tisa's barefoot bar

There is not a lot to do & see in Pago Pago beyond taking in the scenic beauty of the island and enjoying the water so we decided to go to Tisa’s to spend a half-day relaxing by the beach. You will need to catch a bus or taxi to Tisa’s which is a little more challenging if you are on a cruise ship as 1st thing in the AM the buses & taxis are all trying to hook you into a “tour” rather than provide transportation. We could not find a bus but eventually got a taxi. Tenacity is required but eventually you will find a taxi driver who will negotiate a fair price. We paid $15 for the 20-minute ride to Tisa’s.Tisa’s is literally right on the beach so the setting is beautiful. The place itself is rustic beach with lots of drift wood and nautical ropes, nets, etc all put together to blend in with the environment. There are 10-12 4-top plastic tables & chairs with great ocean views and then a separate area where mainly Tisa’s tour participants sit and have lunch.The beach sand here is incredibly soft and the water is warm, +80 degrees. There are a lot of rocks in the water here so swimming is more challenging plus there is a strong under-toe but we still enjoyed a little time in the water. Those who snorkel said it was only so-so.We arrived about 10:30AM and had our choice of tables but before noon, a number of independent travelers arrived and Tisa came with a tour group so the place was full. Tisa’s sells beer and many beach style cocktails made with fresh ingredients, no mixes but their prices are high. The same beer I paid $4 for in Apia was $9 at Tisa’s! We had a great lunch of fried prawns and banana chips but if there is a tour group be prepared to wait until 1-1:30PM to eat as they are preparing and serving a traditional Samoan feast cooked in the ground for the tour. They encourage cash payment although I did see Tisa returning a credit card to a customer so for us 1-beer, 2-cocktails, 2-lunches & 2-T-shirts ended up being $96.We told our taxi driver to return at 2PM but he was a “no show” but with the help of another driver we got a bus ride back to the port. There is a price for locals and a negotiated price for tourist. We paid $5pp Tisa’s-to-port while a teenager already on the bus paid <$1 for a similar trip.Tip- Arrive early and take enough $’s

I do not think that the cost of this tour was worth $75.00 per person. The bus ride around the island was okay. The meal was okay. The beach was very dangerous, 2 people from our group had to be saved from the rough water. A sigh should be posted about the rip tide in the water.I would not waste my money do this tour.

I stayed here for a night in the fale and had a great experience. It's very rare that you can sleep in an open fale on a gorgeous secluded beach (and especially rare in American Samoa). Tisa is very friendly and helpful. It was relaxing and comfortable. I also had the luck to be there for the Weds feast, which was a great experience. Only complaint is that it is quite expensive, but if you think of it less for the food and more for the experience it makes you feel better about the price. Overall, I highly recommend staying here for a unique experience. Thanks Tisa!

We stayed at Tisa's for a week. Both Tisa and Candyman were charming and helpful. American Somoa is a beautiful island not visited much by independent travelers. If you stay here recommend getting a car so you can tour the island. Accommodation is basic but has a beautiful view overlooking the bay (watch sunrise from your bed). Food was good at Tisa's atmosphere very laid back as they only have 2 rooms. The snorkeling was excellent just 40 ft of shore. Shower overlooks the bay, so you cant be shy. If your looking for the Hilton this is not the place for you but if you want an adventure I would recommend it

We booked the island tour and lunch at Tisa’s with 90 people from the cruise ship. We were met at the dock and then walked a long distance past all of the cruise ship buses to Tisa’s chartered buses. The buses are open air with hard wooden seats (The Titanic buses had some seat padding). The island tour was a disappointment. It was simply a drive along the coast with a few stops to take pictures. The guide on our bus, Eva, did not provide a description of what we would see or how long the tour would be. The bus driver had his music playing so we could not hear the few explanations that were provided. The stop at the east end of the island was to stop at a store so people could buy beer and snacks. Absolutely nothing to see.The 90 people filled Tisa’s bar. The bar is set up on many levels and is not wheel chair accessible. However, the bar was still open to people who drove up to the bar. There was a musician who played for us and sang local songs. Most of the bar is covered which provided protection when it rained.The umu lunch consisted of roasted papaya, banana, sweet potato, pork and turkey. There was fresh pineapple and papaya. Everyone queued at once for lunch. The staff served the lunch on banana leaf on a paper plate. The portions were small and definitely not worth the $25 charged for the meal. There was never an announcement that you could return for seconds. The servers had to be reminded to bring around water or a soft drink and ran out of water. Overall it was quite disorganized. Two toilets had long line ups the whole time. This in my opinion is a beer, tee-shirt purchase stop and maybe a dip in the ocean. To not pay for the lunch, barter before you pay. The Kava ceremony allows you to try a lip numbing local concoction. Unfortunately the ceremony involves rinsing the same cup in the kava after each use. This is double dipping to the Nth degree. Hopefully the alcohol kills the bacteria.You have to walk down some steep stairs to get to the water. The beach is narrow and you need water shoes to enter. There was a hose to rinse off on the beach which disappeared with the Tide. There was an undertow later in the afternoon and two people had to be rescued.Definitely not worth the $75 we paid. It was our least favorite tour of our cruise. If you like drinking in a bar and buying the t-shirt. OK. We would have had a better time at two dollar beach.

Was at Tisa's in October when a local friend drove us by while waiting for our flight to depart. I am only sorry we were not able to enjoy this spot before we left. Looked delightful by the water to have food and drinks. I hear many good things and would recommend this to anyone coming to AS for a spot to have drinks, eat and snorkel. I understand there may be a fee to snorkel however.

Recently cruised from Hawaii to Sydney and Pago Pago was our first port of call. We had pre booked Tisa's barefoot tour back in Australia on recommendation from a previous cruiser.We were not disappointed; this was the highlight of our cruise and by far the best Island and tour on this trip. Candy and Tisa are lovely people and very passionate about their Island.It was so nice to swim in the crystal clear reef just in front of the bar. The lovely lunchprepared by Tisa was delicious (better than what we got on the Cruise Ship) and the island itself was stunning. I would highly recommend that you do the whole tour and not just visit the bar as you really get a full experience of the people and the beauty of the Island with Candy.

We were part of a tour off our cruise ship and are we glad we booked the whole tour. The tour was booked for 14 but only have 5 showed up from the cruise ship. It looks like as said in earlier reviews here people cancelled and just took the bus straight to Tisa's. Don't make this mistake as the bus tour/trip to tisa's with Candy was truly the highlight of the day. We drove around the island and saw some spectacular scenery, the bus also picked up locals in the villagers which provided for a full bus with an amazing island atmosphere. Tisa demonstrating weaving palm leaves, included was a beautiful seafood lunch and drinks and of course the beautiful beach (the water was warm)

We wanted to try the drinks at Tisa's, since everyone said it was "the place" for palagi's to visit, and also wanted to go snorkeling. It's a $5 donation to the fund to preserve the reef in front of the village if you go snorkeling. The tide was nearly out when we went but the rip tide was still too strong in the channel to comfortably snorkel without fins. Beautiful fish though! Also, they have a shower with freshwater to rinse off with after.

This bar is actually set above the beach. The beach being very dangerous to snorkel off as it has a bad rip! The food was also expensive for what we got. We were disappointed as reviews had said it was awesome - go about 300m further down the road to $2 beach - so much better!

We were part of a tour off a cruise ship and are we glad we booked the whole tour. After reading some of the reviews that suggested just taking the bus to Tisa's to save money and have a seat at Tisa's, some cancelled out of our tour and, has been pointed out, were directed to another location. They not only missed the tour and Candy's interesting travelogue but also lunch at Tisa's. We, the members of the tour group, enjoyed Tisa's all to our selves - Tisa demonstrating weaving palm leaves, the umu lunch (all that was advertised) a musician playing island music, the beach (the water was almost uncomfortably warm)...Candyman (Candy Mann) was our tour guide on the bus and displayed his love of Samoa and it's culture as we drove around the island. The bus was an island bus so don't expect air-conditioned urban comfort - you're on a tropical island - enjoy the experience.We did not find anyone pushing Tisa artifacts and in fact I had to ask if a CD was for sale and also about the t-shirts.

Pretty much agree with previous reviews, if you want a tour with informative narrative ask for Tisa or Candy to guide you. Caution to those thinking they can take the taxi or bus and get the same experience at the bar. We had a tour of 50+ prearranged from our cruise ship and she closed the beach/bar to only our group and sent those showing up by taxi/bus to another location. The traditional umu dinner was as billed and delightful unless you are unadventurous. Cost of the tour for our group was $75 pp. Definitely recommend this tour.

Even though there was a storm the night before and we were unable to swim or snorkel, we had a wonderful afternoon with Tisa and candy man. Wonderful lunch and Piña Coladas

To see Tisa’s Barefoot Bar, the smart people take the local bus for US$2 each way, pay US$5 to use the beach and US$13 for lunch (plus drinks of course) – total US$22. The not-so-bright ones amongst us contact Tisa in advance by email, hand over the credit card details and sign up for a US$75 each, “five hour” tour including 3 photo stops, use of the beach and lunch.There were 6 of us from the cruise ship who had booked on Tisa’s 5 hour tour. When we arrived at the dock, there was much confusion as they only had 4 people on their list. Tisa’s chocolate brown bus had already been booked out (the guide pointed it out to me, full of people, as it went by) so there was only a twin cab taxi ute for 6 people. There was no suggestion of getting another taxi: the guide decided that the two sixty year old men could clamber into the rear tray and take the tour backwards. No seats or cushions of course - just sitting on the tray (although I must admit it was suggested that we share a slab of cardboard). I suspected the guide didn’t know where he was going on the fourth time past the fish factory. No commentary at all – just a lot of exhaust fumes when going uphill – until we arrived at the three photo stops. We’d left the dock at 8 am and arrived at Tisa’s Bar at about 10 am (must have something to do with “island time”). The tide was out and the current was strong but we went snorkelling anyway, trying desperately to find something to look at. Pina Coladas at the bar were US$8 each. Lunch was fried banana, a chicken leg, a sausage and some green salad on a banana leaf.When I complained about the transport, Candyman conferred with Tisa and gave me $20 off. The other guy in the back of the ute said nothing and so received no discount. I made sure I was in the front of the ute on the way back.It’s a pretty spot but definitely not worth the Tisa price and the “tour” is very disorganised. Next time I’ll take the bus.

We were taking a one month cruise of the South Pacific and many recommendations were steered towards Tisa's and her island tour. So....not having been there before and after reading many different reviews (like these), we pre-booked with Tisa via internet, along with perhaps 45 other passengers on our ship. The tour include an island 'tour', a 'native-island' lunch at Tisa's Barefoot bar, possible swimming/snorkeling at her beach and then return to the dock. About 4-5 hour commitment. Upon departing the ship for our 8am pick up by Tisa.... along with a thousand of our shipmates going all over the place, we all dumped into the port parking lot to find our tour! Since this island gets maybe one or two cruise ships per MONTH, anyone that could offer a 'tour' was lined up waiting for customers.....There were no less than 25 local busses (maybe all of the busses on the island!) lined up for various tours, taxis and various vendors selling day tours. Quite hectic, but we managed to find Tisa...she and her assistants guided us to the area she had her transports parked. We climbed aboard. The 'bus' was a converted something, with wooden seats, no windows, no ac of course and the interior roof was built of wood..clearly built by a boat builder. But, I wasn't expecting much more and all of the busses on the island are built the same way...very colorful. There were perhaps 22 passengers on our 'bus'. The seats were very small..hardly wide enough for two average adults and little storage for day packs. Bring a 'pillow' or at least a beach towel to sit on. So, we finally departed with our 'guide'...one of Tisa's assistants, who admitted she spoke little English, was on her first tour and Tisa climbed aboard the other bus. After spending about 2 hours or so bouncing around the island and getting off now and then for photo stop and eavesdropping on other tour's guides info to find out what we were looking at, we ended up at Tisa's barefoot bar and hotel. There, our group settled in to their assigned tables under a thatched roof. We made our own 'plates' out of palm leaves while we waited for our lunch to finish cooking the 'island way'....under coconut palm leaves, in a pit of hot rocks. A few headed to the small sand beach to wade or snorkel in the shallow lagoon. Some ordered (for a fee) drinks at the bar and we chatted. Of course, the obligatory 't' shirt sales and Tisa souvenirs were always clearly marketed. When lunch was finally ready (about 90 minutes after arrival), we lined up to buffet our lunch of hot, cooked pineapple, pork, turkey, misc other items and LOTS of Taro.Mostly Taro actually, very little of anything else. An experience? Yes. Filling lunch? No. But, Taro is the main staple here anyway...you either like it or you don't...I don't. If you have done any type of luau, you've been there done that, with most luau's I've done being better. Skip this lunch unless you've never tried this type of 'local' cooking. Tisa's DOES serve order off the menu meals...I can't speak for those.While our group was there, quite a few other folks were coming and going via taxi. Most came for a drink, the view, maybe bought a Tisa souvenir and the bucket list sign off that they've been to Tisa's!. It's a well known and popular spot. Gorgeous location, gentle/shallow lagoon, small sand beach, quiet, peaceful, drinks and conversation. Friendly and welcoming staff. No complaints at all.Upon completion of our 'lunch', we piled back into the bus and we're returned to the pier. Total time was about 4 1/2 hours. We had fun....can say we did it...but would skip an organized tour and go on our own...without the meal :) A taxi tour and guide split among several people would be a much better value.A note that EVERYTHING in this part of the world is EXPENSIVE..food, clothing, fuel, etc.... Tisa's souvenirs were fairly priced and bar drinks/sodas were not out of line..Kudo's to her for that. We can recommend, but go on your own. Say "Hi" to Tisa and her crew.