Attractions & Natural Wonders · Guam
Guam: Eight Attractions and Natural Wonders
America's western edge in the tropical Pacific — a resort bay of turquoise reef, the stone pillars of an ancient people, and the beaches where the 1944 battle was fought
By Worldlore Editorial · 19 September 2026
The tip of the American Pacific
Guam is an unincorporated territory of the United States — its people US citizens, but with no vote for president — at the southern end of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific, closer to Manila and Tokyo than to Honolulu. It is about 540 square kilometres, home to roughly 170,000 people, with a large US military presence occupying nearly a third of the land. The indigenous Chamorro (CHamoru) culture, shaped by three centuries of Spanish rule and then American, remains central; most tourists come from Japan and South Korea.
The eight below run from the resort bay through the capital to the quieter, greener south. It is warm and humid year-round; the dry season (roughly January to June) is the better time, with a typhoon risk from July to November.
1. Tumon Bay
Tumon is the tourist heart of Guam — a crescent bay lined with high-rise hotels, duty-free malls, and restaurants, fronting a shallow turquoise lagoon that is a protected marine preserve. The reef is close in and easy to snorkel; the Underwater World aquarium has a walk-through tunnel, and the beach parks fill up at weekends with local families barbecuing.
It is a 10-minute drive from the airport and where most visitors stay.
2. Hagåtña
Hagåtña (Agana), the small capital, was largely destroyed in the 1944 fighting but keeps the Plaza de España — the arches and Chocolate House of the old Spanish palace grounds — plus the Dulce Nombre de Maria cathedral, the Guam Museum, the Latte Stone Park, and a seaside path (the Paseo) built on wartime rubble. Nearby Adelup has the governor's complex and a good coastal overlook.
The whole downtown is walkable in an hour or two.
3. Latte stones and the ancient Chamorros
The latte — a stone column (haligi) topped by a cap-stone (tasa) — is the emblem of the pre-colonial Chamorro world, used from around AD 900 as the raised footings for important houses. The set moved to Latte Stone Park in Hagåtña came from a site inland; larger, more atmospheric groups stand in the jungle at the House of Taga on nearby Tinian and at sites in southern Guam and the Ritidian area.
The Guam Museum puts them in context, alongside the seafaring and matrilineal Chamorro society the Spanish found in 1668.
4. War in the Pacific National Historical Park
Japan seized Guam hours after Pearl Harbor and held it, harshly, until the US retook it in three weeks of fighting in July–August 1944. The national historical park is spread across seven units on the west coast — the Asan and Agat invasion beaches, gun emplacements, trenches, and the excellent T. Stell Newman Visitor Center near the naval base. It commemorates all who fought and the Chamorro civilians who suffered under the occupation.
Rusting Japanese guns and pillboxes are still in the jungle and on the reef.
5. Two Lovers Point
Two Lovers Point is a sheer limestone headland north of Tumon with a landscaped lookout, a much-photographed view down the coast, and a Chamorro legend — of two young lovers who, forbidden to marry, tied their hair together and leapt from the cliff. It is a firmly established stop on every tour-bus circuit, with a small admission fee.
Sunset here, over the Philippine Sea, is the classic Guam photo.
6. Southern Guam and the Spanish forts
The volcanic south is Guam's rural, Chamorro heartland — small villages, roadside shrines, and a coast road past a string of restored 18th- and 19th-century Spanish coastal forts. Fort Soledad sits above Umatac Bay, the sheltered inlet where Magellan's expedition is believed to have made landfall in 1521; Fort Santa Agueda overlooks Hagåtña. Inland rises Mount Lamlam, at 406 metres above sea level but, measured from the nearby Mariana Trench seabed, arguably the tallest mountain on earth.
The southern loop drive takes half a day with stops.
7. Talofofo Falls and Cetti Bay
The jungle interior of the south hides several waterfalls. Talofofo Falls is the easiest to visit, in a slightly kitsch private park with a gondola, lookout tower, and a cave where a Japanese soldier, Shoichi Yokoi, hid for 28 years after the war, unaware it had ended. Nearby, the Cetti Bay overlook gives a sweeping view over an uninhabited river-mouth bay and offshore islet.
The more adventurous hike to remote falls like Tarzan and Lonfit with a local guide.
8. Ritidian Point
At the far northern tip of the island, the Guam National Wildlife Refuge at Ritidian (Litekyan) protects one of the best undeveloped beaches — white sand, clear water, and a fringing reef — backed by limestone forest with caves that hold ancient Chamorro rock art and burial sites. It is one of the last refuges for native birds hammered elsewhere by the invasive brown tree snake.
It is a long drive north, and access can be limited by adjacent military activity; check opening days before going.
Guam is a short-break destination for most visitors — four or five nights based in Tumon, with a day for the war park and Hagåtña and a day driving the south. It also works as a Pacific stopover between Asia and Micronesia or Hawaii.