American Samoa

If you walked barefoot into Tisa Faamuli’s Barefoot Bar on Tutuila Island in American Samoa, you’d start off in the sand. Not the shifting, white, hot-hot-hot sand of a beach day, but the cool, damp sand of a shaded path packed down by many feet. You’d walk under a sign hanging from a rough-hewn archway of branches: Tisa’s Bar and Grill. The little path branches right off an asphalt road, making the place feel more like a secret treasure than a popular tourist destination.

But Tisa’s is much more than a bar. Every inch of Tisa Faamuli’s eco-establishment is constructed from the surrounding beach and rainforest, as well as organic and inorganic materials collected around Alega Village. Her marine sanctuary, restaurant, and lodge is a love letter to the island and its people.