Beaches in Palau

An archipelago of limestone islands in the western Pacific with a reputation for marine protection out of all proportion to its size. The country closed eighty per cent of its exclusive economic zone to commercial fishing in 2015, and since 2017 every arriving visitor signs the Palau Pledge, stamped into their passport and written as a promise to the children of Palau — the only immigration requirement of its kind anywhere. Reef-toxic sunscreens are banned outright. The Rock Islands Southern Lagoon is a World Heritage site for both natural and cultural reasons: several hundred forested limestone knobs standing in a lagoon, with marine lakes isolated inside them and the remains of villages abandoned centuries ago. Jellyfish Lake, holding a population that lost its sting in isolation, has closed at times when drought collapsed their numbers, which is the clearest illustration available of how narrow these systems' margins are. Permits are required for the Rock Islands and are checked. Practically: Koror is the base and almost everything is reached by boat; the diving at Blue Corner and German Channel is what most visitors come for and needs current experience; and the dry season runs roughly December to April.