By Carmel
Is there good shore snorkeling in Guam? I am going to visit my son there. If there is good shore snorkeling, where is it? Please recommend locations. Also, what is best time to go there for water conditions? Thank you.
By Carmel
Is there good shore snorkeling in Guam? I am going to visit my son there. If there is good shore snorkeling, where is it? Please recommend locations. Also, what is best time to go there for water conditions? Thank you.
Hi Carmel,
My info is pretty old (I went in December 2015), but this area is seldom reported on at Tropical Snorkeling so I think it could still be helpful. In looking at Google Earth I definitely remember the spots that stuck with me. Full disclaimer: when I visited I didn’t know anyone who lived on the military base. The best snorkel spots are apparently off the shore of beaches within the naval base, and they are not open to the public. If your son is in the military, I’d ask him where the military folks snorkel and have him take you there. I remember locals talking about Gab Gab Beach a lot (which on the naval base).
Tumon Bay
This is a huge bay with lots of hotels on it. There was generally patch coral everywhere in the bay so you’d probably enjoy yourself anywhere here. Very shallow (5-8 feet most places), very protected, seldom had swells (in late December when we went). We found the best snorkeling coral and fish-wise was off of a public park, Ypao Beach Park. Coral is thicker there, and totally evident when looking in the water on Google Earth.
Gun Beach
No other snorkeling spot like it. The reason is there is this grouping of pipes that were built into the ocean floor. They run straight out from the shore out to sea. There is a trench built around these pipes, and you basically walk along the pipes until it’s deep enough to float and then start snorkeling the trench. The trench gets deeper and deeper until it eventually opens up to about 20 feet of water where there are pretty large coral reefs going up 10-15 feet from the bottom. Don’t remember a huge ton of fish, but the coral was pretty, and I remember seeing moray eels in the trench on the way back. The trench is narrow, and you’ll want to make sure the weather is relatively calm. This is technically a dive spot but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
Fish Eye Marine Park
People do snuba and scuba here, and the depths are shallow enough that people can try scuba without getting certified. All that costs money though. However, if you’ve got water shoes, you can park on shore, enter the water and walk along the underside of the pedestrian bridge (being mindful not to step on coral) until the water gets deep enough to swim, and then switch to fins and swim out until you’re under Fish Eye. We spent a lot of time snorkeling around this area. There were LOTS of fish here!
Nimitz Beach Park
I don’t know if this is technically a snorkel spot, but I was on a sunset charter here and liked snorkeling off the boat, and Nimitiz Beach Park was the closest parking to where the charter boat anchored. I went back later and had a nice snorkel. Park at the beach, enter the water and head to your left (south). Don’t head right, because there’s a channel for a marina. When going to the left, swim over the sea grass (in fairly shallow water) until you hit the top of a reef wall that goes about 10-20 feet down to the bottom. I saw lots of coral on the wall, and a big open sandy area beyond it. We followed the top of the wall for as far as we felt comfortable. There might be rays and such in the open sandy area but we didn’t try it. I remember seeing blue linkia (blue sea stars) in abundance here. Never saw them snorkeling as much as I did in Guam. If you look at Google Earth at this spot you’ll see the brown shallow areas. Note the line between shallow brown and the darker blue areas and the line is where the wall drop-off is.
Other spots?
My partner and I have always talked about going back to Guam. It seems very under-visited for snorkeling and has great depths and excellent visibility. I don’t remember much in the way of swells (though we could have been lucky). As we’ve continued to consider it, we would definitely explore more next time. Ritidian Beach looks like it could be worth checking out. Also we are interested in checking out the coral area on Google Earth that’s viewable just north of FaiFai Beach, which you can access by walking from the trail at Gun Beach. (This one will be a bit of a hike!)
Hope this helps.