Review: Four Seasons Explorer, Palau

Why book?

The country of Palau, an archipelago scattered across the Western Pacific, is 90% ocean. The best way to explore it is this floating resort that sails to islands, lagoons, and dive sites while you sleep, and brings the best of this Micronesian nation directly to you.

Set the scene

There’s no better name than Explorer for this nimble and well-equipped power catamaran, navigating Palau’s 340 or so islands and its thriving waters (213,011 square miles of ocean, the size of metropolitan France). This luxury floating hotel concept has three decks accessible to guests, with walkable areas wrapped around the boat’s perimeter, bestowing 360-degree views of Palau’s wondrous natural landscape: crystalline waters, limestone formations covered in emerald vegetation, a nearly-sapphire sky. Standing on the bow of the ship, it was easy to imagine what the environment must have looked like when the archipelago was first created by volcanic activity thousands of years ago—just like this.

As far as check-in experiences go, coming onboard the Explorer felt much like arriving at any other five-star hotel on solid ground. From the moment my plane touched down in Koror (Palau’s biggest city, population: 11,000), it was Four Seasons hospitality with thoughtful touch points and genuine warmth all the way down. I was ferried from airport to car to marina to boat to even bigger boat seamlessly, and presented with cold towels, bottles of water, and QR codes that connected me to satellite WiFi at every turn. If you arrive in Palau after dark, as I did, you’ll spend the night at a partner hotel onshore, as transfers to the Explorer only happen during the day.

Once on the Explorer, I was given coconut water—served in its husk, of course—and yet another cold towel, then introduced to the crew by their names and roles. Worry not, you will not be quizzed, but the boat is so small and the camaraderie so palpable that you’ll want to link names to smiling faces anyway. I also met two of the four guests I stayed with during my five days onboard, all of them avid divers who have already seen and plumbed the marine depths of the Maldives, Raja Ampat, and the Andaman Sea. Expect to run into passionate adventure-seekers with means, who have come to pristine Palau seeking the ultima thule of scuba diving. (Naturally, private charters are also available.)

After a short safety briefing and getting set up with the WiFi (available throughout the boat), the cruise director, Abo, escorted me to my room and left me to marvel at the view out my window. It looked rather like a Windows screensaver. I had to pinch myself that it was the real thing.

The backstory

The Four Seasons Explorer began its life in the Maldives, where it sailed cruise itineraries for twenty years. Now, it’s a floating hotel concept: check-in whenever, check-out whenever; a very fancy hop on-hop off operation on the high seas. This flexibility allows for the marine access that traveling by ship grants without the rigidity of a set sailing schedule.

Moreover, staying onboard a maritime resort brings you closer to everything Palau has to offer—literally. Sail to the limestone Rock Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, while you have lunch and go snorkeling with turtles, sharks, and the hot fish from Finding Nemo thirty minutes after dessert; turn in for the evening, refreshed after a spa treatment and wake up near the island of Peleliu, where you’ll go on a historic walking tour of a World War II battleground. On an island vacation, you have to leave your hotel to get on a boat to get somewhere (and back), losing precious time in the process. None of that happens when your hotel is the boat.

The Explorer came to Palau in the fall of 2023 as a sort of advance guard for the hotel brand, to do research and develop what the Four Seasons experience could look like in the country, which historically has lacked the infrastructure to support luxury tourism. The company is working closely with Palau’s government, its tourism authority, and its local Indigenous communities to ensure a mutually beneficial and sustainable relationship between destination and hotelier as it plans to build an onshore resort in the future.

The rooms

Ten of the Explorer’s eleven state rooms are found on the main deck, the lowest level accessible to guests, accessible through the muster station. They’re all almost exactly the same—check the deck plan—with variations only in layout and whether or not they have a couch or a daybed that can sleep a small third person. All that to say, no matter which room you get, know that you’re in the second best accommodation onboard. (More on the premier Explorer Suite in a bit.)

The state rooms are tastefully styled, favoring high-quality materials and efficient use of space. They’re all dressed in cloudy neutrals with dollops of pale seafoam or sage to keep the visual effect from getting too monochrome. Subtle nautical themes manifest in framed prints depicting conches and nautilus shells hung above the tufted headboards. The beds are massive (your choice: one king bed or two twins, all Four Seasons signature mattresses), swathed in crisp white sheets and topped with beautifully bloated pillows.

Bathrooms are modestly-sized but maneuverable, which could be said for each of the rooms. But smart features throughout keeps them from feeling cramped: the under-bed drawers for suitcases; the recessed lighting in the closets; the nightstands with pull-out surfaces. The minibars are well-stocked, starring Nespresso machines and bags of supremely craveable rosemary chips I haven’t yet come across back in New York. The TVs too come pre-loaded with goodies: the documentary My Octopus Teacher and another recounting Palau’s role in the Pacific Theater of World War II. It’s these details that remind you of the fact you’re sailing Palauan seas; life vests are located next to your shoe shine tray.

Then there’s Explorer Suite on the second level of the boat, toward the bow. It’s a little more than twice the size of the regular rooms, and has access to a full bathroom with a tub, a walk-through closet, and a private sundeck. It gets the best views of all the rooms on the boat, with a panoramic wall of windows. But the portholes in the lower state rooms are nothing to scoff at either. Regardless of wherever you wake up on the Explorer (even on the reclining sun loungers on the top deck), Palauan vistas greet you from the moment you open your eyes.

Food and drink

There’s just the one place to eat onboard—well, technically two: There are indoor and outdoor dining areas. The kitchen cooks up fixed three-course meals for lunch and dinner, and an a la carte menu for breakfast; water, coffee, tea, and some snacks are available throughout the day. Portions are just right, neither small nor oversized, appropriate for a venue that encourages its guests to dive into the ocean at all hours of the day. But if you’re staying in and dry, there’s always seconds and thirds to be had; you might just have to wait as much of the food is made to order—and all of great quality and taste. Some favorites: chips made out of taro (a tuber) sourced from Palauan farmers; Palauan clams in linguine al vongole; and various daily catches fished from local waters, steamed with calamansi and leeks in a banana leaf.

Endearingly, the dining program makes a fantastic effort to pull the Explorer crew into the menu. For breakfast, I almost always ordered the eggs—Joyce’s Mama’s Scramble, a Palauan family recipe brought in by the eponymous Joyce, a member of the Explorer’s onshore staff. For lunch, the beverage manager, Krisna, was occasionally represented on the plate by a fiery fried rice, the signature of his restaurant in Bali. Even the ceremony of dinnertime was seasoned with personality. On my last night, the kitchen prepared a large fish that one of the guests caught while fishing. The chef, Abey, prepared portions for us all as the rest of the crew clapped along to the sound of drums, bursting into laughter when no one could keep the rhythm. The sum is the feeling of being invited into a sunny realm that the team creates onboard. I don’t know how to put this without sounding hokey, but it all made the Explorer feel like home.

The spa

I was especially grateful to have the spa when, one day, I forgot to apply sunscreen and went snorkeling at high noon. My neck, shoulders, and back were hot to the touch, and the spa director, Anitha, customized a treatment for me to address my burns. Sure, the spa is essentially a curtained-off corner of the top deck with one treatment bed. But perhaps that’s all you need when the entire Explorer experience is an exercise in being cared for. (I should say, I never had trouble booking an appointment, but you might have to wait when there are more passengers.)

Overall, the spa program takes inspiration from Palau. Specific treatments on the menu were developed with the herbal recipes and therapeutic knowledge of Francisca B. Kloulechad, a traditional practitioner of Palauan healing modalities, like a massage with a ginger-infused coconut oil followed by an herbal steam and a banana leaf body wrap. There’s the option to set up a treatment on land—on a serene sand bank somewhere, time and tide permitting. But there’s something especially soothing about being lulled to sleep by both the rhythms of a massage and the sea itself, rolling calmly beneath the boat.

The neighborhood/area

On the Explorer, your neighborhood changes with the day. The crew customizes the boat’s itinerary depending on the whims of the guests onboard. When a handful of us wanted to spend the morning birdwatching in the Rock Islands and the afternoon snorkeling in the famed Jellyfish Lake (whose titular residents are visually but not literally stunning), the cruise director and his team figured out a schedule the night before that met everyone’s desires. It might get trickier when you get a larger group with more varied wants, but part of the appeal is going wherever the wind—or I suppose, the engine—takes you. Among other activities: scuba diving (the team knows the best sites in the area, from the German Channel with its manta rays to the steep drop-off of the Blue Hole), paddleboarding, and even simply floating about in the water just off the catamaran’s muster station—termed in the daily itineraries as “Fun in the Water.” The crew continually tweaks and iterates on their offerings, so it’s likely there will be more options for water-based activities as time goes on.

I should mention: You can get your PADI certification while on the Explorer. The diving instructor—and marine biologist!—Oscar helped a guest begin and complete her diving education during her one week on the boat. (I wanted to do it as well, but due to a recent leg injury, I was advised to hold off and stick to snorkeling. To learn how to dive in Palau, Oscar joked, would have been to be spoiled for life, so I guess it was for the best.)

Deeply compelling too are the excursions on dry land. On Peleliu, Four Seasons collaborates with the tour company Peleliu Adventures to take guests on historical walks and drives throughout the island, telling the story of the Pacific Theater of World War II on the island, where some of the deadliest fighting between American and Japanese forces took place. (So many artifacts from the war still stand in the open air—American tanks and Japanese cannons among them—that Peleliu is also known as “Museum Island.”) In the state of Airai, we visited conservationists at Biota, a marine life nursery; and took a trip to the local bai, a centuries-old Palauan village meeting house, where locals welcome guests with traditional songs and insight into Indigenous customs. And a visit to the southern Palauan state of Angaur (population: 50) when waters were especially choppy necessitated a chartered flight in a five-seater plane. Once there, we visited what was left of the phosphate mining enterprise that was passed between the Germans and Japanese during occupation, and visited a local school to learn about the Palauan cultural principle of omengull, a respect for all things. I learned a lot about the country, its people, and its ecosystem in just five days. A stay on the Explorer of any length will satisfy curious travelers, history buffs, and anyone who loves the ocean.

The service

Simply impeccable. The crew’s service style is polished but comfortable; every task or request, whether big or small, is carried out with an air of effortlessness. Whenever I returned to the Explorer from snorkeling or an onshore excursion, I was greeted, “Welcome back, Mr. Ortile,” and given a cold towel and a refreshment: a shot of hibiscus lemonade, or calamansi juice, or spiked chai for a rainy day. On top of that, crew members were, I felt, deeply genuine. No interaction felt forced. It was easy to strike up a conversation with everyone onboard, who gamely shared the stories of their lives with Four Seasons and without it. The team radiates the aura of a small family: off-duty, they teased each other easily; at work, they spoke in an efficient shorthand, the kind born out of consistent collaboration.

It was even more impressive to witness their hospitality out in the field. After spelunking through the Thousand Man Cave on Peleliu (a network of cramped tunnels used by Japanese soldiers during World War II), we emerged into the sunlight and saw Oscar with skewers of fruit, sandwiches, and more cold towels, never forfeiting the Four Seasons flair. The crew takes seven-star service seriously: Two guests who were celebrating their anniversary requested a private party on a beach; they returned to the boat at almost midnight with half the crew, singing the praises of what the team was able to pull off—a romantic dinner and a bit of a dance floor with a DJ (Rishmin, one of the servers, brought his turntables).

And if you’ve ever been around die-hard cruise people, you’ll know that some follow beloved crew members to the ends of the earth. When another couple arrived to check in, one of them screamed with delight—“Abo!”—as she ran up to hug the cruise director. They had met while the Explorer was sailing in the Maldives, and they made the journey to Palau to travel with Abo again. It was all a testament to the significance of spectacular hospitality, of seeing the world with trusted travel experts and guides. As the Explorer’s director of recreation, Hasan, put it while I was eagerly learning to snorkel: “It’s my job to think. It’s your job to enjoy.”

Accessibility

There are plenty of stairs, there’s no elevator, and it’s a boat subject to the whims of the sea. (At one point, the waters got so rough that even the crew felt seasick; plates fell off shelves in the galley.) If you have accessibility needs, it’s best to contact the Explorer team directly to figure out what’s feasible.

Eco effort

The Explorer goes to great lengths to respect the ocean: from taking routes that do not damage the underwater flora and fauna, to teaching guests how to swim to avoid impacting the coral, to offering reef-safe sunscreen made by Pura Vida Palau. Oscar hosts daily lunchtime lectures on the history, geology, and zoology of Palau, a major hit with all the guests. As for food, the kitchen does its best to source as much as it can locally by working with Palauan fishers and farmers and even setting up its own food-growing and -making efforts on the islands; a Palauan local makes the gelato served onboard.

That said, Palau’s agricultural economy is one of subsistence farming—they grow just enough to feed themselves. A lot of what’s in Koror’s grocery stores are imported; the country once went for months without mayonnaise, apparently a staple condiment in the Palauan diet. Four Seasons does import its own supplies as well (steak and lamb chops from Australia, etc.), so its sustainability efforts will have to develop and adapt in the coming years as it builds its onshore resort in the country.

Anything left to mention?

Again, I hate to get woo-woo about it, but this beautiful boat—this sleek white liveaboard exploring Palau—is really something special. Between the luxurious pampering onboard to the exciting activities at sea and on land, the Four Seasons Explorer experience is a harmonious marriage of comfort and adventure. And to do it all in a breathtaking natural environment—one that the brand and the nation’s government are collaborating to preserve—is the cherry on top.