About Land-based diving Palau

Land-based diving in Palau is big even though not that many tourists come here every year. You can reach many of the dive sites that can be dived from one live board but you are quite limited anyway. You only do two dives per day if you stay on land here. Here you can experience really good diving in the clear blue waters of the Pacific Ocean and often with big fish on the menu. Various species of reef sharks and often in large numbers but also silvertips, mantas, eagle rays, leopard sharks and large shoals of tuna or jacks, giant trevellies, sometimes rarities such as golden mackerel and swordfish. If you're really lucky, whale sharks, tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks can also pass out of the blue or very close to the reefs. Even dugongs can be seen here sometimes.


The world's largest marine reserve

Palau has an incredibly rich flora and fauna both on land and underwater. There is also the famous Jellyfish Lake where you can swim with hundreds of thousands of harmless jellyfish pulsating their way through the water. In 2009, Palau became the first country in the world to create a marine reserve before more countries followed suit. Fishing is now completely prohibited here, which has led to more and more large fish species being seen here. Today, the area is over 600.000 square kilometers and in 2021 an area larger than France was declared a non-commercial fishing zone. It is today the world's largest marine reserve. Today, over 130 different species are protected shark species in this area but also rays and other marine animals.

Activities also on land

Although many of the best activities are underwater with the land-based diving here in Palau, there are also things to do on land around the town of Koror. The city is very tourist friendly and here you can go far with a smile. You can visit The Palau International Coral Reef Center which contains an aquarium. Or visit a marine cultural project where you can visit a giant clam nursery. There are also plenty of WWII relics, an old Japanese shrine and even shops where you can buy traditional arts and crafts. 

Palau is perfect to combine with a stop in Filippi Erna. Antigen, you can dive there too or make a stop in the fantastic and vibrant multi-million city that has fantastic shopping malls and much else to experience.