Palau Things to Do Tips by canuckmike

Koror is the capital city and economic centre of Palau. It was my base for exploring the island. This is where you will find almost all of the restaurants and hotels in the country. I really enjoyed this city. I found it to be quite clean and tidy. Even though it is a fairly modern city (by small country standards) you can see a lot of pre WW2 Japanese influence like some of the lantrens on main street and many of the current buildings are reused Japanese buildings. Most of Palau's treasures are south of here but I do suggest a day exploring Koror. Most of the my tips (especially restaurants) that involve Koror are in my seperate Koror page.

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Directions: It is located almost right in the centre of the country.
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The largest island in Palau with by far most of the country's landmass and is Micronesia's second largest island. Although Palau's international airport is on Babeldaob, it is a hardly visited region by most tourists. It has 10 of Palau's 16 states. Ngarchelong, Ngaraard, Ngiwal, Ngchesar, Melekeok, Airai, Aimeliik, Ngatpang, Ngeremlengui and Ngardmau. There are many attractions on the island including many waterfalls, several Bais, Palau's premier archeological site, the soon to be national capital are some among many more. Travel on the island is pretty easy and is getting easier with the paving of the island's ring road. Two days with your own vehicle is a good amount of time to see most of the sites. A warning is that some of the car rental places it is mandatory you take an SUV to get around on the island. If you take a car you may be fined.

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The island (and state) of Peleliu is about a 2 hour state boat ride southwest of Koror. It was the site of one of the bloodiest Pacific battles of WW2 where over 12,000 men lost there lives in about 2 months of combat. The intensity of the battles on the island are still seen today with all the war wreckage still laying about. It was a battle were 8 marines were reward with the Medal Of Honor. The reason behind the fighting was for the airstrip in which the Americans wanted to use in order to take the Philippines. Today the island has a population of around 700 and an area of about 13 square km. Peleliu is a quiet and relaxing island and 2 full days is enough to see the topside of the island, more if you want to do some diving. This is a must see if you have any interest in military history because the island makes a lot of it come back alive. One thing to prepare yourself is that I found Peleliu to be considerably more hot than the islands to the north.

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Palau's main waterfall and probaly one of Babeldaob's main attractions is Ngardmau Waterfall. Located in Ngardmau state in northern Babeldoab island, Ngardmau waterfall is well worth the excursion to get here. They are one of the most beautiful falls I have ever seen, set in an amazing location. It takes about 30-45 minutes to hike from the parking lot to the waterfalls. It is a bit of a challenging hike so you do have to be in at least a little bit of shape. You have to go up and down hill on some uneven stairs, walk along a river and cross a river, among tree roots and expect to get muddy and sweaty. Sometime the trail can get a bit confusing if you go by yourself because it is mostly marked on where you go, but somethimes you might go the wrong way and can't go no farther so you have to turn around. But it is all worth the hike. A bonus for us when we went was that we did not see another person at all the entire time from the beginning of the hike to the end.

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Directions: It is about 36-37 km from the bridge to Koror along the main highway on the west side of the island. The entrance will be on your right hand side.

From 1899 to 1914, Palau was under occupation from the Germans. In 1903 they built a lighthouse on the northern portion of Urukthapel island to guide ships through the lighthouse channel to the port of Koror. The lighthouse is made of coral rock and there is an old rusty metal ladder that takes you to the top of the 30 foot lighthouse. Once on top, there is breathtaking views of the the surrounding area. The lighthouse summit is over 800 feet above the ocean.

The area around offers more to explore. Being of strategic value during World War 2, the Japanese placed a giant cannon about 40 feet away from it. Exploring around more you can find old storage facilities for ammo and more Japanese positions.

The hike up to the German Lighthouse is quite a fun one. The road originally made by the Germans is fairly well kept. Along the way there are a couple of cannons laying on the ground with artillery shells around them. Some caves with more shells around it. A little further up there are old building foundations being reclaimed by the jungle that was built by the Germans. In the area around the foundations there are various old pieces of metal objects to look at. You should be in decent condition to do the walk. You are covered by the jungle canopy on the trail so it does get quite humid. The hike is roughly 30 minutes to get to the German Lighthouse.

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This, the new grand capital building is based off of the United States Capital Building. It is really nicely done but seems a bit excessive for such a tiny nation. It is located on Babeldaob Island and in Melekeok State. I heard it was moved here from Koror for a number of reasons some being to relieve congestion in Koror and another one being to have an inland capital kind of like what Brazil done with Brasilia. It is quite easy to see from the main ring road highway that goes around Babeldaob. Driving up from Koror, it will be the giant whitish building to your right.

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Quite realistically this is the reason to come to Palau. The Rock Islands are absolutly amazing. They are little limestone islands completely covered with greenery. Limestone being limestone, it is very susceptable to weathering so the bottoms of the islands are being undercut by the ocean giving them a very mushroom like appearance. The islands are home to fruitbats, crocodiles and many types of birds. When you fly into Palau you should be able to see the islands from the sky and your trip will already be worth it. But the fun continues on underwater. The diving and snorkelling among these islands is absolutly fantastic. Many people say this is one of the best divings spots in the world. Another great watersport to do here is kayaking. Everything is so pristine, quite often you could feel that you are one of the first person to ever go there. The bulk of the islands are located between Koror and Peleliu. If you go to Palau and don't see them, you need to be kicked, hard.

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Badrulchau is Palau's largest and possibly oldest megalithic site. There are 39 monoliths and a numerous amount of carved faces. What the site was originally intended for is still a mystery but most believe it was for a large structure, possibly a giant bai. What of the legends about Badrulchau goes something along the lines of eight men, possibly gods built it. Three of them were main workers and the others just assisted or helped through magic. One day they were eating lunch and forgot to invite Yachadrengel. He didn't like this so he used some magic to make a rooster who started to crow. Since the workers only worked at night or under the sea, they stopped all work at the rooster's seventh crow. Upon finding out a trick was played on them they never returned to work on the site.

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Directions: Badrulchau is located at the northern end of Babeldaob Island in Ngarchelong State. There is a road that goes east of the main road with a sign. The road will take you to an area with a picnic spot. Badrulchau is located down the hill from there.