Thoughts on this brief South Pacific itinerary?

I see this board doesn’t get a lot of post but hopefully someone can offer a few words of wisdom.

I’m an expat based in Shanghai and looking for a place to go for Chinese New Year. I’m thinking of flying to Guam for about 3 days and then continuing on to Yap, Micronesia for 4 full days. I’d fly back to Shanghai from Yap after that.

I’ve never been to the South Pacific. Would this trip be a decent starting point or am I way off base? Places like Samoa or Tonga don’t seem very accessible from Shanghai, especially given my limitations of 8, maybe 9 days to travel.

If anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

I loved Yap, one of the most magical places I've been on all my travels. I loved the culture, the stone money, walking the stone paths, snorkeling and the manta rays. It is not a huge island but the people are so friendly and it's so easy to get around that it's just a really enjoyable place to visit. I loved every minute of it.

I only had a few hours to spend on Guam, but had enough time to do a quick tour around the island. I could have spent more time there. I was looking at the WWII history, which may or may not be of interest to you. Tumon Bay was incredibly developed and had a "resort" feel to it. But I would think you could pass a few pleasant days on the island quite easily.

I think the WW2 history would interest me a great deal. I'm not that familiar with it on Guam but I will look into it.

How long did you spend on Yap?

I was on Yap for a full week, but I was speaking at a conference there and also had to attend meetings--so the full week was not spent touring around. Four full days would be a good amount of time--it will give you enough time to do some snorkeling and tour around the island. I am not someone who likes to rush around destinations.

Conference on Yap? Can the scientists/policy-makers etc. for once being more practical and choose not so far-flung location?

I would advice you to jump to Saipan. There are many daily flights to there. You could visit Tanian, spelling?, and it was pretty cool place with very few tourists.

I found myself shivering at the thought to visit Guam for more than a transit. You basically are in US not in the South Pacific. The only difference with the Big Island in Hawai is that Guam probably is still not so overcrowded as Hawai.