Dive In and Explore the Waters of Palau with Boundless Journeys

Upon arrival of your flight to Koror, you are met by a Carolines Resort representative and transferred to your hotel. As most flights arrive late in the evening, we meet as a group on the morning of Day 2.

Accommodations

Carolines Resort
Ngerkebesang, Palau

The Carolines Resort is an icon of peace and tranquility set on the hilltop locally known as Ketund. It’s eight bungalows are built almost entirely of local mahogany, mangrove, and bamboo. Amenities include A/C, Wifi, and private balconies with some of the best views in Palau of the Rock Islands across the bay.

After breakfast, our guide meets us in the lobby of the hotel for an orientation of the week's activities. Our introduction to Palau begins with a visit to the Belau National Museum in Koror. Here, we gain some insight into Palauan culture and customs by viewing displays and artifacts that share the story of Palau's history both before and after contact with foreign peoples.

On the museum grounds sits a replica bai, or men's meeting house. Each village in Palau had a men's meeting house which were elaborately painted and decorated with carvings of traditional stories and legends.

After enjoying lunch, we have the special opportunity to take a ride in a traditional Palauan canoe. This outrigger canoe is hand-carved and constructed in the same style as the canoes used by Palauans in centuries past to fish and explore the warm turquoise waters surrounding the Rock Islands.

Accommodations

Carolines Resort
Ngerkebesang, Palau

The Carolines Resort is an icon of peace and tranquility set on the hilltop locally known as Ketund. It’s eight bungalows are built almost entirely of local mahogany, mangrove, and bamboo. Amenities include A/C, Wifi, and private balconies with some of the best views in Palau of the Rock Islands across the bay.

After breakfast, we gather together for a kayaking instructional and safety briefing before heading out into the Rock Islands. Our first stop within Nikko Bay is at Disney Lake, which we enter by maneuvering our kayaks through a small marine tunnel exposed at low tide. In this hidden lake, we discover multi-thousand year-old reefs, protected from surrounding limestone walls that prevents wind and waves from disturbing the delicate marine environment.

After lunch, we paddle to Lettuce Coral Wall, a nursery of sorts for small reef fish who will eventually make their way to Palau's outer reefs. The remainder of the afternoon is spent exploring marine caves filled with hanging stalactites, botanical treasures, and an occasional sheath-tailed bat. These caves are some of Palau's greatest geological wonders with names like Cathedral Cave, Rolling Rock Arch, and Skylight Cave.

Accommodations

Carolines Resort
Ngerkebesang, Palau

The Carolines Resort is an icon of peace and tranquility set on the hilltop locally known as Ketund. It’s eight bungalows are built almost entirely of local mahogany, mangrove, and bamboo. Amenities include A/C, Wifi, and private balconies with some of the best views in Palau of the Rock Islands across the bay.

Our adventure today is no doubt among the highlights of the trip—the thousands of non-stinging jellyfish at Jellyfish Lake. Their existence in Jellyfish Lake is a fascinating evolutionary story tracing back 35 million years to the time when the Rock Islands were first created. A combination of colliding tectonic plates and the erosive forces of the ocean created these salt water lakes, where over time, the isolated jellyfish eventually evolved into the stingless variety we see today. We float gently in the water of the lake, surrounded by jellyfish, equipped with just our masks and snorkels. It is a truly special experience; one you will only find in Palau! Other highlights of the day include snorkeling in Cycad Lake and visiting Giant Clam Beach — a place whose name will be obvious when you see its inhabitants.

Accommodations

Carp Island Bungalows
Carp Island, Palau

Located on the secluded Carp Island, enjoy pure tropical tranquility at its best with a prime location close to some of the best snorkeling sites in Palau. The rustic Carp Island Bungalows provides a comfortable stay only steps away from the beach on what feels like your own private island.

Today, we snorkel along the Outer Reef. Big Blue Drop Off is a sheer vertical wall that runs along the whole length of Ngemelis Island, providing some of the most impressive snorkeling in the world.

Palau's most popular dive site, Blue Corner, is recognized worldwide for its high concentration of marine life. It is one of the most highly-rated dive sites in Micronesia, in part due to an upwelling created by the currents which attracts schools of fish to the top edges of the walls. Napoleon wrasses, dogtooth tuna, eagle rays, manta rays, white tip reef sharks, turtles, schooling barracudas, and groups of other reef fish populate the area.

In addition to today's snorkeling, we also tour Peleliu Island to learn of its role in WWII. The remains of old bunkers, tanks, and guns litter the island and are haunting reminders of its past military significance. It is difficult to imagine this tropical paradise was once the site of the bloody Battle of Peleliu where US and Japanese forces fought for three months.

Accommodations

Carp Island Bungalows
Carp Island, Palau

Located on the secluded Carp Island, enjoy pure tropical tranquility at its best with a prime location close to some of the best snorkeling sites in Palau. The rustic Carp Island Bungalows provides a comfortable stay only steps away from the beach on what feels like your own private island.

With immense biodiversity and beauty, Palau provides unrivalled snorkeling opportunities, and the reefs surrounding Peleliu Island are some of Palau's finest. Peleliu is well-known for it's fringing reefs, coral reefs which develop adjacent to islands with little or no separation from the shore. From the surface, multitudes of colorful reef fish can be observed gliding among dense coral formations sprinkled with giant clams, sea squirts, and varieties of anemone. The outer barrier reefs near Peleliu are also exceptional for viewing a multitude of marine life. Turtle Cove is a particularly stunning reef system, which includes a beautiful blue hole, vertical drop-offs, and a current swept corner teeming with shy reef sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, and schooling fish. Sightings of classic tropical reef fish, including clown triggerfish and palette surgeonfish, are common at this world class snorkeling and diving site.

Accommodations

Carp Island Bungalows
Carp Island, Palau

Located on the secluded Carp Island, enjoy pure tropical tranquility at its best with a prime location close to some of the best snorkeling sites in Palau. The rustic Carp Island Bungalows provides a comfortable stay only steps away from the beach on what feels like your own private island.

West Ngeruktabel's inner lagoon environment offers many amazing snorkel sites, with endless varieties of bright, vibrant coral consisting of old growth hard corals and precious soft coral. These reefs are home to an abundance of fish and other marine creatures that thrive in this unique and exotic underwater ecosystem. We keep our eyes peeled for the well-camouflaged sea horses living in the shallow waters of Sea Horse Cove. But in Palau's Rock Islands, the fascinating aquatic creatures are not the only things waiting for you beneath the waves. West Ngeruktabel is also the final resting place for several sunken tanks, planes, and artillery from WWII, a chilling reminder of how this celebrated and pristine snorkeling destination was once a battleground. This wreckage has developed its own thriving ecosystems brimming with fish, corals, and other invertebrates not commonly seen along the outer reef.

Accommodations

Palau Pacific Resort
Koror, Palau

Palau Pacific Resort is nestled among 64 acres of lush gardens with exotic tropical flowers. Surrounded by the blue water of the western Pacific, this luxury hotel features a private 1,000-foot blanket of white sand beach with excellent snorkeling and a freshwater outdoor beachside swimming pool. Palau Pacific Resort rooms are all thoughtfully appointed with a range of modern amenities for a relaxing stay.

With six isolated turquoise bays and two marine lakes, Risong Bay is a paddler's paradise. After kayaking through a marine tunnel, we arrive at Black Tip Lake, where female black tip reef sharks give birth to their young. The young sharks frequently swim alongside boats in an endless quest for tiny fish. Just outside of Black Tip Lake sits a reef flat known as Blue Devil Gardens, home to black spotted puffers, threadfin butterflies, and cryptic honeycomb groupers.

Each of the hidden bays within Risong contains a unique and distinctive habitat. As tidal waters flow out of an enclosed marine lake, they spill into Mandarin Fish Bay as a saltwater waterfall. The waters have been filtered by their artesian passage through the limestone, and thus the bay becomes crystal clear—ideal for viewing the pajama cardinal fish, sail-fin tang, and the enigmatic and brilliantly colored mandarin fish, all which inhabit this bay.

Accommodations

Palau Pacific Resort
Koror, Palau

Palau Pacific Resort is nestled among 64 acres of lush gardens with exotic tropical flowers. Surrounded by the blue water of the western Pacific, this luxury hotel features a private 1,000-foot blanket of white sand beach with excellent snorkeling and a freshwater outdoor beachside swimming pool. Palau Pacific Resort rooms are all thoughtfully appointed with a range of modern amenities for a relaxing stay.

Our last full day in Palau is no less incredible than the previous ones. We depart for the island of Ulong. White sand beaches, swaying palm trees, and turquoise bays define this picturesque island. Ulong also hides some fascinating historic treasures including the site of an ancient village, hidden pictographs, stone terracing, and myriad artifacts from a lost culture of ancient Palauans.

At Ulong Arch, we enjoy a snorkel and search the coral for all four of Palau's colorful anemone fish. Next, we visit a historic site where Palauans had their first contact with the Western world. We enjoy lunch on the sandy shores of this protected cove before paddling on to the reef named Wilson's Channel. Colorful clams, spider conchs, and dancing damselfish grace this pristine coral garden.

We head to Ulong's most beautiful stretch of sand, where we learn of the Palauans' history and how their ancestors managed to cross vast distances to reach these remote shores. We walk through a thick tropical forest to a UNESCO World Heritage village site mysteriously abandoned over 500 years ago. Our return to Koror by boat provides us with breathtaking scenery as we cruise through a labyrinth of islands, bays, and arches on our return to Palau Pacific Resort where we have time to indulge in some of the luxuries of the resort and share a our last celebratory meal.

Accommodations

Palau Pacific Resort
Koror, Palau

Palau Pacific Resort is nestled among 64 acres of lush gardens with exotic tropical flowers. Surrounded by the blue water of the western Pacific, this luxury hotel features a private 1,000-foot blanket of white sand beach with excellent snorkeling and a freshwater outdoor beachside swimming pool. Palau Pacific Resort rooms are all thoughtfully appointed with a range of modern amenities for a relaxing stay.

You will either be transferred to the airport in time to check in for return flights home, or you may opt to continue traveling independently, or extend your stay in Koror.