Belau National Museum — Attraction in Koror

This isn't the Smithsonian, but there are only 2 museums in Koror (as well as the WWII Museum on Peleliu), and I'd say they're both worth a visit on a day off from diving. Palauans got to the islands over 2,000 years ago, which is pretty amazing, and worth learning about (exhibits on that particular side of things are better at the Etpison Museum).

You can read every word in the Belau National Museum in a couple of hours, tops. There are exhibits on flora and fauna, some on crafts, and a floor on the World Wars and control by foreign powers. The foreign power stuff is different from the Peleliu war museum in that it has a bunch of information about life in Palau under both the Germans and the Japanese.

There's a big outdoor reproduction bai, or meeting house.

The gift shop has lots of souvenirs, and one can support the museum by getting them there. It's also one of the few places that has a good selection of books about Palau. There's a cafe.

To get there, you turn up the hill by the Shell until the road basically runs onto the elementary school grounds, then go left before the school, and follow the road. There are some signs, but the road more or less runs right...

The museum was nice, but taking pictures inside is not allowed and the staff were very rude.

Palau is a beautiful country with incredibly friendly people. Locals often smile and wave, and we even had a stranger offer us a ride to our hotel when they saw us walking on the side of the road. However, our experience was overshadowed by the excessive and seemingly arbitrary taxes imposed on almost every activity.

If you want to visit another island? $50 tax. Want to film outside a museum? Another $50 tax. Snorkeling, scuba diving, even just sitting on certain beaches—it all comes with a $50 fee. Our hotel also charged a $50 tax, and the receipts for visitor passes looked so unprofessional that it almost seemed like the money wasn’t going where it should. While that may not be the case, the overall impression is that tourists are being exploited at every turn.

On top of that, everything is extremely expensive—$15 for a dozen eggs, $10 for a five-minute taxi ride. It really feels like visitors are being taken advantage of, which is disappointing for such a stunning destination. If Palau wants to encourage tourism, there needs to be more transparency and...

An interesting place, not big but includes information on the history of the country including the various foreign administrations, and currently a small temporary exhibition on Taiwanese indigenous people. There is a shop with a good range of souvenirs, a cafe which produced a decent cup of coffee, a small garden with a pond and a reconstructed bai. Entry $10. A short walk from the centre of Koror....