Looking for a resort for your wife and family to hang out in the day while you are out diving then this is not the place. Go to Cove. Looking for a resort that has a poolside bar and big western bar /restaurant /lawn /buffet then go to Cove. HOWEVER, if you want a special secret place that is 1/3 the price of Cove and a great place to sleep while you use your hotel arranged $50 /day car rental then stay here! The hotel is local and smaller so it is a great place to sleep at night with good size breakfast and plenty of free breakfast coffee. It is similar to Cruise Control Diving Center, which Leo, Shell Hotel Manager, helped me find and actually drove me to. I wish I could have given him a big tip! CrCont Diving is Japanese tailored, English speaking, Japanese traveler and Western traveler place that is larger than Sams and Fish&Fins, yet not as well know outside the Japanese tourists. It is less than half the price as the others and all the dive places use the same 500 hp boats and go to German Channel, the Big Hole and Blue Corner etc. (The three biggest sites). How did I find out about it? Leo from Shell Hotel personally took me there! Getting back to Shell, it was great. I lived the clean Balinese interior. There was no mold, no bugs on the floor and modern toilet, shower and sink that are even better than my upscale home in the USA. I have not written a review of a destination hotel before. I did this because I owed travelers this inside only special gem of a place that charges so much less and isn’t on the Google searches. I wish they would put this on Google Maps or the Apple Maps that comes with the iPhone. That way more people would know about it. Yes, they rented me a car for $50 per day including insurance. They took me to Cruise Control Diving. I hadn’t heard of them before either. I did put some pictures of Shell on this review. Again, Shell is not the place you will want to hang out at all day. It is a more local hotel that is a great place to lay your head at night. It is priced lower because it is not a resort. If you want to go to Palau and need a super clean and helpful staff, oh yes, did I say 1/3 the price of a resort :) , then this is the place to stay where you won’t feel ripped off. It is like a B&B but your own and not in someone’s house. In it’s category I highly recommend it 10/10. The staff will give you all the inside knowledge of Palau and take you to locals priced places. Thank you Leo!
We stayed for a one-week diving trip. We booked the hotel as part of a package with Palau Dive Adventures (PDA). Our package included airport transfers—20 minutes to the hotel from the airport. Here is the need-to-know information. Breakfast was excellent. Everything you could ask for was available. The restaurant was open for lunch and dinner. We did not find the prices exorbitant. Higher than surrounding restaurants but not too bad. There are a couple of restaurants within walking distance (Kramers—excellent) but you will need a taxi to get to other restaurants. We used the driver from PDA. The process was very easy. The rooms were large and could easily fit three people. Each room had a king and single bed. The beds were excellent, and the walls were thick. We heard no outside noise. Each room has a fridge and a safe for valuables. The water in the shower was OK but not super-hot. Toilets flushed without problem. The Internet was excellent. I was able to do Zoom calls and Skype without difficulty. The pool is large with plenty of chairs. However, there was never anyone in the pool. Everyone was diving. If you have non-divers, they will have no problems using the pool.