--- title: "Palau travel guide: diving and the Rock Islands | Wimup" description: "Palau: how Koror, the Rock Islands, Babeldaob and Peleliu fit together, what the pledge and the permits ask of you, when the water is clearest, and what to eat." url: https://wimup.com/country/palau type: Country guide updated: 2026-11-05 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Palau, reef and Rock Islands **Sixteen states**, fewer than 18,000 people, and a lagoon that decides the whole itinerary. Palau is planned in **boat hours** rather than kilometres, and almost everyone sleeps in the same town while doing it. ## Quick answer 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. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Dec · Jan · Feb - **Ideal length:** 6–9 days - **Budget per day:** $180–400 - **Language:** Palauan & English - **Getting around:** Dive boats, rental cars & the state ferry - **1** City guide - **17,614** People - **16** States - **445** Rock Islands Palau is one town and four journeys out of it. Koror holds nearly two thirds of the population, every dive shop, almost every bed and the two museums worth an afternoon, and it is where a trip is based whether or not that was the plan. South of it lie the Rock Islands: 445 uninhabited limestone mushrooms in a lagoon that UNESCO listed in 2012, holding the marine lakes, the arches, the beaches nobody lives on and the dive sites the country is known for, all of them a boat ride and a permit away. North of Koror the bridge crosses to Babeldaob, the big island, where the Compact Road circles past the national capitol at Ngerulmud, the waterfall at Ngardmau, the lake at Ngardok and the stone monoliths at Badrulchau, and where a rental car buys a full day. Further south, Peleliu and Angaur are reached by state boat or a light aircraft, and they carry the 1944 battlefields, rusting and half swallowed by jungle, alongside quiet reef. Kayangel sits alone at the northern tip, a true coral atoll with a handful of families on it. Five nights is a diving trip. Eight lets the land in. ## 1 Palau city guide 1. [Koror](https://wimup.com/city/koror.md): Palau · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 17,614 - **Area:** 459 km² - **Density:** 38.4 / km² - **Capital:** Ngerulmud - **Major cities:** Koror, Airai, Melekeok, Kloulklubed, Ngerulmud - **Currency:** US dollar Palau uses the US dollar. Resorts, dive operators and the larger Koror restaurants take cards, almost nothing else does, and there is no bank off the main island. Carry cash on boats. - **Language:** Palauan and English Both are official. English carries every practical conversation. Palauan is what people speak to each other, and it borrows enough Japanese that a Japanese speaker hears familiar words. - **Calling code:** +680 - **Power:** 120V, sockets A and B - **Emergency:** 911 - **Time zone:** UTC+9, no daylight saving - **Visa:** 30 days, free on arrival A free 30-day entry permit is issued at the border to every nationality, extendable twice for a fee. Bring a passport valid six months, an onward ticket and proof of funds. - **The Palau Pledge:** Signed at immigration Every visitor signs it at immigration and it is stamped into the passport. It is a condition of entry, and what it asks (no touching coral, no taking from reefs or beaches) is enforced. - **Environmental fee:** Already in your airfare The Pristine Paradise Environmental Fee is built into every international ticket, so nothing is paid at the airport. It funds the Protected Areas Network, the sanctuary and fisheries protection. - **Rock Islands permit:** Bought in Koror, before you sail Koror State sells it for a fixed number of days and checks it on the water. Jellyfish Lake costs extra. Operators arrange it, but the cost is yours unless they say it is included. - **Getting around:** Boat, rental car, no buses No public buses, and no taxis wait at the airport in Airai, so book a transfer. Rent a car for Babeldaob. Everything south of Koror is a boat, and the ferry to Peleliu and Angaur runs on the tide. - **Tipping:** Not expected, common on boats Not expected the way it is on the US mainland, and no restaurant will chase you for one. Dive crews are the exception, after a long, hard day on the water. - **Diving and flying:** Leave a day between them No operator will put you in the water on the day you fly, and the flights out are long. Make the last day a land day, on Babeldaob or at the Belau National Museum in Koror. - **Tourism board:** Official site ## When to visit - **Jan** (best): Calm seas, the year’s best visibility, mantas on the cleaning stations - **Feb** (best): The driest stretch holds, and so does the manta season - **Mar** (good): Hot and still, with the dry season on its last weeks - **Apr** (good): Warm water, thinning crowds, the changeover before the rain - **May**: The southwest monsoon arrives and showers become routine - **Jun**: The wettest month of the year, rain on roughly two days in three - **Jul**: Wind and swell keep boats off the outer reefs on the worst days - **Aug**: Wet weeks continue, and the lagoon dives carry the trip - **Sep** (good): Rain eases towards the end, and rates are still low - **Oct** (good): The sea settles, visibility climbs, the shoulder nobody books - **Nov** (best): The dry season sets in and the mantas start gathering - **Dec** (peak): Flat water and peak prices, with the holiday flights full ## 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 - **Myth:** Palau is a dive destination and nothing else. **Reality:** Diving 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. - **Myth:** It is a tiny island you can walk across. **Reality:** Palau 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. - **Myth:** The conservation rules are marketing. **Reality:** They 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. - **Myth:** Everything is Pacific-island casual and nothing runs on time. **Reality:** Dive 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. - 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.**: President since January 2021, and a persistent small-island climate voice at the UN. - **Tommy Remengesau Jr.**: Four-term president. His 2015 act closed most of Palau's waters to commercial fishing. - **Haruo Remeliik**: The republic’s first president, from 1981, when Palau’s constitution took effect - **Kuniwo Nakamura**: President from 1993 to 2001, through the end of trusteeship and UN membership in 1994. - **Johnson Toribiong**: President from 2009 to 2013. Started the push for the world court's 2025 climate opinion. - **Noah Idechong**: Won the 1995 Goldman Prize for reef conservation built on traditional fishing knowledge. - **Villaney Remengesau**: Disability-rights advocate across the Asia-Pacific, named Most Impactful Person in 2024. - **Rodman Teltull**: Sprinter, and Palau's flag bearer at London 2012 as the youngest man on the team. - **Florian Skilang Temengil**: Freestyle wrestler, and Palau’s flag bearer at the Rio 2016 Olympics - **Elgin Loren Elwais**: Freestyle wrestler, and Palau’s flag bearer at the Beijing 2008 Olympics ## Must-try Palauan food - **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. - **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. - **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. ## By theme - [Scuba diving](https://wimup.com/scuba-diving.md) ## FAQs ### Do you need a visa for Palau? No. Palau issues a 30-day entry permit at the border to every nationality, free of charge, and it can be extended twice for a fee once you are in the country. You need a passport valid for at least six months, a return or onward ticket, and proof you can support yourself for the stay. Everyone also signs the Palau Pledge at immigration, in front of the officer, and it is stamped into the passport. ### What is the Palau Pledge, and is it optional? It is a written promise to the children of Palau to tread lightly, and it is a condition of entry. It is stamped into your passport and you sign it at the desk. The behaviour it asks for is backed by real law: reef-toxic sunscreen is banned from sale and import, taking anything from a reef or beach is an offence, and the Rock Islands are patrolled. ### When is the best time to dive Palau? November to February. The northeast trades bring the driest weather and the calmest sea, visibility is at its highest, and manta rays gather at the German Channel cleaning stations through those months. December is the most expensive of them, because the holiday flights fill. The wettest stretch is May to August, when rain is routine and swell can close the outer reefs. Diving continues year round, but a wet-season trip leans on the lagoon. ### Do you need a permit for the Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake? Yes, and there are two of them. The Rock Islands sit under Koror State and entry is by permit, sold for a fixed number of days and checked on the water. Jellyfish Lake is priced separately on top of it. Your dive shop or boat operator will buy them with you, but the cost is yours, and it is usually not included in a tour price unless the operator says so in writing. ### How do you get to Peleliu and Angaur? By sea, mostly. A state ferry runs between Koror, Peleliu and Angaur for a small fare, but it sails on the tide with no fixed timetable, so plan around the return leg. Faster private boats cover the same water in a fraction of the time for a great deal more money, and light aircraft charters exist. Do not book a flight home for the day after a ferry you have not confirmed. ### Is Palau worth it if you do not dive? Yes, but plan it differently. Snorkelling in the Rock Islands reaches most of what makes the lagoon famous, including Jellyfish Lake and the shallow gardens, without a certification. Babeldaob is a full day of driving past the capitol, the waterfall at Ngardmau and the monoliths at Badrulchau. Peleliu is a battlefield you can walk. What you cannot do is fill a week on beaches alone, because the good ones are on uninhabited islands and reaching them is a boat trip either way. ## Related countries - [Australia](https://wimup.com/country/australia.md) - [New Zealand](https://wimup.com/country/new-zealand.md) - [All of Oceania](https://wimup.com/oceania) Part of [Oceania](https://wimup.com/oceania.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://pristineparadisepalau.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.