Visiting Tinian

I have received lots of questions from people who want to, or are planning to visit Tinian. Just a word of caution. If you are not planning to stay overnight on Tinian, you need to plan ahead for transportation here.

If you arrive by plane, via Freedom Air, there are rental cars at the airport. However, if you arrive via the ferry, there may not be transportation available at the dock itself. Most days, especially during tourist season, the car rental companies send cars down to the dock when the ferry comes in. However, that is not always the case.

So what do you do if you want to rent a scooter, or if there is no transportation at the ferry? Simply walk out to the first street and turn right. If you follow the road that travels along the beach to the end, you will find yourself at the Dynasty Casino. It is just a five minute walk, and a nice walk at that!

Once the beach road ends you will see the scooter rental shack and the casino. If you want to rent a scooter it will cost about $15 for four hours, or $30 for the day. If you want to rent a car, walk into the casino and the car rentals are inside. The car will be about $45 for the day.

As small as the island is, there is a lot to see! Liz and I have been at it for two weeks and still have not seen everything (of course, we spend a lot of time at each site taking pictures). Most people can see almost everything they want to see on the island in a day.

After getting transportation, stop at almost any small store and get a map of Tinian. There is a great map available (we have been using it, and there are few mistakes or problems with the map) and will aid you in traveling to the sites you want to visit.

If you go all the way to the north end of the island to see the bomb pits, it will take about 30 minutes to travel there, and 30 minutes back. There are many sites along the way, but that gives you an idea of the travel time. If you drive around the south end of the island to Suicide Cliff, it will take you about 15 minutes there, and 15 minutes back. So it you add a few more sites, it will take you about 2 hours of travel time to run around the island. That is just the travel! Then add whatever time you intend to spend at the sites themselves. There are 10 to 15 sites on the island that most people have an interest to see. Even if you only spend 15 minutes at each site (you will want to spend more!), that is another 3 to 4 hours. that makes a good six hours at a very fast pace!

If you only have a short time on island, it would be good to decide what you want to see ahead of time. If you come on the morning ferry and leave on the afternoon ferry, it doesn't give you much time. Most people want to see the bomb pits at the north end of the island--that is an hours drive, plus the time spent at the site. Very hard to do in a short time, when you add the time to get the transportation and return it.

So that should give you a feel for the time constraints on the island. Tinian is worth the trip, so give yourself enough time to make the visit worthwhile!