One of the most remote places on Earth
A scattering of limestone islands in the Western Pacific so remote that getting there is half the story — and so protective of what's underwater that every visitor signs an eco-pledge in their passport before landing.
Palau passed through Spanish, German, and Japanese colonial control before WWII brought one of the Pacific theater's bloodiest battles to its shores at Peleliu in 1944. It became fully independent in 1994 — one of the youngest nations on Earth — and has since built an international reputation for marine conservation rather than mass tourism.