Guam

Hagatna (Agana) — the capital of Guam (a US territory of 544km² — the largest and southernmost island in the Mariana Islands archipelago, the westernmost US territory, population 160,000, with a unique Chamorro indigenous culture and an outsized military presence — approximately 27% of the island is US military land) with the Guam Museum (the finest museum in Micronesia, covering 4,000 years of Chamorro history, Spanish colonialism and World War II) and the Plaza de Espana (the Spanish colonial government complex).

💡 Guam is the westernmost US territory — at 144°E longitude, it is closer to Manila (3h flight) than to Hawaii (8h). As a US territory, Guam residents are US citizens but cannot vote in US presidential elections (a status shared with Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the US Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands). Guam’s strategic position in the western Pacific has made it the site of one of the largest US military concentrations outside the continental US, with Andersen Air Force Base hosting B-52 bombers and Anderson submarine base.

Latte Stone Park (the ancient Chamorro megalith structures — latte stones are large mushroom-shaped pillars of coral limestone, 2–7m high, with a hemispherical capstone (tasa), used as the foundation pillars of traditional Chamorro houses from approximately 900–1700 AD — the most significant archaeological monuments in Micronesia, visible at the park in Hagatna and at numerous sites across the island) and the Chamorro Village Wednesday Night Market.

💡 The latte stones of Guam (large limestone column-and-capstone structures used as the foundation pillars of traditional Chamorro houses — the largest known example is at Rota, standing 4.7m high — are unique to the Mariana Islands. Their exact purpose (as house foundations, as status markers for high-ranking families, or as ceremonial structures) remains debated by archaeologists. The Chamorro people who built them were largely destroyed by the Spanish colonisation of 1668 and subsequent population collapse.

Tumon Bay (the main resort beach of Guam — a 3km strip of white coral sand with 20+ hotels, duty-free shopping at the PIC (Pacific Islands Club), and the largest concentration of Japanese tourists in any US territory — Guam receives 1.5 million Japanese visitors per year, approximately 10x the island’s population — making Guam the most visited Pacific US territory and one of the most Japanese-influenced places in American territory).

💡 Guam’s Japanese tourism (developed from the 1980s as a short-haul honeymoon and holiday destination for Japanese visitors — Guam is 3h30 from Tokyo, visa-free for Japanese nationals, and offers American-style shopping with Pacific beaches) peaked at 1.8 million Japanese visitors per year before COVID-19. The Japanese influence is visible in hotel design, restaurant menus, duty-free retail and the signage throughout Tumon — much of the island’s tourist economy is essentially a Japanese-American hybrid.

The Blue Hole (the signature dive site of Guam — a vertical shaft in the outer reef edge descending from 12m to 130m+, opening into the open Pacific wall, with pelagic fish, grey reef sharks, hammerhead sharks at depth and the extraordinary transition from the shallow reef into the open ocean — one of the most dramatic dive sites in the Pacific, accessible by boat from Tumon Bay in 20 minutes) and the Sharks Cove reef (surface current and eagle rays).

💡 The Blue Hole dive site (a circular chimney in the Guam outer reef edge, approximately 20m in diameter at the top, descending to a depth of 130m+ where it opens to the outer reef wall) is the most celebrated dive site in the Mariana Islands. The chimney effect creates upwellings of cold, nutrient-rich water that attract large pelagic fish; schools of barracuda, surgeonfish and grey reef sharks are regular encounters.

Inarajan (the most authentic village on Guam — in the southern part of the island, with traditional Spanish-era coral-stone houses and the Inarajan Natural Pool, a large tidal pool carved into the reef flat by wave action over centuries, filled and refreshed by the tide, with clear water and fish swimming in the enclosed pool — one of the finest natural swimming experiences in Guam, the most authentic village atmosphere on the island) and the Jeff’s Pirates Cove beach bar.

💡 Inarajan (the southernmost village on Guam, the most complete example of the traditional Chamorro-Spanish colonial village architecture — the coral-stone houses, the parish church and the village layout are essentially unchanged from the Spanish colonial period — is on the National Register of Historic Places as the best-preserved village in the Mariana Islands.

Guam’s WWII sites — the War in the Pacific National Historical Park (covering the key battle sites of the July 1944 US liberation of Guam from Japanese occupation: the Asan Beach Unit (the main US landing beach), the Piti Unit (the Japanese shore defences) and the Nimitz Memorial) and the Sergeant Major Ague Garden of Remembrance — the most significant WWII memorial landscape in Micronesia, commemorating the 1,200+ Chamorros killed during the Japanese occupation 1941–1944.

💡 The Japanese occupation of Guam (8 December 1941 — 21 July 1944: 31 months) was a traumatic period for the Chamorro people, who were subjected to forced labour, internment, torture and execution. Approximately 1,170–1,250 Chamorros were killed by Japanese forces during the occupation. Liberation Day (21 July) is the most important public holiday in Guam, commemorating the US landing at Asan Beach and the beginning of the battle that liberated the island after 76 days of fighting.

Two Lovers Point (Puntan Dos Amantes — a 120m cliff above the Philippine Sea with the finest panoramic view on Guam, named for a Chamorro legend of two young lovers who jumped from the cliff together when their families forbade their marriage — one of the most visited natural landmarks in Guam) and the Ritidian Point Wildlife Refuge (the undeveloped northern tip of Guam — the most pristine beach and reef on the island, within a US Fish and Wildlife Refuge protecting the last nesting beach for hawksbill turtles in the Marianas). Fly from Guam (GUM).

💡 Guam is a global biodiversity hotspot for invasive species damage — the brown tree snake (Boiga irregularis), introduced accidentally in the late 1940s on military cargo, has driven 9 of 12 native forest bird species to extinction in Guam (the most bird extinctions on any single island in recorded history), eliminated most native lizards, and now threatens the island’s electricity system (snakes regularly cause power outages by climbing electricity poles). The US spends US$12 million per year on brown tree snake control.