Disappearing Beaches: Palau vs. Fiji

Ask 100 people the question: "What are the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world?" You will likely get 100 different answers. Humans are obsessed with beaches. Take some sand, gently rolling waves, a little bit of sunshine and a cool breeze, throw in some palm trees, stir it well and - voilá - you have cooked up the definition of paradise for a large percentage of people on this planet. City holidays and Beach holidays are by far the most popular types of holidays which means that a lot of people have a lot of opinions about what exactly makes a great beach. Today, I want to introduce you to two of my favourite beaches.

Palau

If you see this picture it's hard to believe that the tiny nation of Palau - sitting somewhat in the middle of nowhere between the Philippines and Papua New Guinea - actually sucks when it comes to beaches. When visiting Palau, you will most likely stay in the main "city" Koror - a massive metropolis at ca. 17,000 inhabitants according to Wikipedia. Many visitors to Palau, including me, are surprised that in and around Koror there are literally zero real beaches. The only beaches you can find are man-made and are property of the two best resorts in town. In order to get to see this beauty of a beach you either need to fly over it (which we did and it is totally worth it) or you need to take a ca. 1 hour boat ride from Koror (which we also did).

The boat brought us to a small landing spot like you can see in the picture above. We had lunch here and some time to enjoy the beach that slightly bends into the reef and disappears on high tide.

The beach is situated in the south of a group of islands called Rock Islands, or Chelbacheb in local language. The above view shows a formation called 70 islands. It's one of Rock Island's most famous spots. You can only see these islands from the air - boats are not allowed to go near them as the place is a turtle breeding habitat.

Fiji

Another spectacular beach that disappears in high tide can be found on the Yasawa Islands of Fiji.

This beach connects the islands of Waya and Wayasewa. I was quite suprised to see that some of the Yasawa Islands are not the lush, deep green paradise that you would expect of Fiji. Particularly Waya and Wayasewa were covered with dry bushland. I actually thought that this was quite beautiful and a bit of a change from your "typical" tropical island.

I think this guy would agree with me. He was having a good time hanging out on his boat :) Generally, people on the Yasawa's are experts in enjoying themselves - playing Ukulele and drinking Kava, which has a slightly sedative effect, were amongst our favourite activities.

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All images in this post are my own work. All rights reserved.