Palau Travel Guide: What to See, When to Go & the Ultimate 7-10 Day Itinerary

Most travellers have never heard of Palau, and that’s exactly what makes it so fascinating. 

Palau is one of the most unique destinations in the Pacific. With more than 300 islands and one of the world’s largest marine sanctuaries, Palau offers a very different experience to more commercialised tropical destinations.

Tucked away in Micronesia, Palau is a country where visitor numbers are intentionally low, where you sign an environmental pledge on arrival, and where entire islands remain uninhabited.

In this destination deep dive, I’m unpacking what Palau is really like to travel, beyond the photos and the hype. From when to go and how to get there, to what’s actually worth your time once you arrive, this episode is designed to help you decide whether Palau belongs on your bucket list.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Where Palau is and why it remains under-the-radar
• The best time of year to visit Palau 
• The top things to see and do 
• A realistic 7-10 day Palau itinerary 
• Practical Palau travel tips 

Destinations Mentioned 

Rock Islands, Koror, Badrulchau Stone Monoliths, Ngardmau Waterfall, Palau National Capitol, Kuabes Park Beach, Belau National Museum, Mesekelat Waterfall, Etpison Museum, Jellyfish Lake, Natural Arch, Milky Way Lagoon, Blue Corner, German Channel, Shark City, Airai Bai, Japanese WWII Lighthouse, Japanese WWII Communications Centre. 

Helpful Resources & Links

• If Palau’s now on your radar, download my Palau Destination Guide, it pulls everything from this episode into one practical, easy-to-use resource. 
• And if you want to keep planning, head to touristtotraveller.com for my full Palau travel guides and itinerary breakdown. 

Connect & Explore

Find destination guides, travel planning resources and more at touristtotraveller.com, and follow along on Instagram @_touristtotraveller for behind-the-scenes planning and future travel inspiration. 

Transcript

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to the Tourist to Traveller Podcast, the show that helps you go beyond the guidebook and turn your bucket list dreams into real adventures. I'm Tahnee, a travel blogger, podcaster, and everyday explorer who's been ticking off epic destinations for over 20 years while balancing a 9 to 5. Each week I'll bring you inspiring stories, destination deep dives, and practical tips to help you plan smarter, travel deeper, and capture those unforgettable moments along the way. So, grab your passport, hack your curiosity, and let's get started. There's a country in the Pacific that sees fewer visitors in an entire year than many destinations see in a single weekend. And yet it's home to some of the most untouched marine ecosystems on Earth. It's a place where you're required to sign a pledge promising to protect the environment before you're even allowed to enter. Where entire islands are uninhabited, and where the main reason people don't go is because no one quite knows how to plan it. That place is Palau in Micronesia. In this destination deep dive, I'm unpacking everything you need to know about traveling to Palau, one of the most pristine, least visited island nations in the world. From when to visit and how to get there to what makes Palau so special, how to get around and what you actually need to see and do, this episode is designed to help you plan with confidence, even if you're short on time. I'll walk you through a realistic Palau itinerary based on how I recommend travelers experience the islands. Balancing bucket list adventures like the Rock Islands and Jellyfish Lake with slower, more meaningful moments above and below the water. If you're craving an unforgettable, nature-led destination that still feels untouched, this is the episode for you. This is a really special episode for me because Palau is the destination that actually kicked off my travel blog. I initially came across a post about Palau on Instagram and I was obsessed. I had never heard of it before, but it looked absolutely stunning. So of course I had to do my research and look to see where Palau was and what it was all about. And from there I knew that I had to go. So in January 2025, I was looking for a last-minute destination with very little time to plan, and I found out that there was a brand new flight route from Brisbane, Australia to Palau. The flight was only about five, five and a half hours, very reasonably priced. And I thought this is the sign for me to go to Palau. The biggest problem was no one had heard of Palau. So it was really hard to find information on where to go, what to do, where to stay. There was so little information, and what I could find wasn't very reliable. So I thought, why not create it for other travelers? And so the Tourist to Traveler travel blog was born. So we should probably start with the big question: where is Palau? Palau is actually in Micronesia in the Western Pacific. It's essentially above West Papua and to the east of the Philippines. Tourism numbers are so low in this country that we ran into the same travelers multiple times throughout our short journey. Because of this, the tourism infrastructure around Palau is incredibly low. This is part of what I love about it. It means that this destination feels so untouched and so underrated. And it truly does feel authentic to Micronesia. Palau is for travellers looking for bucket list experiences instead of mass tourism. Palau comprises of hundreds of islands. Most of these are rock islands. They're known for their world-class marine life, diving and snorkeling. And they're also known for their sustainable ecotourism initiatives. When you enter the country, first of all, you need to sign the Palau Pledge. This is a pledge that actually sits inside your passport, and essentially, you're agreeing to look after their country and their ecosystem while you were visiting. They were also the first country in the world to ban commercial sunscreen. Only reef safe sunscreen is permitted in Palau. It's been governed by many countries throughout the years. Most famously the Japanese in World War II. And it is really evident traveling around the island, seeing all of the World War II history, the uh the buildings that are in ruins, the shipwrecks, the plane wrecks. So it is a great destination for World War II history buffs. And most recently, it was a United Nations Trust territory under the United States administration, which is why they use US currency, and a lot of the food that you'll expect to come across has a bit of an American influence. Because this country is so focused on responsible travel, traveling to Palau can be expensive once you're on the ground. And that is by design. They would rather fewer visitors per year who are paying a higher rate to ensure that they can protect their environment. But don't let this put you off. You can absolutely travel Palau on a budget. The best time to visit Palau is in the dry season between November and April. But even in the dry season, it's common to rain every single day, sometimes multiple times per day. We rented a car just for a couple of days, and you can drive around the whole of the main islands in a day if you really wanted to. There are also taxis on the island, and you can access the Rock Islands on many different tours. There is a lot more to do in Palau than you might expect. The most famous thing to do is to explore the Rock Islands, but you've also got great highlights like Jellyfish Lake, world-class diving and snorkeling, the World War II history, cultural experiences, and there are stone monoliths on the island that date back to a similar time as Stonehenge. So let's dive into my recommended Palau itinerary. If you can, I would recommend spending seven to ten days in Palau. And I would recommend splitting this up across two different uh hotels or resorts. We started hiring a car right from day one, and we hired that car for two days so that we could explore the main islands. We had a two-wheel drive, which was mostly fine, but I would recommend a four-wheel drive if it is available. We did have a few spots that we tried to drive to where the car just wasn't capable, where it slid down, or it looked like it was going to get boggy or the tides were spinning. So if you can go with a four-wheel drive. So heading straight from our accommodation, we decided to drive anti-clockwise around the largest island. And first of all, we wanted to pop in and see the Palau National Capitol. This is a big, beautiful building that we couldn't go inside at the time, but it's pretty much along the journey up north, anyways. So highly recommended. Before I tell you the next side, I just want to give you a heads up. I'm really terrible at pronouncing destination names. So I apologise in advance. Next, we went to Ngardmau Waterfalls. Now I'm going to spell this out for you. It's N-G-A-R-D-M-A-U waterfalls. Don't worry, I will spell it correctly in the show notes. This is Palau's tallest waterfall, and it's definitely an adventure to get there. After you pay your entry, you'll start to head down. And because of the weather in Palau, the ground is often very, very muddy and slippery, and this was definitely the case of this waterfall. So you're often walking through mud, you're walking over the roots of trees. It's quite slippery for most of the way. Then you'll reach a waterfall. There used to be a track towards the left along the side on the banks. That track no longer exists. So the way that you keep walking is now actually through, or I should say, on the rocks of the waterfall. So you turn left once you hit the water and you walk down and you keep going until you see a path reappear towards the left. Now I keep going along this journey, and there are a couple of uh swing bridges to go across before you reach the main waterfall. We were the only people there once we reached the waterfalls, and they are stunning. If you have a drone, I would definitely suggest getting it out here. You can get a free drone permit to use your drone in Palau. You can also swim in the waterfall here, and you're probably going to need it after that hike. From here, continue your journey to Kuwa's Park Beach. This is something that most people miss in Palau. We kind of stumbled by this place by accident. It was mostly just locals that were there. It was really clear water, white sand, and just coconut trees lining the beach. If you're looking for an iconic leaning against, laying on, or walking up a coconut tree photo on the beach, that is where you're going to find it. We then continued to the stone monoliths. I'm going to butcher this name again. I apologize. They are called Badrulchau Stone Monoliths. B-A-D-R-U-L-C-H-A-U stone monoliths. I will put that correct spelling in the show notes. There is still a lot of mystery that surrounds these, but they say that once upon a time they look quite similar to the stones on Easter Island and they date back to a similar time as Stonehenge. We then continue to the Japanese World War II lighthouse. The lighthouse is now in ruins, but the grounds are really beautiful and the views spectacular. So if you can, I highly recommend going up to watch the sunset. From here, we drove all the way back on the other side of the island to our accommodation. Now that is a dark road at night, so please be careful. Day two is your opportunity to head to the Mesekalat waterfalls. These were definitely less spectacular than the big waterfalls that we'd seen the day prior, but the walk down was really beautiful. This is one spot where our two-wheel drive struggled, so we ended up just parking on the main road. Take this time as well to explore anything on the large island that you didn't get to see on day one. We spent this day in the main city of Koror. We explored some of the history and the culture, including the Palau National Museum and the Palau International Coral Reef Centre. Here you can learn a lot about marine conservation and Palau's unique underwater ecosystems. Day three was one of our favorites. We booked a Rock Islands tour on day three through impact tours. There are actually quite a large number of tour companies on Palau, and choosing the right one just depends on what you're looking for and also which ones have availability on the days you're looking for a tour. If you have diving qualifications, I highly recommend some of the diving tours with Sam's Tours or Fish and Finn's. But unfortunately, that is not me. So I stuck to the snorkeling. The Rock Islands tour was spectacular. Of course, Palau is known for its Rock Islands, but this was an opportunity to get up close and personal with the islands, but also get into the water and discover the marine life. We stopped at many different coral reefs as well as the Milky Way. The colour of the water here was so blue. And on the bottom is white mud that is meant to have healing properties. So it's a bit of a thing to do in Palau to dive down to the bottom, bring up the mud, and then cover yourself in this white mud for beauty purposes. We had lunch on a deserted island where we could go swimming, snorkeling, and another great opportunity, of course, to get the drone out. What we didn't realize was just off the shore was a really cool spot we wanted to see, which is called Shark City. We were so disappointed that we didn't know that we actually asked the tour to turn around to take us back so that we could swim with the reef sharks. And that was definitely the highlight of the day. We stopped by the Natural Arch, which is this beautiful rock formation in the ocean, before continuing to cruise around the Rock Islands and make our way back to Koror. There are so many other tour options that you can do. If you can dive around the Blue Corner or the German Channel, which are some of the best dive sites in the entire world. Kayaking tours are really popular, as well as a site called Jellyfish Lake. Now I want to talk about Jellyfish Lake for a moment. We did our research and we found out that the populations of jellyfish were really low when we visited, and that tends to happen over the years just based on the environmental conditions at the time. However, all of the tours were still running. We spoke with people who went on the jellyfish lake tours and said that they didn't see a single jellyfish, which for them was really disappointing. However, when the populations are good, you can swim with hundreds or thousands of jellyfish that have lost their sting because they haven't had competitors out in the wild. Moving into day four, we wanted to see Palau from a different perspective, and we went on a scenic flight with Smile Air. The pose card photo that you will see of Palau is from the sky of the Rock Islands, and this is the chance for you to capture that shot. This was the most expensive thing that we did on our journey here. However, it was definitely worth it. If you're going with Smile Air, I would recommend Course B because you get to see so much of the country and so many of the different islands. For a cultural experience, book an Experience Airai Tour. Booking the tour on its own costs only around $10, and it will take you around the Airai Bai traditional men's meeting house. And hot tip: it is much more expensive just to go and see the communications center separately. Definitely pay the 10 bucks and do it with this tour. If you can, I highly recommend booking their tour with the dinner and show. This only runs if they have enough numbers, and unfortunately, they didn't at the time that we visited. But this is a traditional Palau dinner and a better opportunity to get to understand their culture. On this day, you might also like to have a look at their Eton Muse the Etpison Museum for a deeper dive into Palauan culture, history, and art. On this night, we went to the night market, which only runs fortnightly, so check their Facebook page to find out when the next one is. But it was a really great example of cultural music, dancing, and food. Day five was my bucket list highlight in Palau. On this day, we kayaked around Nikko Bay with Paddling Palau. I'll admit I was a bit nervous about this one. Through Paddling Palau, you can rent kayaks and camping gear to do an overnight multi-day self-guided kayaking tour. And oh my god, was it worth it? I'll let you know up front, I am not a kayaker. I am a strong swimmer, but I'm not an experienced kayaker. But it really didn't matter. The team at Paddling Palau helped us to determine where we wanted to go and what kind of experience we wanted to have. And then they mapped out a route for us and gave us a map. They talked us through where to start, where to stop, where to snorkel, camp, where we could see World War II wrecks, sunken World War II planes, caves that we could kayak through, marine life, and exactly where to camp overnight. The whole journey was mapped out. We had all of our gear. They packed the kayak for us, and then we were ready to go. This was also really nerve-wracking because we didn't get a local sim, so we were completely disconnected for two days and one night while we were out on the water. We did download offline Google Maps, which were a huge help around the Rock Islands, because, guys, so many of those Rock Islands look the same. It was so surreal kayaking on our own out in the open water where we barely saw another person or another boat or another kay the entire two days. It was spectacular. They gave us a few different options for beaches. We chose the one that we wanted, set up camp for the night, went for a bit of a swim, and just lapped it all up, sitting there eating our dinner, watching the sunset. Then waking up to sunrise the next day on our own private beach with no one else around was incredible. We packed up our kayak and then started to paddle and continue our adventure and slowly make our way back to Corore. The adventure with paddling Palau was honestly the most exciting, surreal part of our trip. And if you feel like getting out of your comfort zone and doing something a little bit more adventurous, I highly recommend it. When we got back, they helped us to unpack the kayak and they gave us stuff to go and have a shower, which we very much needed at this point in time. We were probably more covered in sunscreen than anything else, but it was great to have a shower and wash off the islands. And then we departed to the Palau Pacific Resort where we could just chill by the beach bar, looking out onto the ocean, and just lapping up the luxury after we'd spent a couple of nights roughing it. The next day I would recommend having a well-earned resort day where you can just chill out by the beach, by the pool, have a couple of cocktails, head to the gym, do some of the activities and eat some incredible food. And of course, we had to get a massage while we were there. Pacific Resort with the coconut trees in the background. If you have any additional time in Palau, I would recommend getting out to the other islands. Now for us, this proved to be quite challenging because we couldn't find any reliable information on ferries or charters. To hire or charter your own boat or flight was really expensive and unreasonable. So we didn't have the opportunity to do this. But if you can, I would highly recommend getting out to the other islands. You're getting off the beaten path a little bit more. The accommodation is more rustic, but I would say the location more beautiful, and there is so much more world war history once you get out to some of the further out islands. So where should you stay in Palau? For us, we stayed in multiple locations, and there are two of those that we would highly recommend. The first is Sea Passion Hotel. This one is very quiet, but the views from here were stunning, and you can hire kayaking or snorkel equipment and go around the Rock Islands directly from the resort. And the second one, of course, is a Palau Pacific Resort, which is more of a luxurious five-star resort. There are plenty of other places that you can stay on the island, and there is also a Four Seasons Explorer, which is a I would probably describe it as a floating hotel, but it is much more expensive. So that is my recommended Palau itinerary. Now, a couple of other things to remember in Palau, they use American currency. You must pack Reef Say sunscreen, respect the local rules, the culture, and marine life. You'll sign the Palau Pledge when entering into the country. You will need additional permits to go to some of the other destinations, such as the Rock Islands. And keep in mind tourism infrastructure is still developing in Palau. Fun fact, roosters roam freely on Palau and they hold cultural significance. You are going to see them everywhere. Did you know that Palau has a national beer? Their red rooster beer is brewed locally, and I highly recommend the tropical ale and the wheat beers. So if Palau is now firmly on your bucket list, I've created a Palau destination guide that pulls together all of this information, such as itineraries, planning tips, what to book, what to skip, where to stay, when to go, how to get there, and you can download it via the link in the show notes. I've also developed a series of resources on Palau over on my blog at touristotraveler.com. Thanks for spending this time with me to learn about Palau, and I'll see you in the next episode. Thanks for tuning in to the Tourist to Traveller Podcast. I hope today's episode has inspired you to travel more authentically and plan your next adventure with confidence. Don't forget to head to touristtotraveller.com for today's show notes, resources, and free guides to help you plan like a pro. And if you love this episode, please hit subscribe and leave a review. It helps more travelers like you discover the show. Until our next adventure. Go beyond the tourist track and level up your travel experiences.