What I wish I had known about Peleliu before going...

On Peleliu I stayed at Storyboard Resort. I liked the positive reviews I had read about them online, and am in full agreement with them. It’s a comfortable and pleasantly down-to-earth resort run by the very friendly and helpful Filipino couple Benjie and Lenie. I was their only guest during the three days I stayed on the island and felt very well looked after and right at home with them. We got along great so it almost felt like a home stay. It’s possible to kayak off their beach and there are some hammocks and benches under palm trees that make for great relaxing while enjoying the ocean breeze. Food was very good and plentiful.

Renting a bicycle from a little shop in the village was 10$ per day. The bike was in a good condition and very suitable for exploring the island. Just be careful not to push the cheap plastic pedals too hard is in my case both of them broke at the end of the day and I had to pay for the damage.

When you ride around the island you’d be well advised to bring a good map. The island is too small to really get lost on it, but even with a map it is easy to end up going the wrong way sometimes. There are very few signs, most of the roads and trails on the island look pretty much alike, and not all of them and their intersections are necessarily marked on the maps. Even though I had been everywhere on the island by car the previous day I sometimes ended up in different places than intended. Bring lots of water as you can’t buy any outside the main village. I went through 2 liters in 5 hours.

I didn’t do any scuba diving near Peleliu, as the weather was unseasonably bad with quite a bit of rain, wind, and rough seas. I was told that scuba diving around Peleliu is often challenging even in good conditions, and I am only moderately experienced. There are two dive companies operating off Peleliu, Mami Divers and Peleliu Divers. When I asked around I got mixed reports. Storyboard told me they haven’t done business with Peleliu Divers in many years as they allegedly lost some of their customers on a diving excursion. Hence Storyboard recommended me Mami Divers. My divemaster at Sam’s Dive Shop in Koror on the other hand advised me against Mami Divers though and recommend the allegedly more professional Peleliu Divers. Go figure. Mami Divers were the ones who I rode with to get to Peleliu btw. On the way back to Koror three days later I took the state boat. Mami Divers charged me 40$ for the transfer while the state boat cost 5$. I definitely recommend going by state boat at least one way. It’s a smoother ride and one has a lot more time to appreciate the scenery. Also, it’s pretty easy to start a conversation with some of the locals who are commuting between the islands. I had a fun talk with some college students who shared lots of stories about their lives on Peleliu. I learned a lot from them.

Other than what I had read in guidebooks and online I didn’t consider any of the beaches very attractive for swimming or snorkeling, so I refrained. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but when I was there the beaches were littered with seaweed and sometimes trash. This might have been because of the bad weather, but I’m not sure. In any case, it appears that reef shoes would be a good idea for going into the water as there are sharp coral rocks almost everywhere. There’s also a swimming hole on the island but it didn’t look appealing either. Lots of mosquitoes around there too!

Peleliu is simply beautiful, and in contrast of the horrible battle that was waged here for months in 1944 it is incredibly peaceful. The barren landscape and scorched earth has been transformed and reclaimed by nature since the end of the war, and everything is lush, green, and tropical.

Being a history buff in general with a particular interest in WW2 I was eager to take a tour of the island’s many war related sights. There are several options for exploring.

1) Take a tour with local historian Tangie Hesus: Tangie is still around and available to take people around the islands to point out the sights and share his impressive and detailed knowledge about the place. I had read very mixed reports about him both on the Thorntree as well as other online boards. Some have suggested he’s a scammer and cannot be trusted. As previously mentioned here on the TT it is true that Sam’s Dive Shop in Koror doesn’t use his services for their customers anymore. Sam’s manager confirmed this to me. Apparently there have been too many complaints about him over the years. For this reason I had made my mind up to go with local Peleliu resident and tour agency owner Des instead who also offers similar tours. Unfortunately there’s a minimum of 4 participants for Des’ tour to run, and there was nobody else but me. In order to take the tour anyway I would have had to cough up 160$, which I thought was a bit too steep. Tangie asks for 45$ per person with a minimum of 2 people on the tour, unless I was willing to pay double to go alone. This is what I ended up doing, and I haven’t regretted it for a single minute. The tour took a total of 4 hours and was simply fantastic. I dare say it was one of the best tours I have taken anywhere, and I still consider it a bargain despite having paid double, considering the wealth of knowledge Tangie possesses. He really does know his stuff, and has met countless veterans who fought on Peleliu over the years. I doubt that anyone in Koror or Peleliu can match his experience.
Be warned though that Tangie IS a very eccentric character and I can easily imagine that he has rubbed many people the wrong way in the past. In my particular case it was very apparent he liked me because I already possessed a lot of knowledge about the history of Peleliu and its sites of historic significance as I had read two books written by veterans about the battle that took place there (“With the Old Breed on Peleliu and Okinawa” and “Helmet for my Pillow”) Tangie admitted to me that he gets annoyed with explaining stuff to people who are, from his point of view, too ignorant about the island’s history or not sufficiently interested in learning about it. As much as I enjoyed the tour with him and the additional knowledge I gained, I also felt somewhat relieved when we said farewell to each other at the end of it. (Not least because on the way back to the resort he fell asleep while driving and almost put the car into a deep ditch in the jungle on the side of the road…). Overall I do recommend taking the tour with him. Ideally read up on the war related history of Peleliu beforehand, show genuine interest, and hope for the best. (If you are too lazy to read you can always watch the two episodes of HBO’s “The Pacific” that deal with Peleliu.)

2) Let your resort take you around: I was offered by my resort to get taken to all places of interest, but probably the driver would have not been able to tell me much in excess of what I already knew. I guess this is the second best option if neither Tangie nor Des are around.

3) Self-guided: Many sights can be more or less easily found with a map of the island. However, many very interesting spots are easy to miss, and the sights are only half as interesting without the detailed stories that usually go with them. I explored many of the sights riding a bicycle around on my own again on my second day on the island, but was very glad to have had someone to take me around and point everything out to me in detail previously.

Thank you very much for your detailed account - it is not easy to get updated information about Peleliu; a friend of mine visited a couple of month ago, and said that the places to stay mentioned in the new Micronesia guide were either closed or costed a lot more. I an my family visited a month ago, and decided to stay at Carp island, just across the channel, and had Diana to show us around - another local who both is cheaper, doesn't take big parties and you have the whole day (40$ per adult). You can contact Carp Resort, if you wan't to get in contact with her.

Orange beach (where the invation took place) seemed to be a good snorkeling spot; Diana said there also were a lot of tanks and stuff just out on the reef, that never made the landing.

Just to put up a couple of notes about Carp island, now I'm at it: It mostly caters for divers - Japanese divers, but it is a great place to relax and if you dive, you are 5 minutes away from all the main Palau diving spots. We asked if we could take our children snorkeling on one of their diving boats, which shocked them, and they did not really know what to do. The water is so shallow around Carp that you cannot really snorkel here, so it is much better to go on one of the Palau trips to the Rock islands. We took a kayak instead to one of the uninhabited islands - the same day as the Tsunami; though a few hours earlier.

A few more details and pictures from my blog from the day:
http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Palau/Peleliu/blog-585096.html</a>

Great detailed report.

I personally was very disappointed by Peleliu. As you said the beaches were unattractive (and how can one frolic where so many have died). I came across a scary squatters beach on the other side of the island, Fortunatley no one was around. (I heard that Peleliu is called Columbia by the locals.)

What I didn't know was that the beaches generally can't be seen from the road. Walking down the road it's just jungle on both sides. Almost no houses or anything outside the two villages (except for the WWII remanents here and there.)

Carp Island - am interested in hearing more. Do they still charge $10 an hour for kayak use? Is it sometimes too shallow to kayak out of there? Is there more than one island that one could reasonably kayak to on a day trip from Carp (different day, different island)? Do you think that their boat is large enough to accomdate a kayak rented from elsewhere?

Thanks for your feedback!

@silvanocat: I can understand your disappointment. I think it really helps to be a history buff with a specific interesting in the battle of Peleliu in order to enjoy the place. Without it it's probably just another of thousands of little Pacific islands without much going on. Then again, there's a certain charm in that for a couple of days.

Carp Island - am interested in hearing more. Do they still charge $10 an hour for kayak use?

Yes. But as you know, all activites in Palau cost. A dive or snorkeling trip would be much more. And to be fair of the resort, we were going for 3 hours but were only charged for one hour. I'm sure a day-fare could be negotiated.

Is it sometimes too shallow to kayak out of there?

It gets really shallow at low tide - they said now way we could go at that time, but I think you could. They recommended to go to a place called turtle point, out at the reef, but it was kind of windy, so we did not dare go that far.

Is there more than one island that one could reasonably kayak to on a day trip from Carp (different day, different island)?

Yep, there are plenty of islands nearby, but again, if you would like to snorkel, it is not that great, unless the weather permits you to go to the reef.

Do you think that their boat is large enough to accomdate a kayak rented from elsewhere?

Yes, but I'm not sure if they'll allow it. They have maybe 30 kayaks at the resort, mainly used by the day tours from Koror with Japanese visiting the southern rock islands.

The average rate is 100$ for a cottage, which is ok, considering it is a kind of a resort. It is an extremely idylic spot - I first found it using google Earth, wondering why there were so many pictures posted at this one small island, and looked it up. And they have WiFi at the restaurant. Again, it mostly caters for divers who will have the world's best diving sites just a few minutes away (blue holes, giant manta rays cleaning stations, drift dives etc.). Papa Mike's as in Papa Mike's Palau handbook, also recommended it for being a great place to relaxe - at least he did.
Only, if there had been better snorkeling, it would have been perfect.

The island is administrated from their office in Koror, and you can expect swift replies to emails to them.
Link to their homepage: http://www.carpislandpalau.com/</a>

Thanks for the detailed response on Carp.

I emailed back and forth with Carp in '08 but the kayak was the deal breaker. I told her that I thought the price was high and she just offered to take an hour off. My plan was to be out in a kayak all day. Back in Koror I was getting quotes for around $40 for a day. Of course, the problem is getting the kayak out to the rock islands.

To me, the next best thing about visiting Peleliu after touring it with Tangie is spending time with the locals. Attend their evening sports events at the school outdoor gym and start a conversation. I spent hours talking to a 16-year old mother about the challenges of finishing her high school education in Koror, given that the Internet is too slow for distance education, and her dream of serving in the U.S. Army. I played with the local children and saw basketball and volleyball games.

I also felt that our 4-hour tour with Tangie was one of the highlights of the trip. He also make comments about disliking ignorant tourists. Although we did not have detailed knowledge of the Peleliu battle like OP did, we appeared to meet his minimum standards. He loves answering questions about the local bird population as well (I'm not really into bird-watching, but the bird songs on that island were the most beautiful I had ever heard, with the birds harmonizing with each other).

For pretty beaches and snorkeling, stock up on groceries and head to Kayangel instead (which is a bargain compared to Carp). You will have pristine beaches to yourself, you can sleep on the dock if you are on a tight budget, and there is snorkeling (not nearly as good as what is in the rock islands, but sufficient, with several giant clam areas).

Edited by: tilos

We loved Peleliu---we weren't expecting another Bora Bora, but you definitely feel like you are in your own remote little corner of the world. That, combined with the history---WWII army vehicles rusting in the sun---the lush jungle and the people made it a special memory for us.

Tangie is a part of that memory! We enjoyed the tour, and he is quite the character. We dont talk about Peleliu without mentioning Tangie.

Would have loved to have visited Angaur (the next island within sight from Orange Beach) but did not have time.

We also stayed at Carp for a night. If you kayak 15 minutes from the resort to "Turtle Cove" there is outstanding snorkeling, w/ a dropoff.

Carp was a steam bath when we were there---No breeze, the ocean was like glass. But very beautiful.

Be aware, "resort" is a loose term. Rustic cabins, and "do dispose of toilet paper in the toilet" bathrooms...

Nice to know that Tangie is back in Peliliu. He's been doing that tour for many years now.

We were in Peliliu on the 50th anniversary of the battle- many of the guys who had fought there came back for the celebration. It really was like living in a piece of history. As a note- the ducks in the center of the island were actually brought in after the war with supplies. I was showing my pictures to an old friend here and he was astonished- he had captained the ship that brought them over and was amazed that they were still there. Introduced him to a friend of ours who grew up in Peliliu who had grown up playing on them- nice meeting.