Kerama Islands · ZamamiNo.692★★Open in map →
Zamami Island
The main island of the Kerama group, an hour or less from Naha on the village's own ferries. Reef water, beaches facing opposite coasts, and hill roads that climb to viewpoints over the channel.
- FromTomari Port, Naha
- ~50 minVillage ferry from Tomari Port
- Get off atZamami Port (village ferry, Queen Zamami / Ferry Zamami)
- On foot
- Zamami Island
The sweet spot
The Kerama sea is famous and the boats fill through the summer, so this is not an undiscovered island. What changes the day is timing: take the earliest sailing and the beaches are quiet before the afternoon arrivals, and the return sailing sets the shape of everything in between.
Where it is
45 more notes in Okinawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- Zamami Port passenger terminalthe arrival hall at the head of the pier, with the tourism association counter inside
- The village behind the harboura compact grid of houses, shops and rental desks a few minutes from the pier
- Takatsuki-yama Observatorya hill viewpoint above the port looking over the channel and the neighbouring islands
- Furuzamami Beachan east-facing reef beach over the ridge, listed with two stars in the Michelin Green Guide
- Ama Beacha shallow west-facing bay on the far side, where sea turtles are often seen
How to actually get there
- Central Naha → Tomari Port (Tomarin), the pier for the Kerama Islands.
- Tomari Port → Zamami Port (Queen Zamami, high-speed, about 50 minutes; or Ferry Zamami, about two hours via Aka).
- Zamami Port → the tourism association counter inside the passenger terminal, for a map and the day's sea conditions.
- Walk out from the village to the beaches and the hill viewpoints, keeping the return sailing in mind.
- Village ferry from Tomari Port
- Both boats leave from Tomari Port, the pier in Naha also signposted as Tomarin. Queen Zamami, the high-speed boat, reaches Zamami Port in about 50 minutes. Ferry Zamami, the conventional ferry, takes about two hours and calls at Aka Island on the way. Both are run by Zamami Village, and seats are held by telephone or through the village's online reservation.
- The return sailing decides the day
- There are only a few departures each way per day and the timetable shifts with the season, so read the village's published schedule and book the return leg together with the outbound one. Miss it and you are staying the night, because the boats are the island's only scheduled link to Naha.
About the place
Zamami lies west of Okinawa's main island and is the largest of the inhabited Kerama Islands, the one that holds the village, the shops and the harbour. Boats operated by the village itself connect it to Tomari Port in Naha, and there is no bridge, so the harbour serves as the island's front door. The settlement sits directly behind the pier, with hills rising close behind the houses and narrow roads climbing to viewpoints on either side. Beaches face east on one coast and west on the other, which decides where to swim when the wind turns. Everything a day visitor needs stands within walking distance of the port.
How to enjoy it
The number of sailings is small, so plan the day backwards from the return boat rather than forwards from the beaches. Taking the first departure out of Tomari lands you with the morning still ahead. In winter the same crossing doubles as whale-watching water, when humpbacks move through the channel.
Background & history
The Kerama Islands were where American forces first came ashore in the Okinawa campaign of the Pacific War, before the landings on the main island, and Zamami still carries memorials from that spring. For decades afterwards the islands were protected only as part of a wider quasi-national park covering the Okinawa coast. In 2014 they were separated out and designated as Kerama Islands National Park in their own right, a status that takes in the sea around the island as well as its land.
Before you go
- Cash
- At the time of checking, an adult one-way fare was 3,950 yen on Queen Zamami and 2,900 yen on Ferry Zamami, with return tickets sold slightly cheaper than two singles. Tickets are issued on the day of travel at the port counter.
- Before you go
- The crossing is open water and the village runs the boats to published operating standards, so sailings are suspended when the sea gets up or a typhoon approaches. Check the day's operating information before you fix a return time.
- Another way
- The same boats call at Aka Island, so Aka can be added to the trip or taken instead; village boats also run between the islands and on toward Tokashiki.
- After you get off
- The pin is Zamami Port. The passenger terminal stands at the head of the pier with the tourism association counter inside it, and the village begins immediately behind. The beaches and the hill viewpoints are all reached on foot from there.