Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# car rentals Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Samoa
gayl1951 02:42 UTC 10 Sep 2009 | HI,, I'm planning my trip to Samoa and was wondering which was the best place to hire a car? So far my plan is to stay at the Airport Lodge for 1 night when I land and then go to Savaii for 4 days ( not sure where I'm staying yet). I will then go to Apia and check out the markets etc for 2 days, once again not sure where to stay. From Apia I will travel to the South Coast (thinking of staying at Virgin Cove resort or maybe go to Lolumuna for 4 days and then return to airport lodge to fly home to Australia. i would appreciate any advice on car rentals and also if the amount of days in each place I'm staying will be enough to take in village walks and other attractions. Thanks Gayl |
monkeynati 00:36 UTC 13 Sep 2009 | Hey, on both Savaii & Upolu there are car rentals places - the only thing however is that we just switched the side of the road we are driving on so driving here is very hectic and dangerous right now... In Savaii I would stay in and around Manase - you def. need a car in Savaii but 'cause it is slower than here you should be right - there is a car rental place as soon as you get off the ferry - Savaii car rental and PK car rental are both on the island... On Upolu I wouldnt recommend driving - the cabs/taxi here are so cheap and if you stay in town (Apia) you can take a taxi almost anywhere real cheap - I wouldn't rent a car specially if you are going to virgin cove as they provide a pick up from apia to virgin cove... Hope it help - send me a private msg if you need any other help | 1
wksamoa 01:47 UTC 13 Sep 2009 | #1 I wonder where you are right now ... In Samoa? I doubt that very much. Driving here is in no way very hectic now, after that switch. In fact it is as slow and careful as it never had been before. And unlike any other week before there had not been a single accident this week in Samoa so far ... So what is so dangerous about that? | 2
mumsie 12:08 UTC 27 Sep 2009 | Hello. I can only tell you our experience with car hire in Samoa but hopefully it gives you an idea. We went in March 2009. We used Blue Pacific Car Hire as they were easy to book online prior to arriving and seemed to be the best deal we could find. For a 4 day hire it was 392 tala. We also paid 30 tala per day to shrink the excess. They bought the car to the hotel and arranged our driver's licence on the spot which cost 12 tala. We also returned the car 2 hours late - they were very good about it and only charged an extra 10 tala and then organised a taxi for us back to town - so all in all they were very helpful and good service. I think the amount of time you've planned in each place will work well. We stayed at Falealupo-tai and Manase on Savaii - I'd recommend both places but Falealupo was amazing to stay at for a night as it was quite isolated - practically a beach to yourself and a good stop after catching the ferry and driving up there via the Taga blowholes. The jason's free maps were really helpful as they labelled all the main attractions and also where petrol stations can be found! On Upolu don't miss the Papaseea sliding rocks, return to paradise beach and the Sua Ocean trench - all marked on the jasons map. It was really worth having a car to stop wherever for however long. Hope this helps a bit. Of course we went before the road sides changed but the traffic goes so slowly outside of Apia that i can't imagine it being any problem - in fact after a few too many vailima the night before, we found ourselves on the wrong side of the road a couple of times and had heaps of time to correct it as the traffic goes at a max of about 50km/hr. A neat place to visit, and the people were amazingly friendly. Have a great trip. | 3