Palau
Table of Contents: Regions / Cities / Other destinations / Culture and History / Travel to Palau, visa requirements Flights to Palau, airtickets By boat / Get around / City tours / Talk / Shopping, Palau souvenirs / Costs / Shopping / Good restaurants and cheap meals / Palau nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs. / Hotels, youth hostels, lodging / Budget / Mid-range / Splurge / Learn / Work / Stay safe / Stay healthy / Respect / Contact More from Micronesia: Baker Island, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Howland Island, Kiribati, Line Islands, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Wake Island More from Oceania: Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Midway Islands, New Zealand, Polynesia |
Palau (Belau) [1] is a group of islands in Micronesia.
Regions
Cities
Other destinations
Culture and History
After three decades as part of the UN Trust Territory of the Pacific under US administration, this westernmost cluster of the Caroline Islands opted for independence in 1978 rather than join the Federated States of Micronesia. A Compact of Free Association with the US was approved in 1986, but not ratified until 1993. Palau officially became independent on October 1, 1994.
Travel to Palau, visa requirements
US citizens do not require a visa, and nearly all other visitors can receive a free 30-day tourism visa on arrival. For the latest information, contact the Palau Embassy in Washington DC [2].
Flights to Palau, airtickets
Plane is the only realistic choice. There is only one airport, Airai (ROR), in Koror. Most visitors arrive on Continental Micronesia's daily flights from Guam (~$600), which has good connections to Japan and the United States. However, if you're already in Asia, the cheapest way in is with Asian Spirit [3] from Manila via Cebu (3x/week) or Davao (1x/week), with advance-booking fares (7days) from US$ 230 for roundtrip. There are also chartered flights direct from Taipei and Japan on a variety of operators.
By boat
Get around
Taxi and rented car. Lots of local taxis. If you rent a car, be prepared to drive real slow on some bumpy roads. Cars there are left or right hand drive. Takes a little getting use to if the steering wheel is on the "passenger" side. Also, you will have to drive about one hour north to find a beach dive sight. If you drive south, to Ice Box Park, please note that the facility behind it is the sewage treatment plant. Any other diving will be from a boat, after an hour or more ride and cost around US$150 for a two tank dive. There are no dive spots or beaches on the main island - Koror. The road north was recently paved and is very nice... once you get past the airport.
City tours
Palau is most famous for scuba diving. One of the most famous dive sites - Blue Corner, with constant sharks and a high current - is located less than 1 hour's boat ride from most resorts. Many live aboards like Ocean Hunter operate out of Palau. There are also tours to WWII battle fields on Palau.
The Blue Corner, German Channel, Ulong Channel and Blue Holes are all amazing dive sites. You can dive the same site again and again and have completely different experiences each time.
Splash, the dive shop attached to the Palau Pacific Resort is recommended. The equipment available for rental is of high quality, and either new or well maintained. The dive masters are also very experienced, responsible and know the dive sites very well. Angelo at Splash is highly recommended as a dive master especially if you have not dived in stronger currents. It should be noted that Splash runs a rather large, wide diveboat, containing 20+ divers.
Sam's Tours is another dive shop in Palau that offers diving, snorkeling, kayaking, fishing and land tours. They have some great guides that provide educational and environmental information about the locales. Sam's Tours uses small, fast narrow boats which carry 4~8 divers.
Talk
English and Palauan are the official languages, although some islands also give official status to their own languages.
Shopping, Palau souvenirs
Palau uses the US dollar as its currency.
Costs
As you might expect from a remote island where tourism is the main industry, prices are comparatively high, and even a low-end daily budget would be around US$100/day.
Shopping
Palauan storyboards are traditional wood carvings depicting Palauan myths and legends.
Good restaurants and cheap meals
The Rock Island Cafe in Koror is a great place for a quick bit of American-style food. It is located a little west of the Court House on Koror Island. Always a good place to go is Kramer's - a bit hard to find for the first time but food is good and the nightlife always interesting. Several places of note in Koror are the Taj, an excellent indian restaurant, Fuji, a reasonably priced psuedo Japanese or Dragon Tai on the way into Koror.
Palau nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs.
Abai Ice in Koror is a small hut that offers fresh fruit smoothies. Highly recommended. Many licensed establishments in Palau - from quiet little bars to "japanese" style karaoke bars complete with bar girls. For a decent affordable drink try Sam's dive shop or High Tide behind Neco dive shop. Story board is good but tends to be a hangout for many of the local expats.
Hotels, youth hostels, lodging
Budget
Palau offers a number of guest house style boutique accommodation. Some are close to or within Koror, some are not. These are available for international bookings via dive shops that offer holiday packages (such as Sam's Tours[4]). Prices range from US$50 a night upward.
Mid-range
There are also a number of nice basic hotels available in Palau.
Splurge
There are lots of reasonably high end resorts on Palau, most catering for scuba divers.
- Palau Pacific Resort[5] is a world class resort on the outskirts of Koror. Known locally as PPR, it is very nice (beautiful beach, excellent restaurant, vaulted ceilings) but it is also quite a ways out of Koror (10-15 minute drive). They do run an hourly shuttle into Koror most evenings, or it will set you back about $5 each way for a cab.
Learn
Work
Stay safe
Palau is quite a safe country to visit. Walking in downtown Koror at night, even past midnight is quite safe. But as with any place in the world today, common sense prevails.
Stay healthy
Saltwater Crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) thankfully still exist in Palau's mangroves and in the beautiful Rock Islands and can potentially be found anywhere on the island. Despite their fearsome and, in some areas, very justified reputation, here they rarely grow to the immense size that they do in Australia and New Guinea. There was only one fatal attack by a crocodile in Palau within recorded history and that occured in 1965. The biggest crocodile in Palau's history was 15 feet in length- large, but this is an average size for saltwater crocodiles in most other countries. The rarity of attacks probably stems from the fact that there are no more than 150 adult individuals currently on the island. Snorkeling and scuba diving are very popular in Palau and there has never in recent history been a report of an attack on a tourist. Judging from a recent survey, it appears crocodiles are quite unjustly hated by the locals, in harsh contrast to the worship they are given by the indigenious peoples of Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The reasons for this are unclear.
Bull Sharks are common in the coastal waters and estuaries, so caution must always be taken while scuba diving or snorkeling
Respect
Contact
More from Micronesia: Baker Island, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Howland Island, Kiribati, Line Islands, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Wake Island More from Oceania: Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Midway Islands, New Zealand, Polynesia |
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