Asan – The Hidden Panorama

Top Destinations and Attractions – Guam Traveler’s Panorama Guide

Planning to visit Guam anytime soon? And you don’t have idea what this small island is offering you? Here’s some idea where to go, what to see and what to do. This post is a simple guide of destinations and attractions while vacationing in Guam.

Below are list of some questions for you to answer so you can focus on what you like to do while in Guam.

1. Are you an Adventure Seeker?

As an island, Guam offers different activities in different locations that puts their visitor busy in their schedule. Whether you like in or out of the water activities, there is something for you. Below are some destinations that offers adventure to anyone such as snorkeling, buggy off-road driving, trekking and even cave swimming.

Piti, Guam

Fish Eye Marine Park – Snorkeling

Yigo, Guam

Guam International Raceway – Buggy Off-Road Driving

Pagat Point – Trekking

Pagat Cave – Swimming

Yona, Guam

Tarzan Falls – Trekking

2. Are you a Scenic View Lover?

Since Guam is an island, picturesque views with ocean is probably common but the stunning beauty it offers always amaze everyone, just look in different directions and different angles, you will surprise that all you see are fascinating scenery.

Tamuning, Guam

Two Lovers Point (Puntan Dos Amantes)

Yigo, Guam

Guam International Raceway Viewpoint

Pagat Point

Hagatna, Guam

Fort Santa Agueda

Asan-Maina, Guam

Asan Bay Overlook

Libugon Vista Point

Umatac, Guam

Fort Soledad

3. Are you a History and a Culture Buff?

The island has significant places to discover its culture and to learn its role from the past. Spending half a day on these places will gain knowledge about Guam.

Hagatna, Guam

Plaza de España

Insular Guard Monument

Stone Latte Park

Senator Angel Leon Guerrero SantosLatte Stone Memorial Park

Japanese Caves Latte Park

Chamorro Village Night Market

Fort Santa Agueda

Latte of Freedom

Asan-Maina, Guam

War in the Pacific National Historical Park

Asan Point, Asan Beach Park and Nimitz Hillside

Mabini Historical Marker (Mabini Statue)

Asan Bay Overlook at Nimitz Hill

Fonte Plateau

Umatac, Guam

Fort Soledad

Magellan’s Landing

Yigo, Guam

Pagat Latte Site

4. Are you a Shopaholic?

Like other countries that promotes tourism, shopping centers will not be missed. Why? Because people love to buy stuff even on the go.

Dededo, Guam

Micronesia Mall (No Photo)

Tamuning, Guam

Tumon, Tamuning

JP Superstore

The Plaza

T Galleria by DFS

ABC Stores

Tumon Sand Plaza

Guam Premier Outlet (No Photo)

Kmart (No Photo)

Hagatna, Guam

Agana Shopping Center

5. Are you Just Chilling Out?

Traveling stress free? And wanted to relax without pressure? Planning too many itineraries was not your thing? And just wanted to stay in your travel comfort zone? The place below is for you.

Tumon, Guam

Have you been in Guam? Have you visited places aside from what I mentioned above? I love to hear what can you say in those places. Share your thoughts about it. And I will be glad to know and learn about it. Who knows, the place you had seen maybe my next destination while mine will be your next adventures.

Notes :
I stayed in Tumon district and accommodation is pricey, but I weigh that location is more important to me as it has more access to other tourist destinations and public transportation is available though still limited. Mobility was a priority to me so I can move around the island. I do not need to worry if I got late outside and can walk towards my hotel since I do not know how to drive and I solely rely on public transportation and arranged tours. The island does not have systematic public transportation and most of the time unreliable if outside Tumon. If you know how to drive, I recommend to rent a car to see the whole island and find alternative accommodations in other villages for a much cheaper price.

Travel Page :

Guam

Travel Posts:

Tumon – Beach and Urban Walk

Tarzan Falls Hiking and Fish Eye Marine Park Snorkeling

Guam Island Tour – Visiting Best Viewpoint of the Island

Eco Hiking and Cave Swimming at Pagat

Buggy Off-Road Adventure with Coastal Scenic View at Yigo

Visiting Puntan Dos Amantes (Two Lovers Point), Not Once But Twice !!!

Hagåtña – First European City in the Pacific

Travel Diary 101 : On My Way to Guam

Travel Tips :

5 Reasons Why Most of the Travelers in Guam Flocks in Tumon

Top 12 Places Visited in Guam

7 Best Lookout (Viewpoint) in Guam

Top 9 Discoveries While in Guam

Additional Resources :
visitguam
theguamguide

7 Best Lookout (Viewpoint) in Guam

During my visit in Guam, I had a chance to explore different lookouts or viewpoints in the island that gave me a chance to see its different beauty from different locations. There might be more lookouts in the island that I haven’t seen, but for the starter, here’s the 7 viewpoint that I had a chance to reached.

1. Two Lovers Point

This is the most famous and most accessible viewpoint in Guam. It offers one of the scenic view in the island.

2. Guam Adventures Yigo

I am not sure if this viewpoint is accessible to people who don’t join the Buggy Off-road Adventures but during the said adventure the North-East Coast scenic view is so lovely that I even think that I was looking at a paradise view from a distance at the top.

3. Pagat Point

This point requires hiking to reach and to have a chance to see the coastal scenic view. The Pagat Arch is the added bonus at the point.

4. Fort Santa Agueda

The overlooking at the top of Apugan Hill or Fort Santa Agueda, offers the West-Coast scenic view of the island and Hagatna City.

5. Asan Bay Overlook

This viewpoint offers the South-West scenic view and the birds-eye view of War in the Pacific National Historical Park.

6. Fort Soledad

This viewpoint of Southern Part of the island with the emphasis of Magellan Landing Site and historical Umatac Bay which significant during Galleon Trade.

7. Libugon Vista Point

This unnoticed viewpoint offers scenery of the famous Tamuning area, Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport and Barrigada Hill.

Tarzan Falls Hiking and Fish Eye Marine Park Snorkeling

The last adventure tour that I booked with travel tours company was doing a bit of hiking for a waterfalls and snorkeling. At first, I booked a different tour in another company but unfortunately they are not able to do the tour that I selected due to minimum numbers were not met to be able to operate the tour. Then I looked for another company until I found Tropical Tours Guam. I wanted to see additional places before I leave Guam and I ended up booking a Waterfalls and Snorkeling Tour. I was hesitant at first since the tour includes swimming but in the end I joined the tour.

It was Good Friday and I thought that the tour will not operate since Guam is also considered a very Catholic Island. And from my guide in the tour, as long as the minimum numbers met, the tour will happen even though its public holiday. The tour guide arrived at the front of my hotel’s lobby. And when I hopped inside the car, another tourist was waiting. Matt, our guide introduced me to him and he is a Filipino too. What a lucky day that I will be with a familiar face in the adventure. And he stayed in the same hotel as mine.

Tarzan Falls

If you looked-up and saw hanging shoes at the parking area, you are in the right location.

We left the hotel and we drove more than half an hour drive towards the south of the island until we reached the car park which is the same as the start of Tarzan Falls trail. The parking area has sign of Tarzan falls which signifies you are at the start of the trail. Aside from parking sign, in the past years there is another way to know you are at the start of the trail, look for shoes hanging in electrical wires. I asked Matt if it’s becoming a tradition that they let the shoes hang in there, but he mentioned that there’s no really story behind the hanging shoes, it’s just that people just leave theirs shoes and other people are doing the same thing probably for just fun. But Matt mentioned, if you will do that, just make sure you will not be caught.

Because it was a sunny and beautiful Friday, hiking the area towards the falls was not difficult, but they said it is different during wet season or even just after the rain. At the start we passed a wind turbine and followed the Tarzan Falls trail. The trail itself is easy to medium and it is just like walking for miles except for few parts of the trail that you need to go up a bit and descend a bit. Then we reached the trail part where we saw the river (Ylig River) where the water falls of Tarzan Falls coming from. It is a sign that the falls is just nearby. We reached the top of the falls and this means that we need to go down further to see Tarzan Waterfalls from the bottom to appreciate more its beauty.

At the top of the falls

Looking down from the top of the water fall

We descended to the bottom of the falls to see what it offers to all visitors. Since it was dry season the volume of the water flows was less, not heavy and not forceful. Once we reached the bottom of the falls, I had a great view of the famous waterfalls. Natural waterfalls can really make people feel good about nature, the way I look at it, there is something in waterfalls that make people feel calm and at peace. The sound of the water flows is a unique way to emphasize that there is a great thing to find in nature.

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I took a lot of photos of the waterfalls and after photo shoot time, we tried our best to reach the waterfalls wall even that its slippery. I slowly crawled towards the wall and since I was wearing leggings, it helped me to reached the wall easily and I was able to surpassed the slimy way to the falls. And I looked for some space to sit properly and enjoyed the waterfalls down through my head and my body. We sit with the waterfalls at least half an hour.

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Fish Eye Marine Park

After spending time with waterfalls, we decided to go down the falls, finished the hike and return to where we started. After reaching the parking area, we just dried ourselves a bit before we hopped on back into the car. Then we drove at least 20 mins to Fish Eye Marine Park.

I love water adventure but I am not really good at it because I have less experience and exposure to such adventure. While Matt (our guide) prepared our stuff for snorkelling activity, we sit not far from the beach and enjoyed the scenery at our front. While looking at the underwater observatory not far from the beach, I was thinking what’s going to happen if I am in the water.

Our guide called us and he gave our gears for the snorkeling. We started the shoes and he handed the fins that we will wear when we are in the water. I also received the tube and lens mask. When he was ready we walked towards the beach and approach the observatory. I walked slowly in the water, following the bridge walkway path and while walking I saw colorful and small fishes. Then I approached where Matt my tourist buddy were waiting. Then I wore my fins, it was the first time that I wore fins. Then, Matt gave a rope that can be my guide while we were approaching the deeper part of the water. I tried to swim as best as I can based on what I had been doing before, but when I did, I drank a lot of sea water and I panicked. Then I tried one more time and the result was the same. I tried again for the third time and I really got nervous. So I decided to not to try anymore. I felt unease.

Because I was not comfortable swimming using the snorkeling gear, I just swam as I can while Matt was guiding the rope. We reached where the observatory stands and there were few people near on it. At that location I tried to lookdown few times to see under the water. I saw turtles but I just stayed where I was and let them (Matt and my tourist buddy) enjoy the water, they swam both together as I don’t want to spoil their enjoyment. At that time, I was a bit sad because I wanted to swim but I was scared. But I knew that I can swim because I was wearing life vest, but I wasn’t able to do it because I was not comfortable with fins in my feet, not sure why.

Tepungan Beach

We spent more time under the observatory. And before we decided to return, I looked down under the water again to see one more time the colorful fishes and turtles that just live normally under the water even there are people enjoying diving and swimming in the area.

After the adventure, we had our lunch not far from the hotel that we were staying before Matt dropped us in our hotel.

Discovery : War in the Pacific National Historical Park

Discovery (Post#29) : War in the Pacific National Historical Park

Aside from the memorial wall that has been put up to Asan Bay Overlook and the scenic view that it offers to the visitors, the ridge line has historical importance to the island. War in the Pacific National Historical Park boundaries are huge to emphasize its significance. There are three boards display that can be found at the lookout area that gives some information about what happened during World War II. Since Japanese was in strong positions at the hillside, they tried to do a Banzai (suicide) attack to drive Americans to the sea as they knew that if they failed they would lost the island. These photos are part of Guam Adventure Photo Collection April 2017.

Asan Point, Asan Beach Park and Nimitz Hillside

Hillside of Nimitz Hill where Japanese Banzai and offensive attack towards American soldiers

Guam Island Tour – Visiting Best Viewpoint of the Island

I will start my story at Fort Santa Agueda since the first two places included in the Island Tour has been detailed in my previous post of Hagatna and Two Lovers Point.

But while I was drafting this post and when I looked into the whole story of my experience in the tour, I see a trend of the places that we had visited while driving around the island. The title of this post is a hint of what I meant on it. Most of the places we visited has historical significance and a viewpoint.

Fort Santa Agueda

Fort Santa Agueda is still located in Hagatna, but I did not include this in Hagatna post as I wanted to include it as island tour activity. I made emphasis on Hagatna in my previous post, please see here. After we finished the visit of Latte Stone Park and Japanese Caves Latte Park, our guide drove us to Fort Santa Agueda. We took Hwy 33 and we turned right to Hwy 7. From Hwy 7, we turned right again at Fort Ct where we parked our vehicle again. Fort Santa Agueda is included in Hagatna Heritage Walk but I wasn’t able to see this during my first visit in the city because of its location requires me to walk towards the Apugan Hill.

Fort Santa Agueda Raised Viewing Platform which is the only remains of the fort

When we reached the fort, it has great lookout to enjoy the scenery of Hagatna including Agana Bay, clifflines with Oka Point and Urunao Point including Tumon Bay and of course the far Philippines Sea.

Cannons at the fort

For Santa Agueda is the only surviving Spanish fort in Hagatna and it served different purposes as the time passes by even though it was fully used as it was built few years (1800) before the Galleon Trade has been stopped (1815). When it was first built, it was used as fortification site to protect governor’s palace and Fort San Rafael. It was mentioned that it was useless when the Galleon Trade was off due to scarcity of supplies which means it doesn’t serve its purpose. During American administration, the fort became signaling station for ships. During Japanese invasion, the fort has been strategic to them and became guns emplacement.

Because the fort sits at the top of Apugan Hill, the fort is famous to visitors of Hagatna as it offers great scenery of western coast of the island.

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With Hagatna

With Hagatna and Agana Bay

With Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral Basilica

Ricardo J. Bordallo Complex

After leaving Fort Santa Agueda, we took Hwy 7 and ended at Hwy 6. While we were waiting on green light while at the crossing, since I was seating at the front of the car, I had a good look from a distance of Ricardo J. Bordallo Complex where the Governor’s office and Latte of Freedom are located. We crossed Marine Corps Drv towards the said complex. We drove inside it but we never went out of the car, I only had a glimpse of the surroundings from the vehicle.

Ricardo J. Bordallo Complex

Latte of Freedom

Asan Beach Park

We enjoyed the coastal view inside the car while our guide were driving along Marine Corps Drv. And then in few minutes from Ricardo J. Bordallo Complex we turned right and parked at Asan Beach Park. Here, I learned a great feat of one of the heroes of my country – Apolinario Mabini. At the park, I learned the place where Mabini has been staying in Guam while he was in exile. I felt proud because one of whom I recognized as hero back home have their statue standing outside the country, an important piece of reminder of my country’s history.

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Mabini Statue and some information of himself to be admired

Another historical importance of Asan Beach Park based on historical records that it is the landing of the American soldier for the Second Battle in Guam in 1944 to take over again the island from Japanese where the latter took it last 1941 from US.

Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

We were back in the road again, and we were in a road longer than our previous road drive. We went to the pier but seems our guide can’t find what she is looking for. Therefore we went straight to Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, Our Lady of Solitude. The said fort was the last and fourth fortification for galleons between Acapulco, Mexico and Manila, Philippines which has been out of use since 1815.

Magellan’s Landing

While we were enjoying the scenery at Fort Soledad, our guide also pointed out the location of Magellan’s Landing site when he arrived at Guam.

Magellan’s Landing

Umatac Bay

While looking for the historical facts about Umatac Bay, I learned how important the bay is and how it was related to my country as well. The bay became supply station for ships or replenishment stop that cross Pacific Ocean during the Galleon Trade period which happened from 1565-1815. I also learned that one shipment from Cavite (the province that I currently live) in Philippines returned from Acapulco as significance of the end of the Galleon Trade in 1815.

Umatac Bay with Magellan’s Landing and San Dionisio Church

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Umatac Bay from Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad

Fort Santo Angel, Fouha Rock, Facpi Island and Facpi Point

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Umatac Bay

Asan Bay Overlook at Nimitz Hill

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After spending time at Fort Nuestra Senora de la Soledad which located in the south, we drove back north. This time, we visited Asan Bay Overlook at Nimitz Hill. The hill offers the view of War in the Pacific Historical National Park which includes the hill itself down to Asan Bay. The historical artifacts that surrounds the park is to remember how Guam has been recovered back by US from Japanese in 1944. As I mentioned in Asan Bay in the first part of this post, the bay has been the landing of US soldier to defend back Guam from the hands of Japanese. At the hill, there are photos that portrays how Japanese tried to drive American soldiers to the sea but they failed.

Apra Harbor and Cabras Island

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Below are version of plane view of the what I had seen while I was Asan Bay Overlook.

Orote Peninsula

Orote Peninsula with Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor

Apra Harbor with Sasa Bay

Sasa Bay

Asan Beach Park

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Fisheye Marine Park and Asan Beach Park

Tepungan Beach Park and Fisheye Marine Park

Tepungan Beach Park, Fisheye Marine Park and Asan Beach Park

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After leaving Asan Bay Overlook, we has a brief stop as our guide told us about the one of the tunnels that Japanese used when they stayed in the island.

Fonte Plateau

Libugon Vista Point

Our last stop for the island tour is Libugon Vista Point where we had a bird’s-eye view of Tumon Bay, Tamuning, island’s international airport and Barrigada which means we can’t get enough of the lookouts that Guam has to offer.

Tumon Bay Area, Guam International Airport and Barrigada Heights

Tumon Bay

US Navy Hospital

After the tour, I rested in few hours and decided to walked in the beach as my next adventure in the island. Until then.

Panoramic View : Fish Eye Marine Park and Asan Beach Park with Nimitz Hillside

Panoramic View (Post#32) : Fish Eye Marine Park and Asan Beach Park with Nimitz Hillside

Visiting Asan Bay Overlook is a worth to visit not only to realized the history that happens within the area of War in the Pacific National Historical Park but to appreciate beauty that it is now offering to anyone who visit the lookout. The scenery that I saw during the visit is now the contradiction of the historical events happened in the past. These photos are part of Guam Adventure Photo Collection April 2017.

Enriching Viewpoint : Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Wall

Enriching Viewpoint (Post#4): Asan Bay Overlook Memorial Wall

Probably to some people, Asan Bay Overlook is known to have its amazing scenery since it sits at the ridge line. But, that’s the additional rewards when visiting the overlooking area. But the place has its memorial wall which listed the names who sacrificed related to war from 1941 to 1944, emphasizing the names that fought the Battle of Guam in 1941 and 1944. And within the memorial wall they made emphasis as well as they put the monument dedicated to the first Chamorro U.S. Navy casualties of World War II. These photos are part of Guam Adventure Photo Collection April 2017.