COVE Resort Palau — Hotel in Malakal

Overall we liked this hotel. There were a few issues with the room on the first night. The front desk clerk was extremely apologetic and immediately handled the problems she could. The free breakfast was amazing and the food in the restaurant was plentiful and good, although service lacked. The desk clerks are nice, but seem to know nothing about any tours, directions, or even what's in the immediate area. Three separate times we went to the hotel next door for tour info, brouchures and island maps. In hospitality, desk clerks should have at least some local knowledge to answer basic questions about the area. Because the electric is off when no one is in the room, you can't charge phones or use the fan or AC while out. If the room is unused for days prior to your arrival, the room can smell stale and musty. The rooms are large, have great beds and pillows. The ground floor walks out to the awesome pool, second floor has small balconies and third floor, just windows.||Be Aware of their massage service. They advertise a 'Cove Resort Massage Service', but it's not in-house. I requested a $40 foot massage at the front desk. A car came and picked me up and took me to a back-alley downtown parlor. The women spoke 99% Chinese. The massage was fine, but they charged me $50 instead of $40 advertised at the hotel. When I questioned it, they claimed I had agreed to a $50 foot massage. Untrue! I felt this was very bait-and-switch and told the front desk upon my return. Later, I found other massage places that also had transportation and are MUCH nicer, cleaner, more professional and are the same cost, or less. Overall, this is a nice hotel and Management should do better than associating with a substandard massage parlor that ultimately reflects poorly on them.||Palau Tip: Make daily plans well in advance, there is minimal to do nearby and all tours were full at least...

Let me start by saying that the first thing I rate a hotel on after a long journey is the quality of their shower and their towels, and this hotel gets 5-stars for both! The rain head shower has awesome water pressure and instant hot water. The towels are HUGE (bath sheet size) fluffy and thirsty. The waffle-weave dressing gowns and complimentary slippers are likewise luxurious....

That said, you will be welcomed by extremely friendly staff into their ample and airy lobby. The staff insist on carrying your bags for you. (Which is nice because there is no lift. However there are ample ground floor rooms for anyone with mobility issues.)

The Hungry Marlin restaurant is spacious, with a generous bar and situated beside the lovely pool illuminated by festoon lighting every evening.

The menu has lots of variety, from the standard burgers and pizzas for the kids or the less adventurous, to some local and Phillipino cuisine, for those wanting to sample local flavours.

There is a mini-mart conveniently situated across the road and it's walking distance to Sami's Tours, or you can get picked up at their private Wharf by most tour and scuba providers.

It's a short taxi to Main St of Koror to explore or do souvenir shopping. (The Canoe House is worth a visit). Cost is usu $6-$10 per trip.

A local tour guide for the day cost us $100US for two of us and was gladly arranged for us by the front desk. Or if you prefer to free-range explore the islands, you can hire a car for as little as $50 a day.

I would definitely stay here again and gladly...

This is a fantastic hotel and we couldn't choose better for our stay. Room was pretty spacious (we stayed at poolside one), bathroom as well, everything was clean. Breakfast was also great, with selection changed daily. We also had few times a dinner or just midday snack in hotel's restaurant and the food was absolutely delicious, especially the fish. Location is also great, not far away from downtown of Koror (took us like 30 minutes of walking to get there), with marina so on our kayak and snorkeling trip we got back right to hotel by boat, the nearest really nice beach is approx 5 minutes of walking at Riptide bar. There's also a mini market just across the street. The staff is story itself, I totally don't like to point out someone, because here really everyone felt us so welcome, no matter if reception staff, guys at the restaurant, cleaning lady or the pool cleaner, everyone was so nice to us, but Kath from reception was really amazing with her attitude and service and she's worth mentioning specifically. Long story short, I don't think we'd find better choice for the stay at Palau. If we come back again to Palau, Cove is the only option. Reception can also arrange a car rental, that I can absolutely recommend, as whole island(s) is worth to see. This was really nice vacation we won't...