5 Days in Palau

This five-day plan is for travelers who want the full Palau picture: the lagoon, the big island of Babeldaob, the World War II history of the south and a proper day underwater. The pace is relaxed for the country’s size, with one easy arrival day and each big outing on its own day. Palau has no public bus network, so you’ll use taxis around Koror, a rental car or hired driver for Babeldaob, and tour operators’ speedboats for everything at sea.

Day 1: Koror at walking pace

Most flights land late, so the first day stays small and local. Spend the morning in Koror at the Etpison Museum, a privately run collection of carved storyboards, traditional Palauan bead money and clan history, which makes the bai meeting houses on Babeldaob far easier to read later. After lunch, take a short taxi ride to Malakal for the Palau International Coral Reef Center, whose aquarium tanks recreate the mangrove, seagrass and outer-reef zones you’ll be floating over for the next four days. Book your dive and lagoon … read more 👉

This five-day plan is for travelers who want the full Palau picture: the lagoon, the big island of Babeldaob, the World War II history of the south and a proper day underwater. The pace is relaxed for the country’s size, with one easy arrival day and each big outing on its own day. Palau has no public bus network, so you’ll use taxis around Koror, a rental car or hired driver for Babeldaob, and tour operators’ speedboats for everything at sea.

Day 1: Koror at walking pace

Most flights land late, so the first day stays small and local. Spend the morning in Koror at the Etpison Museum, a privately run collection of carved storyboards, traditional Palauan bead money and clan history, which makes the bai meeting houses on Babeldaob far easier to read later. After lunch, take a short taxi ride to Malakal for the Palau International Coral Reef Center, whose aquarium tanks recreate the mangrove, seagrass and outer-reef zones you’ll be floating over for the next four days. Book your dive and lagoon tours today and buy the US$100 Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake permit, valid for 10 days.

Day 2: Rock Islands Southern Lagoon

This is the day the trip is built around. A full-day boat tour, usually 8 am to 4 pm and US$100 to 150, threads the limestone islets of the Rock Islands Southern Lagoon, undercut at the waterline so each one sits on the sea like a green mushroom. The highlight is Jellyfish Lake on Eil Malk, a short, steep climb over a ridge to a marine lake where stingless golden jellyfish drift around you; snorkel only, no scuba and slow fin kicks. On the way back, ask the captain to time the stop at Long Beach, a white sandbar that surfaces at low tide between two islands, and to slow down past the Ngerukewid Islands Wildlife Preserve, the “Seventy Islands,” which you admire from the boat because landing is prohibited to protect nesting turtles and seabirds.

Day 3: Around Babeldaob

After a day on the water, a day on land keeps the legs and the budget balanced. Pick up a rental car (around US$40 to 70 a day) and cross the bridge onto Babeldaob. Start in Airai at its century-old bai, the oldest traditional meeting house still standing, with painted gables showing clan legends. Head up the west coast through the mangrove-lined inlets of Ngatpang, then continue to Ngardmau for the Ngardmau Waterfall Trail, a 30 to 45 minute walk each way through jungle and river crossings to the tallest waterfall in Micronesia; wear shoes you can get wet. Swing across to the east coast for the white-domed Capitol at Ngerulmud, oddly grand for a country of about 18,000 people, and finish in neighboring Melekeok, where the reconstructed bai sits a short walk from the shore. Back in Koror by dark.

Day 4: Peleliu Island

A speedboat day tour of roughly one hour each way, typically US$150 to 250 with lunch and a guide, takes you south to Peleliu Island, scene of one of the bloodiest Pacific battles of 1944. Rusting tanks and aircraft sit in the jungle, Japanese bunkers still riddle Bloody Nose Ridge and the small museum fills in the human scale. Bring water and long trousers for the ridge, and expect a quiet, sobering day that balances the lagoon’s postcard beauty.

Day 5: Ulong Channel and Turtle Cove

Close with the reef at its most dramatic. Divers can drift the Ulong Channel, where an incoming tide carries you past grey reef sharks and a field of giant lettuce coral, then add Turtle Cove Dive Site, a wall with a blue hole opening onto the drop-off. Two-tank trips run US$150 to 200 plus gear. If your flight leaves within 24 hours, snorkel the shallow reef tops instead, and be back in Koror by mid-afternoon to pack.

With an extra night, ride south past Peleliu to Angaur, a flat island of phosphate-mining ruins, wartime wrecks and a troop of macaques descended from a pair brought by German settlers.