Koror boat or Babeldaob car: who shares the Palau hull?

The Koror dive boat is the week most people actually flew for. It leaves early, the operator already quoted the hull for two, and the Rock Islands sit out there as limestone stacks in water you can read from the gunwale. Babeldaob is a different Palau: a car, a loop road, villages, and the capital complex at Ngerulmud. Both weeks are real. They do not share a packing list, and neither one discounts the empty pillow.

Palau is a small western Pacific republic. Palauan and English both work in shops and on dive boats. The capital is Ngerulmud, on Babeldaob, which is a government complex, not the nightlife you sleep next to. Money is the US dollar. Plates you will actually share are demok, the taro-leaf soup, fresh sashimi, tapioca, and whatever the boat crew eats between dives. Fruit bat soup is on tourist lists. Order it only if you both mean it. Red Rooster is the local beer that shows up after the last tank.

The useful note, if you are looking for travel companion on this Palau week, is Koror and the first boat morning, plus whether Jellyfish Lake is still a permitted add-on those dates. Someone who writes Koror, Rock Islands boat, lake if the permit is open has already pictured the dock. Someone who writes island paradise has not named a hull.

Rock Islands days leave from the Koror side, not from the capital complex at Ngerulmud. The islands are limestone stacks, very clear water, and dive or snorkel routes that operators run as small groups. Jellyfish Lake is the permitted add-on people fly for, and it is a boat-and-permit morning, not a swim from the hotel beach. Two certified divers fill a boat faster than one walk-up snorkeler. Two snorkelers who want the same lake morning still beat one person hoping the minimum will appear at breakfast. A leftover single often waits, or pays as if they were two. Peleliu is a separate boat or ferry overnight. Babeldaob is the car island: a loop road, villages, and the capital. Renting that car makes sense as two. As one person it is a lonely, expensive loop. Say Koror first unless you actually sleep on Babeldaob.

Demok and sashimi are lunch between tanks. A spa afternoon does not move the departure. The dollar bill that matters is still the hull. Keep the boat booking in your own name.

When should two people book the Rock Islands?

Which Palau bill hurts if you go alone?

• The Koror dive or snorkel boat, quoted per hull or with a two-person minimum
• Jellyfish Lake permits and the boat that is allowed to go there
• A Koror hotel or dive-lodge room that sells as a unit
• A Babeldaob rental car, plus the Peleliu boat or ferry if that overnight is real