Alain Chartrand
Google
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 fairness in pricing.
