Koror – The Palau Royal Resort on Malakal Island (Palau)

Before we booked our flight to Palau with China Airlines, we first thought about a hotel on the small island. Finding a suitable and beautiful hotel with beach access in Palau was not so easy…

Which hotel on Palau?

From the islands of Bora Bora, Tahiti, Moorea, Fiji or of course Hawaii we were used to a quite large selection of hotels in all price ranges. On Palau, however, there are virtually no Western hotel chains and there are no large number of hotels either. Ultimately, our decision was made at Palau Royal Resort, part of the Japanese international hotel chain Nikko, which opened in June 2005.

The Palau Royal Resort (PRR) is one of the best hotels on the island,along with the Palau Pacific Resort (PPR). Since the Pacific Resort with its over-water bungalows was a bit too expensive for us, we decided on the Royal Resort. Still quite expensive, but all the other hotels haven’t really promised us. And if you are already on such a dream island, you want to feel comfortable in the hotel 🙂

The location of the hotel & the arrival from the airport in Koror

Located on Malakal Island, Palau Royal Resort is about 20 to 30 minutes away by car from Koror Airport. The hotel offers a transfer service from the airport, which costs $20 per person per way. Since we included a free transfer in our Fish ‘n Fins diving package, we didn’t need this airport transfer from the hotel.

The centre of the city of Koror can be reached from the hotel in about 5 minutes by car or 15 minutes on foot. If you want to go to the city centre, you can either take a taxi (approx. $7 each way) or use the BBI Shuttle Bus, which departs from various hotels and stations from about 1x per hour in the afternoon and always runs between the Pacific Resort, the Royal Resort and the city. For just 8 US dollars you can buy a bus ticket for a whole week at the hotel reception. This is really good and practical. Here we have dropped the BBI Shuttle Bus timetable. If you only want to go to one of the surrounding restaurants of Koror, you can also get picked up – many restaurants offer a free hotel pick-up.

Just 5 minutes from the hotel on the other side of the street is a small supermarket. Here you can stock up on what is necessary. And to our surprise, this is even relatively inexpensive. A can of Coke, for example, costs just 0.80 cents and a soup to brew just above .1. We are used to much higher prices from other islands. A detailed description of food prices follows in one of the next contributions.

Our Deluxe Ocean Room at Palau Royal Resort

Palau Royal Resort has 157 rooms and suites, all with balconies overlooking the harbour or lagoon. We had a Deluxe Ocean room at the top of the 6th floor. The room was renovated in 2015, so everything still looked very new and unused. The room and bathroom could be transformed into a large room via a sliding door, so that the total of 42 sqm was very generous. In the bathroom, besides the high-tech toilet with heated seats etc., there are a whole range of bathroom items that are replenished daily: shampoo, shower gel, rinse, body lotion, razor, toothbrush & pasta, floss, sewing thread, cotton pads, ear sticks, earopax and a comb. There are also 2 bottles of water per day free of charge.

We felt comfortable in our room and can recommend this without restriction!

Internet connection (Wi-Fi) at the hotel

Unfortunately, the hotel’s internet is free only for meals in the restaurants or bar and works rather slowly. It has to be said, however, that the Internet is unfortunately very limited and incredibly expensive throughout Palau. There are only 2 providers on the island and a fast internet connection via Palau Telecoms costs $750 – per month. The best part is “… Now at a very low price“. You don’t want to know what it cost before 🙂

In the hotel shop, however, you can buy a 10-hour internet card from Palau Telecoms for 10 US dollars. The 10 hours of internet use work with login and unlogout and have been easy with us for the 11 days. The speed was absolutely fine, too. There is a very good information page about the various telephone providers and internet connections on Palau.

Breakfast at The Palau Royal Resort

The guests of the Palau Royal Resort are mainly (we estimate 90) Asian tourists from Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China. In our accommodation price included was the daily breakfast from the buffet. Due to the Asian guests, however, this is mainly Asian – so in the morning soups, pasta, rice, fish and also a lot of unknowns, which was not possible for us. There is also toast with jam, salad, fruit, eggs, freshly prepared omelettes and pancakes. Unfortunately, cheese and sausages are searched in vain. But if you ask nicely, you can also get ham (which is otherwise used for the omelet) and melted cheese at the cooking station. So you can make yourself a small sandwich. There are also various juices and, of course, coffee.

Unfortunately, we can’t say anything about dinner, as we either ate outside or got something in the nearby supermarket.

Pool, beach and hotel facilities

Palau Royal Resort has its own private white sandy beach with an attached lagoon. The hotel also has a beautiful swimming pool. Recaming mattresses and towels can be obtained directly from the staff at the pool. Whether we went to the pool or the lagoon in the morning or in the afternoon – you could always find a free lounger. In the lagoon you can rent a kayak or snorkel. Madness there is of course not much to see there, but a few colorful reef fish such as a Picasso pusher fish can be found in any case.

In the reception area there is also an artificial lake, which is home to many colorful reef fish and also a turtle. The turtle was found injured and is being plucked again here. Every day at 4.45 p.m., two hotel employees feed bread and fish to the lagoon dwellers. Of course we didn’t want to miss the spectacle and so we helped with the feeding on some days.

In addition, there are many other ways to spend your time at the hotel: fitness centre with billiards and table tennis, tennis, mini golf, diving center, gift shop, children’s play area or even the Mandara Spa.

For divers, snorkelers and excursionists there is a small harbour next to the hotel as well as a private pier,from which you are usually picked up directly by boat by the respective tour operators. The hotel is home to the Blue MarlinTachschule , which has almost exclusively Asian guests. Almost all Western tourists dive with Sam’s Tours or Fish n’ Fins, which we can recommend.

Relaxation at Mandara Spa

At mandara spa, which is housed in spacious waterfront villas, we indulged in a Balinese massage, a flower bath and a floral foot massage. In total, the really very relaxing treatment lasted about 1.5 hours. The two spa collaborations put a lot of effort into it and we even had the opportunity to choose the oils for the massage ourselves. The current price list can be downloaded here.

A video of Palau Royal Resort

Finally, here is a video of the Palau Royal Resort, which we made with our new DJI Mavic Pro drone:

All travelogues from Palau

The islands of Palau, together with Blue Corner and the German Channel, are among the most beautiful and interesting dive sites in the world. And the fantastic pictures of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Rock Islands have certainly been seen by many on the Internet or in reports on TV. We spent a total of 12 days on Palau and got to know the island paradise both above and under water. » Palau – Travel Guide, Diving & Things to Do
» Palau – Entry & Exit (Visa) at Koror Airport
» Koror – The Palau Royal Resort on Malakal Island
» Diving with the diving school Fish ‘n Fins
» The Rock Islands in Palau & Infos about Jellyfish Lake
» The Blue Corner – Diving with Sharks & Napoleon Lip Fish
» The German Channel – Diving at the Manta Hotspot
» Jake Seaplane – Diving at the Plane Wreck
» Palau – Diving in the island paradise of Micronesia
» Peleliu – Diving on Palau Island
» Peleliu – Historical tour of the old battlefields in World War II
» Palau – Our Self-Guided Day Tour of Babeldaob Island
» Palau – Scenic Flight over the Rock Islands & Seventy Islands

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