I use to live on Yap for several years and decided to go back and see how much of the island changed after a decade. WOW. The Pathways has always been a great place to meet with other Expats for refreshments and just some small talk. My son's always wanted a first hand look at the fruit bat that was near the lobby in a cage. The place is fantastic. When I stayed this time as a tourist, my expectations were not even second guessed. "No problem" or "Absolutly" were common statements from the staff and followed through with it. I am already looking forward to going back and seeing how much has changed on this wonderful island.

After diving Truk Lagoon, we traveled to Yap. Staying at Pathways was Wonderful. It was so relaxing and beautiful. Without a doubt the most enchanting hotel we've ever stayed at on a dive trip ..... LOVE IT

We stayed at this hotel from April1-April 7, 2010. This hotel is situated on a semi quiet street, looking over the lagoon. It consists of a number of cottages built on the side of a hill with dense foliage around each unit. Each unit has a small porch where you can sit and watch the local traffic and people walk by. Our unit had an airconditioner which had been turned on prior to our arrival.

For those of you who do not like or want to walk up stairs, this is not the place for you. There are a series of stairways leading to each unit. Again this place is on the side of a hill and there are no elevators. However, the very nice staff is happy to carry your bags up and down the stairs which makes it easier to navigate. We had 50 pound bags of diving gear and they handled them easily for us.

My wife chose this hotel. When I am picking hotels, I try to use my travel points. When she picks, she likes something a little different, and off the beaten path.

As I said, the hotel is a group of cottages, thatched type roofs, glass windows and doors, airconditioning, and ok beds. Our king was two twins slid together. The size of the room was good. I was a little disappointed in the bathroom though, it was small and it you were sitting on, or standing in front of the toilet, the door would hit you. When you think of this kind of place, you may wonder if there were any bugs. No definitely not any bugs in our place. Stayed tuned for our stay in Pohnpei, that was a little different in this area. But the cottages are constructed so they are bug free and you will not be bothered by this kind of annoyance. It poured a couple of nights while we were there and roof never leaked! Those places were rock solid.

The room was very clean and the maid service was outstanding. In fact all the employees were outstanding.

The hotel has a restaurant and the food is very very good. I would like to say it was inexpensive, which it was. However, after we got around the town a little bit, it actually was a little higher priced then other locations in the town. But I can tell you this, on a number of occasions I asked the restaurant folks to make me items that were not on the menu. They were very willing to do so and they were great. One night I just wanted some fried noodles and nothing else. They charged me $2.50! Our first evening they made us sizzling tuna steaks and they were just fabulous. Each meal was about $13 US.

A contl. breakfast was included with the room which I was very pleased to find out.
The breakfast was very good, fruitt toast and coffee or tea. In fact on some days they gave us toast with egg and french toast. The restaurant folks were very nice and I want to really thank them for the service they gave us.

There are no tv's, dvd's, cable or internet at this hotel.. There is an internet cafe a 10 minute walk away. The internet was slow about 64kbs. They were promising a big upgrade in speed by mid April, but we never saw it. If you bring a laptop with wireless, you can purchase an internet card from the Telecom Co. in amouts of $10 and $20. This allows you to sit on the porch of your cottage and surf the internet.

For a small town there are a number of hotel choices there. It seems most of the divers stay at the Mantaray. And there is another hotel next to them called Okeefes. We did check out Okeefes and it was pretty nice for the price.

We dove with Beyond the Reef divers. This is a small dive operation and our boat typically never had more than 4 divers on it each day. We often saw the Mantaray boys go out with 10 or more. I was extremely happy with Beyond the Reef, and coincidentally this is ths shop the Pathways likes to use. If you do not do a dive package with Pathways, Jesse the owner of Beyond the Reef will give you at least 10% off multiple days of diving. However, I think you can get a better deal by going through the Pathways. The diving was exceptional. We had the best shark dive of our diving career. The mantarays were phenomenal. One just hovered over my wife as she bleww little bubbles on its tummy. We got great photos and videos of this.

Walking through town was safe, pleasant, and a cultural experience. The local folks were very friendly and there was no crime stuff to deal with like in the neighboring state of Chuuk. This is what we really liked about the Pathways was its location in town and our ability to walk around and experience what was going on. We visited restaurants and grocery stores, talked to a nice lady in the laundrymat.

Speaking of laundry, the Pathways washed our stuff for $5 a load!

We are so happy we went to Yap, for me it was the overall best of the Micronesia Federated States, and if you miss the diving there you have made a huge mistake.

Next stop, The Blue Lagoon Resort, Chuuk.

My wife and I stayed here 6 nights on a dive trip. I thought it was an excellent place to stay when on Yap, instead of sterile conventional hotel room. Not everything was perfect (slightly moldy-smelling mattress, flies in outdoor restaurant). But all-in-all very good, comfortable accommodation. Staff was friendly, very laid-back (from the betle-nut?). My wife could just walk in the kitchen and make her own coffee at 5am.