Things To Know About Visiting American Samoa
The culture of American Samoa is quite religious, and most things are closed on Sundays. This includes swimming at the beaches. You should also dress modestly while exploring.
Even though American Samoa is in the United States, American citizens need a passport to visit. I believe a birth certificate is accepted as well, but be sure to check the requirements carefully.
Be sure to triple check your cell phone data plan before visiting American Samoa! Many major phone plans, such as Verizon and T Mobile, charge HUGE fees for data coverage here. After visiting 30+ countries and other US territories, we’ve only seen this happen in American Samoa. Bluesky is your only option for a sim or esim during your trip, and it’s best to go in person when you arrive, because it’s unreliable to purchase their eSIM online. Personally, we went without using data and only used wifi at our hotel and other places it was offered, and didn’t have any issues. Just be sure to download offline maps on Google Maps to get around!
American Samoa is part of the US, so they take the US dollar. Cash is necessary in some situations, but we found that most places took credit cards.
Tipping is not part of the local culture, so it’s not customary or expected here. However, it’s always appreciated to give a small cash tip, especially to guides, housekeepers or drivers that go above and beyond.
It is generally not safe to drink the tap water in American Samoa. Bring a filter or be prepared to buy bottled water.
In American Samoa, you might find multiple different types of outlets - types A, B, F and I. The Tradewinds Hotel had the same plugs as most of the US, type B.
Check the tide chart before heading out swimming or snorkeling on the beaches. In some areas, it’s very hard to snorkel at low tide.
Dogs can be a little bit aggressive on American Samoa. We noticed aggressive dogs in a couple areas - on the Southwest side of the island and on Aunu’u Island.
The speed limits across the island are low, generally 25 or 30 mph. Not only do most people follow the speed limits, but people are very polite in their driving. We noticed that it was very common for people to stop traffic to let other cars pull out into the road. Drive slow and be a courteous driver when you visit.
Filling up our car with gas was easy, but they pumped the gas for us instead of us doing it ourselves.
When it comes to food on American Samoa, you can find a lot of American and Asian influence. We found the portion sizes to be huge at every place we ate, so it would be easy to share. I’m vegetarian and unfortunately, I did not find the island to be very vegetarian friendly. Many of the restaurants had no vegetarian options at all, but some were happy to make something for me off the menu.
National Park of American Samoa
Read my guide to visiting the National Park of American Samoa to plan your trip!
A Guide to the National Park of American Samoa
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