Experience the best of Tumon

Tumon lies on a curve of Guam's western shore, a bay of pale sand sheltered by a fringing reef, so the water is calm and clear. A strip of hotels and shops runs along Pale San Vitores Road behind the beach. At the north end of the bay, Two Lovers Point, a cliff more than 100 metres above the sea, takes its name from a Chamorro legend of two lovers who tied their hair together and leapt.

Guam is a US territory and the home island of the Chamorro people. In the capital, Hagåtña, a Spanish-era plaza, a cathedral-basilica and latte stones, ancient stone pillars once used to support houses, recall the island's past. Beaches and sites of the 1944 battles lie along the coast, part of a national historical park. In the south, the village of Umatac marks the traditional landing place of Magellan's fleet in 1521.

Chamorro barbecue comes with red rice coloured with achiote, chicken kelaguen cured in lemon and coconut, and a tangy finadene sauce, and villages hold fiestas through the year. The dry season runs from December to June, and the heavier rains arrive from July.