When you tell
people you’re going to Palau, they’re usually not sure exactly where that is.
But if they are familiar with Palau, the response is generally ecstatic. Those
who know Palau—generally divers, for that’s the island’s best-known
activity—tend to exalt its virtues: pristine underwater environments,
fascinating corals and sea life, and every shade of blue or green one can
imagine, between the ocean and the dense tropical forests covering the round
hills that seem to appear suddenly out of the ocean.
The Four Seasons
Explorer, Palau is invariably anchored in the midst of those seascapes of blue
and green. Part luxury hotel, part liveaboard dive boat, this little floating
piece of heaven is almost as hard to explain—to the uninitiated—as where Palau
is. It’s not a cruise, exactly (Four Seasons is developing yacht
cruises which will launch
next year), but it’s not a stationary floating hotel, either.
Stateroom interior aboard the Four Seasons Explorer, Palau. (Photo Credit: Northstar Travel Group/Scott Laird)
The boat changes
anchor locations around the islands of Palau (there are 340 of them) once or
twice a day, on a more-or-less set schedule, but the geographic footprint is
small, so guests can book whatever number of nights they wish, joining or
leaving the boat where ever it happens to be.
Most accurately
the Four Seasons Explorer describes itself as a “floating resort with daily
embarkations”. The boat’s location determines the activities on offer that day.
The activities are dive-focused, and many of the other guests onboard are there
for diving with the PADI-certified dive masters, but plenty of others are not.
The first morning
out, we went snorkeling off a large double-decked catamaran support boat that
seems half again as large as the Explorer itself. We sipped refillable glass
bottles of filtered water and logged into the free Wi-Fi on the way out to the
snorkeling spot, while the staff laid out the snorkeling gear we’d picked out
the day before (all the loading and unloading of the gear is handled by them).
Once at the snorkel spot, it was just us three guests, the guide, the dedicated
videographer (we’d find out why later) and the marine inhabitants of the reef.
After lunch, it
was time for a second excursion to the Milky Way, a secluded cove where the
silty white limestone sand in the turquoise water makes it appear milky. As
though gliding through the narrow channels wasn’t enough of a moment for social
media, we arrived in a serene lagoon surrounded by limestone cliffs covered in
lush foliage, where several floating docks were scattered across the surface of
the water. We moored at one of the docks and our guide dove to the bottom to
collect a bucket full of the white mud.
Some of Palau’s lush islets. (Photo Credit: Northstar Travel Group/Scott Laird)
The idea is to
cover yourself in the white mud and let it dry. It’s meant to exfoliate, wash
away oils, and support collagen and elasticity, but it’s also rather sulfuric
in aroma. In any case, it’s refreshing to step into the milky 80-degree water
to rinse off and find a moment of Zen listening to just the sound of the boat
bobbing in the water and the birdsong echoing off the limestone walls. On the
ride back to the Explorer, we stretched out on the sun deck of the catamaran to
watch as the sun dipped low on the horizon.
There was no typical
day on board, with something a bit different each morning. One day, we
transferred to Koror to board Four Seasons vans (robustly air-conditioned, with
Wi-Fi) to visit a hatchery for local sea life, both to stock the local lagoons
and to ship abroad for aquariums. After this, we visited a hundred-year-old
Palauan bai (meeting house) for a dance demonstration by local women, with
canapés and cocktails provided by the Four Seasons staff.
Sun deck aboard the Four Seasons Explorer, Palau. (Photo Credit: Northstar Travel Group/Scott Laird)
It’s almost hard
to believe that these islands were some of the most fiercely contested during
World War II. To the south lies the island of Peleliu, site of some of the most
intense combat between U.S. Marines and Japanese forces in the autumn of 1944.
Today, there’s a museum, and around each island are ruins of fortifications and
administrative buildings built during the Japanese occupation.
Each time we
returned to the Explorer, we were greeted with scented towels (cold when it was
sunny, hot when we were in the midst of a rain shower) and fruit juices. One
thing you won’t feel onboard is crowded. There are just ten guest rooms and one
suite, each of which is equipped with Four Seasons bedding, a full bath with
rainfall shower (the Explorer Suite also has a bathtub), a minibar and
amenities standard in any Four Seasons Hotel anywhere else in the world.
A traditional Palauan bai (meeting house) and dance demonstration. (Photo Credit: Northstar Travel Group/Scott Laird)
We were also well-fed. Each evening, there was a different regional theme for dinner— there
were evenings of Indian, Vietnamese and European cuisine, with delightful
three-course meals with a choice between two main dishes. Meals could be taken either in the
air-conditioned dining room or out on the aft deck—a preference of most of the
guests for breakfasts each morning with the backdrop of a brilliant sunrise
while tucking into a plate of Palauan banana pancakes.
Each evening, the
ship’s company gathered in the lounge to view a video recap of the day—a chance
not only to catch a glimpse of oneself, but also to see what sort of fun was
had by t.hose who went diving or did other activities. We enjoyed overhead
drone footage of our visit to Milky Way, as well as underwater shots of us
snorkeling and exploring the reef. The divers had it a bit better, poking
around shipwrecks and downed fighter aircraft from the war. After enjoying the
video recap each evening, we were presented with a copy of the videos from our
stay to take home.
Sunset at one of Palau’s 340 islands. (Photo Credit: Northstar Travel Group/Scott Laird)
Palau itself is
very accessible for American travelers, despite the differences. The country is
in free association with the United States, meaning that it’s fully
independent, but is closely connected with the U.S. Palau uses the U.S. Dollar
as its currency, is serviced by the U.S. Postal Service and receives federal
funding programs and defense from the United States.
United Airlines serves Palau from its hubs in Guam and
Tokyo Narita, with onward connections to the U.S. China Airlines also offers service from Taipei.
Although it was a
long journey across the Pacific, visiting both Palau and the Four Seasons
Explorer felt well worth the time investment. Perhaps the biggest worry I had
the entire week was plotting out my rationale for returning home.
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