🇵🇼 Travel Insurance for Palau

Last updated: 2026-07-08

Complete guide to travel insurance for Palau, covering the country's single hyperbaric chamber, world-class diving cover, and medical evacuation given how remote its outer islands really are.

Quick Facts: Risk Level: Medium-High • Visa-free for most nationalities (30 days) • Cholera/yellow fever certificate required from affected areas

Do You Need Travel Insurance for Palau?

Most nationalities enter Palau visa-free for up to 30 days, and travel insurance isn't checked at the border. It's still one of the clearer cases where skipping it is a real gamble: Palau's healthcare infrastructure is limited even by Pacific standards, medical care isn't free for foreign visitors, and the nearest country with quality hospital care (the Philippines) is a genuine international flight away — as is Guam or Hawaii for US citizens.

Healthcare & Medical Costs in Palau

Belau National Hospital in Meyuns, Koror handles routine and emergency care, and it's also home to the only hyperbaric chamber in Palau — a critical detail since many of the country's world-famous dive sites are several hours from Koror by boat. Outside the central tourist areas, response times for first responders and stabilizing care are considerably longer. An ER visit runs around $800, with roughly $1,200 per day of hospitalization, and serious cases requiring evacuation to the Philippines, Guam, or Hawaii routinely exceed $50,000.

Key Risks & Safety Concerns

Scuba diving is the reason most visitors come to Palau, and decompression sickness risk is treated as a year-round certainty by specialist guides, not an occasional concern — confirm your policy covers diving to your planned depths plus decompression chamber treatment specifically. Dengue fever occurs at a moderate but constant rate. Island hopping to Palau's more remote outer islands means genuinely limited access to care if something goes wrong there.

Recommended Coverage for Palau

Specialist guides for Palau recommend $250,000 in medical coverage, reflecting the real cost of a multi-day hospital stay plus evacuation to the Philippines, Guam, or Hawaii, which alone can exceed $50,000. Confirm scuba diving and decompression chamber treatment are explicitly covered, along with water sports generally and coverage for the outer islands specifically, not just Koror.

Insider Tips for Palau

Get a medical report from any Palau facility before you leave the country, even for something minor — insurers require documentation of what happened, and tracking down records later from a remote island clinic afterward is very difficult. Keep every receipt and record related to any evacuation, and photograph paper documents since they can be lost or damaged. Call your insurer's emergency assistance line before agreeing to any evacuation, and log the call.

Emergency numbers: Belau National Hospital in Meyuns, Koror is the primary facility for both routine and emergency care. Response outside the central tourist areas is slower — for a diving injury or emergency on a remote dive site or outer island, contact your insurer's assistance line as early as possible given the distances involved.

Recommended Providers for Palau

EKTA

European travel insurance with global coverage. Medical, trip cancellation, and more.

Check EKTA →

Compensair

Claim up to €600 for delayed or cancelled flights. No win, no fee.

Check Compensair →

Klook

Book travel experiences with optional insurance coverage included.

Check Klook →

Frequently Asked Questions

No, it's not checked at entry for the 30-day visa-free stay. It's still strongly recommended, and specialist guides treat it as essential given how remote and expensive evacuation is — the nearest country with quality hospital care is the Philippines.

Basic coverage starts from $6-11/day, comprehensive plans matching the recommended $250,000 medical coverage with diving and evacuation cover run $20-40/day.

Only if it explicitly covers diving to your planned depths plus decompression chamber treatment. This matters more in Palau than most diving destinations, since there's only one hyperbaric chamber in the entire country, located in Koror.

Because a multi-day hospital stay plus evacuation to the Philippines, Guam, or Hawaii can exceed $50,000 for the evacuation alone, before ongoing treatment costs are added — the evacuation risk for Palau is rated high, not moderate.