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How to get there

Continental Airlines is the sole airline that has regular, direct flights to Palau, from Manila., on Wednesdays and Fridays. Departure from Manila is at 10:10 pm, arrival in Palau, 1:50 am. Flights depart from Palau at 7:35pm and arrive in Manila at 9:10 pm. The better option would be to take the Friday flight to Palau and stay until Wednesday, for a five-day trip to see all the sights. Otherwise, one has to do the Rock Islands tour immediately on Thursday if arriving Wednesday and leaving Friday. For those on a budget, Continental Airlines has a promo, until December 2010, for a two-nights, three-days trip beginning at US$495. For reservations, call Continental Airlines at 818-8701 or 032 2337533 in Cebu City.

Where to stay

Hotels in Palau each have their own distinctive character, from boutique and theme resorts to sprawling villas. A good mid-market choice, right smack in the middle of the capital, Koror, is the Palasia Hotel Palau, a six-storey, resort-type hotel, off the beach but central to everything else. Beachfront accommodations include the luxurious Palau Royal Resort, with its own breathtaking private beach, and dock, and the equally upmarket Palau Pacific Resort, which offers cottage-type villas amidst a beautifully landscaped tropical garden. It also has a spectacular, wide beach. A quaint choice would be the South Pacific-themed Palau Plantation Resort, surrounded by taro fields and jungle, and featuring traditional cabins and cottages. 

Must-do’s

The one, absolute must-do in Palau, of course, is the Rock Islands tour, with snorkeling stops at several sites, including Rainbow Coral (where one can see all manner of marine life, from puffer fishes to groupers, to trumpet fishes and black-banded sea snakes), Clam City  (giant clams), Ngermeaus (white-tip and gray reef sharks), Cemetery Reef (butterfly fishes, Napoleon Wrasses as big as humans) and a visit to Milky Way cove (for the mud bath) and Jellyfish Lake. Highly recommended is Sam’s Tours (info@samstours.com), said to be Palau’s premier scuba-diving center.

The second must-do, to our mind, is a chopper sweep over the islands. Palau Helicopters offers a 15-minute joyride that includes close hovers over several of the verdant, limestone islets, surrounded by lagoons and enclosing marine lakes, needling between lushly-topped ridges (what Australian-born pilot Matt Harris calls the “Jurassic Park part of the ride,” and sightings of dugongs and manta rays. Longer rides, up to two hours, include aerial tours of no-entry conservation sites like the Seventy Islands. “On a boat, the Rock Islands tend to look all the same after a time,” says Harris. “A chopper ride allows you to see how the islands are all connected and how beautiful they are. I do this everyday and I’m still amazed at the beauty of these islands every time.” 

After a day’s diving or snorkeling, the action gets stiller, unless one is game chugging bottles of the national beer, Red Rooster (very tasty), all night at a bar, or doing some karaoke. One good nighttime option is the Seabird Cruise, a three-hour dinner cruise featuring a French menu and onboard live entertainment. The third-floor open deck is fantastic for star-gazing during clear weather. Email seabird@Palau-impac.com for details.

For family fun, take the kids to Dolphins Pacific, a sanctuary for eight bottle-nosed dolphins, where visitors can have a “Close Encounter” with one of the creatures, either being “hugged” or “shaken hands” with. To learn more about marine life, a visit to the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) is highly edifying, with its aquariums of Palauan fish, corals and ecosystems.

Traditional Palauan artifacts are housed at the Belau National Museum, which also has a replica of the bai, the traditional men’s meeting house, built using joinery techniques and painted its colorful yellow and red using natural dyes from Palauan plants. Another cultural site to explore are the Ngarchelong Stone Monoliths, ancient stone monoliths over 2,000 years old, whose origins are still mysterious. In legend, Palauans say the monoliths are foundations for a meeting house for the demigods.

Where to eat

To sample Palauan food, go to Yano’s Market, where there is a cafeteria-style offering of native dishes such as clams cooked in coconut milk, beef and pork cooked “local-style” (essentially wrapped in taro leaf and cooked in coconut milk), and taro chips. Katy’s Healing Garden and Conscious Kitchen (piapalau@yahoo.com) offers local dishes using organic produce from its farm, such as Binakbit (Palauan version of pinakbet but without the bagoong), steamed breadfruit, demok, the coconut cream soup of boiled taro leaves, and taro bread or rolls. Natives also offer fruitbat soup, fruitbats in coconut milk, but diner discretion should be strictly exercised for this hugely exotic dish, which leaves a very strong aftertaste.

For continental dining, Elilai restaurant offers a scenic view of Palau, amidst a sophisticated, loungey setting, complete with daybeds. Menu choices include chili crabs, baby back ribs, tom yum soup and some fantastic cakes. Kramer’s Café at Pirate’s Cove is a good place to chill out at night, with heaping platefuls of fish or chicken fillet with veggies and rice, and bottles of Red Rooster. Good, filling meals are available at Penthouse Hotel, where the demok is thick and creamy, almost like laing, and refreshing titiml juice is served. Titiml is a native, citrusy fruit, of the batuan family. Penthouse, the only hotel wholly owned by Palauans, is the favored watering hole of the elite. You bump into senators, government officials, and yes, even the tribal chiefs here.

Palau Plantation Resort serves a thoroughly delectable Banana Pizza, a dessert pizza, if you will. Also, check out local restaurateur Quincy Kuniyoshi’s firecracker sashimi, spicy and flavorful, and the buffet at Palau Royal resort’s Waves Restaurant.

In Palau, practically all of the dining staff is Filipino, the atmosphere is very welcoming for Filipino tourists. One gets so comfortable, one automatically switches to Tagalog when ordering, without even checking if the attendant is Pinoy (which, of course, is almost always the case). 

What to buy

Small to larger-scale mahogany woodcarvings of Palauan storyboards start at US$150 at Tebang Woodcarving Shop. At Etpison Museum, the gift shop has beautiful shell pieces and modern woodcarvings. Trinkets to bring home include mother of pearl cellphone charms of manta rays and dolphins, and shiny, white earrings and udoud bead necklaces made from giant clams.