, please use our toll free number. We believe in personal service and we’d love to talk to you.

Time and Day Differences.
The best time to call us is in your afternoon between Sunday – Thursday, and you’ll get us in our office in the morning Monday – Friday.

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Our Accreditation

Dive Fish Snow Travel is IATA (International Air Transport Association) accredited and TAANZ (Travel Agents Association of New Zealand) bonded. For you this means you are in the hands of a reputable and professional operation that has the backing of trade organizations.  

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Payment Information:
Dive Fish Snow Travel is an international company and as such has a US bank account so you are able to make convenient payments into that account with your USD funds.

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Travel Insurance

We recommend you purchase a good travel insurance policy to cover you whilst diving overseas.

Please check the fine print to ensure it will cover you in the event of an injury caused whilst diving. If it does not, you will need to purchase a DAN insurance policy. We can arrange this for you if you wish.

Please note that dive operators in the South Pacific will not allow you to dive without insurance specifically covering you whilst diving. So ensure you get it sorted before you leave home.

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General South Pacific Information

Electricity

Power in most South Pacific resorts is 240V. Power plugs are 3 pronged. Most Resorts and Liveaboards do cater for 110V as well, but it may pay to carry a plug adaptor set with you.

The South Pacific will dive your dollar further: The USD goes a lot further in the Pacific.

For example

USD10 will buy you	4 - 5 beers
USD10 will buy you	6 – 7 bottles of water
USD35 will buy you	1-day meal package at most dive resorts.
USD350 will buy you	10 dive package at most dive resorts

Tipping is not customary in the Pacific, which helps make your South Pacific dive adventure even more affordable. If you receive excellent service feel free to leave a tip: it is always welcome, but never expected.

However, on liveaboards, tipping is expected. 5- 10% of the cost of the liveaboard is the normal tip for South Pacific liveaboards.

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There are no poisonous or noxious flora or fauna, bugs or spiders in the South Pacific you need to be aware of. Australia has poisonous snakes, but you wont find any in the main cities or dive locations.

Malaria is prevalent in PNG and the Solomon’s, and is borderline in Santo – Vanuatu from November – April. We recommend you contact your Doctor for anti-malarial medication.

Please advise your Doctor you are Diving, as some medication is not compatible with Diving.

Take the usual precautions against sunburn and dehydration. Take a good insect repellant, sunscreen and an antibiotic cream for coral cuts with you.

For your added safety, there are recompression chambers in Auckland - NZ, Brisbane and Townsville - Queensland, Port Moresby - PNG, Suva – Fiji and Port Vila – Vanuatu.

Safety
US citizens are made welcome throughout the South Pacific. The terrorist threat in the South Pacific is very low. However, please take all the usual precautions to make your stay a safe one.

US citizens are always welcome in the South Pacific as dive tourism is an important income earner for the local economy. As such, US passport holders don’t require visas for most destinations, except Australia.

Please check this at time of booking.

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COMMENTS AND QUERIES.
Got a comment or query? Send us an email and we’ll get back to you quickly.

Please use email form on our Contact Us Page

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