Base yourself in Koror, home to the dive operators and almost every bed. The Rock Islands are why most people come: limestone domes, marine lakes and the drift dives at Blue Corner and the German Channel, inside a permit-controlled lagoon. Babeldaob is the road trip most visitors skip, past the capitol, the Ngardmau waterfall and the Badrulchau monoliths. Peleliu holds the 1944 battlefield, by state boat. Kayangel and Angaur wait on the sea. Five nights covers the water. Eight lets the land in.
1 Palau city guide
Fun fact
The Rock Islands Southern Lagoon holds the highest concentration of marine lakes on earth. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2012: 445 uninhabited limestone islands across 100,200 hectares, with saltwater lakes cut off from the sea long enough for their species to evolve on their own.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityDiving is why most people book, and it is excellent. But Babeldaob is a large forested island with a ring road, a waterfall, a freshwater lake and basalt monoliths nobody has explained, and Peleliu is one of the most intact Pacific battlefields left. Stay on the boat and you see only a lagoon.
The realityPalau is an archipelago spread over hundreds of kilometres of ocean. Babeldaob alone is far larger than Koror, the Southwest Islands lie closer to Indonesia than to the capital, and the northern atoll to the southern one is a serious sea trip. The population is small. The country is not.
The realityThey are law, and enforced. Reef-toxic sunscreen is banned from sale and import. Most national waters are closed to commercial fishing. The Rock Islands are permit-controlled and patrolled, and taking anything from them is an offence. The pledge at immigration is the polite face of a legal regime.
The realityDive boats leave on the hour they said, because the tides and currents at Blue Corner do not negotiate. The state ferry does follow the tide, with no fixed schedule. Learn which is which before you book a flight home around one of them.
How to get it right
- Ask before photographing a bai, a village meeting house, or anyone inside one. They are working buildings.
- Take nothing off a reef or a beach, including shells and coral fragments. It is illegal, and the customs desk on the way out is not decorative.
- Buy reef-safe sunscreen at home or in Koror. Bringing banned formulations into the country is a fineable offence.
- Land in Palau is owned by clans, and much of what looks like empty bush belongs to someone. Ask before crossing it.
- On Peleliu, the battlefield is a cemetery as much as a site. Human remains and live ordnance both turn up. Stay on the paths and leave what you find.
- Dress covers more than a resort implies once you are off the boat. Swimwear stays at the water, and a shirt goes on for a shop, a village or a government office.
Famous Palauan faces
Surangel Whipps Jr.
Haruo Remeliik
Johnson Toribiong
Tommy Remengesau Jr.
Kuniwo Nakamura
Noah Idechong
Villaney Remengesau
Rodman Teltull
Florian Skilang Temengil
Elgin Loren Elwais
Must-try Palauan food
Sashimi
Yellowfin and skipjack with soy and wasabi, a habit from three decades of Japanese rule.
Taro
Grown in wet patches tended mostly by women, and served with almost everything.
Tapioca
Cassava, boiled or grated and baked. The second root, and the filler when taro is short.
Demok
The national soup of taro leaves in coconut milk, often with crab. Judge a kitchen on it.
Tinola
Chicken with green papaya and plenty of ginger, over rice. The Filipino dish that stayed.
Fruit bat soup
Whole bat in coconut broth, wings and head included. Confronting to look at, mild to eat.
Ukaeb
Crab minced with coconut cream, lime, onion and chilli, packed back into the shell.
Mangrove crab
Pulled from the mangrove roots and cooked simply. The best thing on most Koror menus.
Ulkoy
Squash and shrimp fritters, sold hot from roadside stands and worth stopping for.
Pichi-pichi
Steamed grated cassava, sticky and translucent, rolled in coconut. At every family party.
Halo-halo
Shaved ice, coconut, jackfruit, plantain and yam, flooded with milk. Filipino in origin.
