I went to Walt’s tour on 5-6 September 2024 with my teenage son who was very keen on WW2 sites. Walt was an excellent tour guide: he catered to our needs, he ensured we have seen what we wanted to see in Saipan, went out of his way for my son to see the WW2 military tank in the middle of a golf course! We highly recommend to book with Walt. We will come back again.

I discovered Walt researching guides for Saipan and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) on the internet Choosing Walt I hit a bonanza of experience, information, and good cheer. He was enthusiastic, engaging, outgoing, communicative, decisive, flexible and an impeccable manager of time. I cannot more highly recommend Walt if you want to do a deep dive into Saipan and CNMI.

We knew the trip was going to be good having read previous reviews and watched Walt’s YouTube videos, but even so it exceeded our expectations. My partner and I did the one day tinian tour with Walt and he even squeezed in some extra sites on Saipan at the end of the day. The whole day was an amazing experience from start to finish! From flying on the tiny plane to driving down the same runway that the Hiroshima atomic bomber took off from, every step of the way Walter gave us loads of information and ensured we really made the most of the experience and appreciated the once-in-a-lifetime visit to a place that changed the course of human history. Even Walt’s individual character and personality made the day special as he is such a great guy! Couldn’t recommend more!

I took this tour a couple of days after taking Walt's tour of Saipan. The island has a lot of WWI history behind it, but there is also a lot of culture that Walt exposed me too, including an abandoned but standing Shinto shrine. Access to the island is by a 10 minute small plane that seats only 5 passengers that takes off from Saipan. The scene from above is amazing, but even more so on the ground. Our tour took place the day after a typhoon so some of the roads were hard to navigate, but Walt did a fantastic time getting us around the island. I highly recommend this tour to anyone who is thinking of visiting the area. As I mentioned in my Saipan review, Walt is very accommodating as a tour guide. He is also very knowledgeable about the area and the local customs. Thanks again Walt!

I am normally an independent traveler who does not feel a need or desire to hire guides. However, I made a rare exception for my day tour of Tinian, hiring Mr. Walt Goodridge to take me around. Five years ago, when I first considered a visit to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, I had bought Walt's book, "There's Something about Saipan". I enjoyed the book, and then I noticed Walt was also mentioned extensively in another book I bought, "The Not-Quite States of America". So it would seem he is something of a local celebrity and has a fascinating personal story: An Ivy-League educated native of Jamaica who gave up a good engineering career in New York City to relocate to Saipan. And then I happened upon his website and saw that he offered tours. I figured I had to meet this guy and I bet he could give a pretty good tour. I also figured that most likely in my entire life I would spend at most one day on Tinian so I wanted to make sure I got the most out of it, and did not miss anything important. Anyway, Walt picked me up at my hotel (the Saipan Hyatt) and then we went to the Saipan Airport. The first great part of the daylong adventure to Tinian was simply getting there - a 15-minute flight on a 5-passenger 1974 Piper Cherokee Six with a 300HP Continental TIO540. The views of Tinian from the plane provide a great "preview" of what is to come. After arriving in Tinian, we jumped into a rental car (Walt arranged it) and we set out on our Tinian tour. The majority of a tour of Tinian will, appropriately, be focused on sites relevant to World War II. There are a number of World War II era buildings, most of them originally Japanese-built and subsequently repurposed by American forces. They are in varying states of decay, but mostly structurally sound so you can walk into and onto them. The fact that they are left to decay naturally, as opposed to being "restored", is, in my opinion, neat. Perhaps the highlight of the trip is viewing and driving on the actual runway used by the Enola Gay when it left on its mission to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Two other sites of high significance are the pits used to load the atomic bombs ("Little Boy" and "Fat Man") onto the Enola Gay and Bockscar respectively. Other worthy sites around the island include various bomb shelters, Shinto shrines, abandoned artillery and vehicles, Chulu Beach, a currently operational Voice of America transmission facility, life-size replicas of "Little Boy" and "Fat Man", the "House of Taga" (think of it as a tropical Pacific Stonehenge). I also found a drive past the recently-abandoned Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino to be interestingly eerie. A brief drive through San Jose, the one and only village on Tinian, where the vast majority of the island's population lives, is interesting. Walt obviously knows his history and is a wealth of information. If he doesn't know something, he'll acknowledge as such and make a note to look into it and get back to you. Perhaps more importantly, however, I enjoyed talking to Walt over the course of the day about his own story and about what life is like in Saipan. He's an "open book", willing to share much about himself, and there are no "off-limits" questions. We concluded our tour of Tinian and made the short flight back to Saipan. After returning to Saipan, Walt offered to take me to one or two sites in Saipan to fill up the remainder of the day, but my jet lag was kicking in and I needed some rest so we called it a day. But it is a day I will never soon forget. I absolutely recommend engaging Walt for a tour of Tinian. Reach out to him directly, though, no need to book through some third-party booking site.

This is a HUGE waste of money! I will show you the same for $50 per person (minus airfare to and from Tinian). Call 670-285-5057. Ask for Fred.

Walt did a great job of showing me things of interest. He also had great knowledge of the history, but was also not afraid to admit he didn't know and rather than make an answer up, he would research it and find me the answer. Walt also documented the tour well and gave me several options to pick from.

Walt took me on a customized Nature trek. At my request, we hiked Forbidden Island. Breathtaking and surreal! The hike isn't easy but Walt is safe, considerate, and super knowledgeable! I cut our hike to Bird Island short because I did not have any more gas in the tank but Walt did! He is super human and also doubles as a photographer capturing moments I could not. Can't wait to sign up for the WWII Pilgrimage Tour and other nature treks!!!

We hope to encourage you to book this tour. With Walt waiting for us at the port in a private rented van, with his the full day itinerary he planned & arranged, anxiously waiting to share his wealth of knowledge and experience; our ship could not dock due to rough seas. Months earlier, we looked for the perfect tour of Saipan, this was it! Booking the tour on Pay Pal was simple. With the unfortunate event of aborting the port, Walt refunded our money back within a day with no fees for an FULL REFUND. We know you should book this Saipan tour as we experienced his associated tour in Guam, with Ed two days earlier. Wonderful experience. Do not hesitate to book both!

I can't say enough wonderful things about Walt and this private tour. We were picked up at the airport and spent an entire day catered to what we wanted to see and do. We enjoyed a personal experience at a private collection of WWII artifacts along with a private viewing of the "long" version of the film at the War Memorial. Not to mention the golf cart trip out onto a luxury golf course to view an amazingly intact rusted tank. No artifact was too obscure or distant to find. Thank goodness Walt doesn't swim or he would have had us out in the water swimming to the abandoned tanks on the reef! I mean this in a good way. We watched and spoke to local canoe carvers, saw beatiful beaches and even climbed a few rocks here and there for a better view of things. There is no way we could have gone to the places we went and have seen all that we saw without Walt's insider knowledge. He is a smart guy who has an interesting perspective on life. If you have one day to spend on Saipan, this is the way to do it!

We were really looking forward to our full day tour with Walt and had prepaid months prior for the privilege. Unfortunately our ship could not dock because of rough seas. Although Walt had hired a van and been waiting at the dock, he processed a full refund immediately upon learning that we were unable to come ashore. It was more than generous considering he had incurred expenses. He is great to deal with and we hope to get to Saipan in the future and will surely book his tour. Thank you Walt for the FULL REFUND!

Amazing Tour Amazing Tour guide Amazing person best worth every penny. Personalized experience this man knows every inch of these islands and the hundreds of years of history behind everything. VERY WELL RECOMMENDED YOU WILL GET AN EXPERIENCE YOU CANT JUST BY SIMPLY googling or trip advisor lists

My 15 year old son and I toured Saipan with Walt in March 2019. I was impressed with Walt from the first emails we exchanged about setting up the tour. He was incredibly responsive, informative, and focused on understanding our interests so he could tailor the tour to us. Walt met us at the Saipan airport and confirmed our goals for the day. He made a special effort to understand my son's objectives for the tour. Walt was a friendly, well-informed and tireless leader, taking us to more than 20 sites in the course of the day. There is no way we could've seen half of the sites in the same amount of time if we'd toured on our own. Two things made Walt's tour particularly valuable. He arranged a few private meetings with Saipan residents who shared unique aspects of Saipan and military history which were real high points of the tour and gave us insights into the place far beyond what we could've discovered on our own. Second, Walt brings a unique perspective of someone who has lived elsewhere and now made his home in Saipan. He loves Saipan but can also talk objectively about the island based on his broad experience. Walt is also available for tours to Tinian. We did not engage him for that but he generously shared his insights about Tinian and walked us through an itinerary that we could follow. Having spent the day with him on Saipan, I know now we could've had a much richer experience of Tinian if he had guided us there as well. I'm usually skeptical of individual tour guides, but I can't recommend Walt highly enough for travelers of any age who want to understand the history and culture of the Marianas.

The one day Saipan military history tour with Walt far exceeded my expectations. I was impressed with his knowledge but it was his easy manner and the way in which he was genuinely happy to take as long as we wanted without rushing us along which was particularly pleasing. I am sure there is no better tour of Saipan. John Grehan

I am new resident to Saipan, and found Walt's tour to be very informative and specifically scoped to helping me acclimate to my new community. Everything was custom, and accurate in terms of information shared. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend picking up his book "Saipan Living - 2018 Relocation Guide." I also found that to be very informative and accurate. Thanks Walt!