TOURIST TIPS!

1) As of this writing, from the U.S. mainland, you fly on Continental/Continental Micronesia, or Northwest. From the East Coast, the route is Houston, Hawaii for refueling, then Guam. Coming home, it's Guam, Hawaii OR Tokyo, then Houston. You do NOT need a VISA for Tokyo if you are U.S resident or citizen. But keep double checking that, as things change all the time since 9/11!

2) Although Guam is a U.S. territory, a U.S. passport is required for U.S. citizens!! However, your luggage limit is 2 bags of 50 lbs. each!

3) Contact a Guam travel agent as well as stateside prices before booking flights. We were told that SOMETIMES they are cheaper in Guam. Also, sign up for FF Miles Club BEFORE booking tickets, as a trip to Guam gives you a lot of miles! If you don't travel often, that will STILL get you a LOT of free magazines or gifts! :-)

4) Contact the Guam Visitor's Bureau (GVB) for help, brochures etc. prior to booking anything! www.visitguam.org

5) Rent a car! Preferably an SUV for full access to Ritidian Beach and Gun Beach, as some of those access roads are washed out. Renting a vehicle gives you better access to the local culture. It's fun to EXPLORE Guam, on your own at your leisure!

6) Parking is free all over Guam - the hotel garages, places along the street etc. FREE PARKING! Who would have thunk!? But the lots are smaller than we are used to, and often full.

6a) Note that the roads are EXTREMELY slippery in Guam when it showers! Something to do with the ground coral mixed into the asphalt. BE CAREFUL. A local told me they get "soapy".

7) Take along fully enclosed water/surf shoes. You will use them a lot! Guam is protected by a coral reef. There is broken coral everywhere in the white sand. Coral will cut your feet, as it is sharp.

8) There is one licensed bed and breakfast on the island (Guam Garden Villa), which is where we stayed, and this gets you OUT of the tourist district on Tumon Bay and into the "lifestyle" of Guam. Contact GVB for more info.

9) Take along the strongest, most waterproof sunscreen you can find. I used a "stick" for my face because of the sweating. It didn't get into my eyes as easily.

10) Bring along a small flashlight, and maybe a small radio, and a battery powered "camp fan" (5" or so). "Crank" versions are ideal. Sometimes the power goes out for a bit for no good reason, so it is helpful to have these items. Get the kind that run on AA batteries. Easier to travel, and easier to buy extras on Guam, as they don't sell out as fast. Take your own batteries. They sell out at times and are VERY expensive on Guam. We saw 2 C's selling for in excess of $7!

10a) Going along with batteries, make sure you take a large USB flash drive, and plenty of your own CD/DVD's to burn your digital pictures to if you fill your media cards. (You can do this on the library computers) Guam abounds in fabulous photo opportunities, and we took in excess of 4,000 photos in 3 weeks. Computer media are HIGHLY expensive on Guam, a 1 gig flash drive setting you back over $50! ($15 at Staples stateside) Make sure you have an extra set of rechargeable batteries along also, for the above reasons. There are more photographers in the yellow pages than doctors, so plan that you will take MORE pictures than you are expecting!

11) Good sunglasses and a baseball cap or visor are a must in this bright sunlight. It is too windy for a floppy hat, although something with a VERY small 1" brim might stay on your head.

12) Think "polyester", and NOT "cotton". Cotton is too hot and holds sweat. Polyester is much more comfortable, cooler and dries quickly.

13) I took a light jacket along and in NO WAY needed it on Guam. Not even in the movie theatres, or out on a boat. Even if it would have rained, it would have been too hot to wear it.

14) Rainy season is from June through October/Nov. Dry season Dec. through May. We were there for "dry" season, which is the better time to visit, and the weather was gorgeous. A typhoon can blow up at any time of the year; however, they are rare, and more common during "rainy" season. The last one was 5 years ago, and even if they are calling for one, I was told that 90% of the time, they end up missing Guam at the last minute. See earlier posts! Guam is a small target, and apparently the typhoons meander around more than our "east coast hurricanes". I was told by a statesider living in Guam that, during the rainy season, it can rain 18 inches overnight, but the locals think this is nothing and just go about their business. They get 80" inches of rain, on average, between June and November. You do the math.

15) A local told me that December is usually nice, temperate weather, and not QUITE as hot. :-) May is the hottest/humid month. Around 100.

16) Power outages are usually very localized, hours not days, and are usually due to shortages or repair work at the power plant. Typhoons can create major outages, but big typhoons are rare.

17) Local library in Agana has great internet access (free). There are also multiple internet cafes for around $4 an hour, including one at the Agana Shopping Center. Get to either early in the AM, as they are packed by noon.

18) Prepaid landline phone cards for long-distance calls BACK to the states are cheap. $5 and $10. You can pick these up at any cell phone kiosk in the Agana Shopping Center or the Micronesia Mall. Rates vary from 2 cents to 4 cents to call back stateside, some cards with connection fees and some without! We liked the cards from Mpulse and Hafatel.

19) Prepaid cellular is pricey in Guam. I took my GSM/SIM carded T-mobile phone along, expecting to buy a new SIM card and have "local" rates. However, they are just getting started with this, so the COVERAGE WAS AWFUL, and the price exhorbitant! Only Hafatel and Guamcell offered GSM. We chose to eat out 3 extra times instead! Think $40 for a SIM with 20 min. on it, and 27 cents or more per minute. I pay 10 cents with T-mobile stateside.

19A) There are multiple vendors for cell, such as Hafatel, Guamcell, MPulse, and IT&E. We priced them all for prepaid, and it was just unaffordable for a 3-week vacation.

20) Guamcell has the best/excellent coverage! But you still need to buy a phone for @$100+, and they prefer to sell contracts. You CAN get a prepaid, but the phone will cost much higher than stateside.

21) There did not appear to be much available in regards to cell service that would travel seamlessly from stateside to Guam and back. My T-mobile worked great in Hawaii FYI!

22) For shoes, we took watershoes, a pair of sneakers (which we only wore a few times for hiking into the jungle to see old WWII cannons and such, and a pair of sturdy flip flops. People wear flip flops to weddings here.

23) No bug spray was needed during the dry season. I heard that you WOULD need it for the rainy season. No special shots etc. are needed.

24) Payless (not!) is the "chain" grocery store on the island.

25) Use local "water" shops for your bottled water needs. Get a gallon for 30 cents and then refill your portable water bottles. Take an empty portable water bottle along in your luggage to Guam.

26) "Ross" Department Store for needed clothing. This is a U.S. discount clothing chain. The one on Guam is nicer than the ones stateside, packed with Asian tourists buying clothes. The other two major clothing stores are Macy's, and K-mart. K-mart is by the airport. Macy's is in the Micronesia Mall. The Guam Outlet Mall is more "Asian" and there is not much similarity to the types of outlet centers we have stateside.

27) Our favorite restaurants - King's Restaurant (diner), next to Ross and the Guam Outlet Mall, had our favorite breakfasts. Denny's was good all the time, and the only "chain" we went to during our stay. It is "Chamorro-ized", which was interesting. Jan Z's at Agat Marina, right on the water, had excellent American lunches at a reasonable price. Great burgers and Fish n' Chips! Jeff's Pirate Cove bears visiting as well for lunch, with another excellent water location. Carmen's Mexican Restaurant makes an excellent soft chicken taco for dinner. We tried Shirley's Coffee House for breakfast, but preferred King's because it was slightly more Americanized. Shirley's seemed very popular, however, with a lot of cars ALWAYS in the parking lot. We found the resort hotel restaurants to be too pricey for us, often $40+ per plate for dinner. We found that the weather suppressed our appetite, so we did not eat out very often for dinner. You can eat 3 meals per day at our favorites listed above, for roughly $7 breakfast, $10-12 lunch, and around $15 for dinner, including beverage. Figure $25 - 30 per day per person to eat out. On restaurants with pricing from $6-15 stateside, figure around $2.00 or so extra per meal on Guam. It's costs a bit more to bring this stuff to the island.

28) It doesn't pay to shop for cheap gas on Guam. It's regulated to remain the same price at all stations, Mobil or Shell, even in the event of a storm. Gas was about 30 to 40 cents more per gallon than here in PA.

29) K-mart sells Hawaiian shirts made in Hawaii, Muu Muus, and other authentic island garb and Guam souvenirs at a FRACTION of the cost of the local tourist traps and ABC souvenir shops!!! Get those postcards and gifts/shirts/nuts/chocolates at Kmart, as they have a large souvenir "shop" set up inside.

30) Take your own first class U.S. stamps along, because a U.S. postcard is now first class letter rate. We could only find one post office on Guam (Agana) from which to buy stamps, and this can be VERY inconvenient! We could not find any grocery stores selling stamps.

31) Go down to Umatac Bay in the morning to try to see spinner dolphins in action. We saw them there from @ 10 am - 11 am. The spinners are the most active in the AM's, after they have eaten. They leap high and spin when they are happy! :-) Google "spinner dolphin" to see these wonderful creatures in action! It's also best to book a "morning" dolphin tour vs. afternoon, when they are much less active.