American Samoa: Eight Attractions and Natural Wonders

The only US soil south of the equator

American Samoa is a cluster of small, steep, intensely green volcanic islands in the South Pacific — a US territory, but one where the land is held communally by Samoan families and daily life runs on fa'a Samoa, the Samoan way. It gets very few tourists: there is one main island with a road, a scattering of outer islands reached by small plane or boat, and a national park unlike any other.

The eight places below are nearly all on the main island, Tutuila, within reach of the capital, Pago Pago. The outer Manuʻa Islands — Ofu, Olosega, Taʻu — take more effort and reward it. It is hot, humid, and rainy year-round; May to September is slightly drier.

1. The National Park of American Samoa

The National Park of American Samoa is split across three islands and protects tropical rainforest, cloud forest, coral reef, and fruit-bat colonies rather than canyons or geysers. It is also the only US national park where the land is leased from the Samoan villages that own it, so visiting means passing through people's communities.

On Tutuila the park covers the rainforest ridges above Pago Pago and the coast around Vatia. On Ofu it protects a reef-fringed beach often called one of the finest in the Pacific. There are no park lodges; you stay in villages or small guesthouses and hike in.

2. Pago Pago Harbor

Pago Pago Harbor is a volcano that lost a wall: the sea broke into the old crater and left a long, deep, sheltered inlet almost surrounded by mountains. It is the reason the US Navy wanted the islands in the first place, and it is still the territory's working heart, with a tuna cannery, the docks, and the little capital strung along the shore.

The setting is dramatic — green walls rising straight from the water on both sides — and best appreciated from the road that loops around the bay or from the ridge trails above.

3. Rainmaker Mountain

The blunt green peak that looms over the harbour entrance is Mount Pioa, better known as Rainmaker Mountain. It snags the trade winds and wrings the rain out of them, which is why Pago Pago is one of the wettest harbours anywhere and why the slopes are so lush.

It is a National Natural Landmark, protected for its undisturbed tropical forest, and it forms a matched pair with Matafao Peak on the opposite side of the bay. There is no summit trail, but you pass right below it on the harbour road.

4. Mount 'Alava

Mount 'Alava rises 490 metres directly above the harbour, and its summit is the classic Tutuila hike — a forest trail along the ridge from Fagasā Pass, ending at a clearing with a wide view down over Pago Pago and out to sea. At the top are the rusting remains of a cable-car station; the aerial tramway that once ran here was wrecked when a plane hit its cable in 1980.

The energetic can descend the far side on the Tuafanua Trail, a steep ladder-and- rope route down to the coast at Vatia.

5. Vatia and Pola Island

The village of Vatia, on Tutuila's wild north coast, sits inside the national park and looks out on Pola Island — a saw-toothed rock rising sheer from the sea, streaked white with the droppings of the boobies, noddies, and tropicbirds that nest on it. It is one of the most photographed views in the territory.

The short Pola Island Trail leads to a rocky shore opposite the stack. Getting to Vatia itself is half the point: the road over the mountains from Pago Pago is steep, narrow, and green on every side.

6. Fagatele Bay

Fagatele Bay is another breached crater, this one on the southwest tip of Tutuila, and its steep forested rim shelters one of the healthiest coral reefs in the territory — around 170 coral species and a full cast of reef fish, turtles, and sometimes humpback whales offshore in season.

It is the core of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Reaching the water involves a walk down through the forest from the road above; snorkelling here, in a near-enclosed bowl of reef, is the best on the main island.

7. Aunuʻu Island

Aunuʻu is a tiny volcanic island a short boat ride off the eastern end of Tutuila, and for its size it packs in an unusual amount: a crater lake, a red quicksand marsh, a stand of pala fernland, and taro fields worked by hand. It is a National Natural Landmark and a quiet, traffic-light village where visitors are still a novelty.

The crossing from Auʻasi is by the local outboard boat that also carries schoolchildren and supplies. It makes an easy, gentle half-day from the main island.

8. Blunts Point Battery

On a headland at the harbour mouth, reached by a short steep trail from the coast road, sit two six-inch naval guns emplaced in 1941 to cover the entrance to Pago Pago. American Samoa was a significant staging base in the Pacific war — Marines outnumbered the local population for a time — and gun mounts, pillboxes, and bunkers are scattered along this coast.

The Blunts Point walk is short, shady, and rewards you with the guns still in place and a clear view across the harbour entrance. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

American Samoa asks visitors to slow down and follow local courtesies — Sunday is for church and rest, villages may ask a small fee to use their beach, and modest dress is expected off the sand. In return you get a Pacific island almost no one else has on their list.