Palau luxury cruise: coral reefs, white sand beaches, Jellyfish Lake and WWII relics from US$3,000-a-night catamaran
- Palau, a nation of islands in the western Pacific, offers white sand beaches, clear blue water and some of the healthiest coral reefs on the planet
- Touring it aboard the Four Seasons Explorer, a catamaran that sleeps up to 22 people, is one way to take in a place where conservation is king
The first emerges through the misty water like an apparition, as round and delicate as a smoke ring.
A moment later, a second comes into view, the size of dinner plate, its ghostly white frame pulsing in and out. Then another, as small as a button mushroom, floats right past my face – and another, perhaps 50cm (20 inches) in diameter, contracts eerily below.
Dozens of moon jellyfish and larger golden jellyfish, with frilly crowns and ruffled tentacles that make them look like Victorian lampshades, are blooming all around me.
This might seem like the opening scene of a horror movie but Ongeim L’Tketau – also known as Jellyfish Lake – home to approximately one million stingless Scyphozoa, is one of Palau’s most popular tourist attractions.
These are the best corals I’ve ever seen
I’m embarrassed to admit that before my visit I wasn’t entirely sure where Palau was, but after pinpointing it on the map and widening, widening – and widening – the screen, I discovered that the Republic of Palau is in the far western Pacific, east of the Philippines, north of Indonesia and west of Hawaii.
It’s part of the islands that make up Micronesia, but not one of the Federated States of Micronesia, which comprises Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae.
