Accommodation Beach Fale's

My partner and I are travelling to Samoa at the end of March and early April, just for 6 nights. We really wanted to stay at a nice secluded spot with a fantastic beach in one of the Fale's. As long as it is basic but nice.

Just wondering, if for that time of year it is better to have something booked or just turn up and check it out before staying there?

Also would it be better to stay a few places rather than just one spot the entire time. The 6 nights may limit us a bit to tripping around, but it would be nice to see a bit of Samoa.

If anybody could give us some info, on some of the better places to go and other general info, that would be fantastic.

Cheers.

If you want basic but nice, there is no need to book.
There are lots and lots of budget fales on the beaches, most standing empty much of the time, and most can't be booked in advance anyway.

6 nights is pretty short time, but you could definitely move around Upolu a bit - say by staying both in the East, at Lalomanu (which has the best, but busiest beach) or Saleopaga (which is still very pretty but far less busy) and somewhere in the West like Virgin Cove.
You could even squeeze Sawai into that time-frame if you really wanted to , but it's not recommended as you would spend a day travelling between the two islands each way, and would end of seeing very little of both.

General info?
Watch your valuables - see the Samoa link in my signo.

Scott,

See my PM.

Some more recent travellers might be able to confirm whether it is still possible to fly to Savaii - much quicker than the ferry, and flights used to go into Moata (sp?) near Salelologa and Asau (on the North Coast). If so, I would definitely recommend some time on Savaii.

Rob

Hi Scott

If you want cheap beach fales, sometimes you dont need to book but then sometimes you do. Often fales are booked out for samoan family reunions or when groups of volunteers (american, aussie and japanese) hit the beach.

Last year I worked in Samoa and we often went to Lalomanu for the weekend (great snorkelling, swimming, nearby islands you can kayak to, great food, fiafia - fire knife dancing show on saturday nights and great price for basic fale) but you need to book ahead to get a spot there.

Savaii is beautiful - you could happily spend a whole week there - probably a couple of days at satuiatua and the rest of the time at one of the manase fale resorts (I've had really good experience at Vacations Fales at Manase - it has great service and food). If you hire a car you can do day trips to the starmound, blowholes, treetop walk, crater and dwarf caves. So if you're in savaii you could easily stay in one place and then check out the sites during the day.

Ideally if I were you though and didnt want to spend heaps of time moving around or catching the ferry I'd stay on Upolu. For seclusion on the island of Upolu I would book a "secluded" fale at Virgin Cove. The secluded ones are about an extra 20 tala (approx AU$10). They're pretty nice (but with shared facilities liek most basic beach fales), great beach, mangrove tours and a swing out over the water - great cocktails too. I would also spend a night out on Manono Island (its not far from the airport) - you can walk around the whole island and stay in a fale out over the water which has a ladder straight into the water - great for a late night dip. Probably would only spend one night on Manono though. Its a short ten minute boat ride over there. Namua Island which is near Lalomanu beach is also a quick ten minute boat ride across and only has one family living on it and running one fale resort. Basic fales on Namua too, but if you're lucky and they dont have other visitors then you'll have the island to yourself. I probably wouldnt spend longer than one night at Namua though as there is not much there.

I've read that some people have had security issues in Samoa. I never had any petty theft problems the whole time i was there (March - Dec 06). Maybe I was lucky. But my friends living there last year had no issues either - I think you just have to be careful not to leave your stuff lying around as people are fond of "borrowing". But then as I said, maybe I was just lucky...

Anyway, hope this helps with your holiday plans. Enjoy your trip :)
Jen

You can still fly to Savaii, but only from Faleolo International Airport (where you arrive from overseas), not from Fagali (near to town) anymore. The flight takes five minutes - actually you can see the location of Maota Airport in Savaii already when taking off from Faleolo. Quite scenic though on good weather. The airport is five minutes drive away from the ferry wharf in Mulifanua (Upolu), so there is no advantage anymore to take the plane (regarding time). Costs for roundtrip: US$48 on the plane, US$7 for the ferry.

Does the plane still fly in / out of Asau?

For someone on limited time & wanting to have a bit of a look around Savaii, catching a few buses from the ferry & then flying out of Asau (or vice versa) could be a way to see a bit without back-tracking!

The old flight from Fagalii to Maota was very scenic - low along the Apia waterfront, down the coast, across the Strait, with great views of Manono & Apolima, and finally straight down into what appeared to be a small jungle clearing - my first trip in a little plane - what a buzz!

You are right, but the airport at Fagalii is completely gone. There are no flights to Asau anymore as well.

Thanks everybody for all of the information,

If there is anything that is a must see in Samoa could you let me know.....I am really looking forward to the trip......sounds like a fantastic place.

im lookin to read reports from people who have spent at least a week on upolu and savai'i

regarding which in their opinion warranted more time to explore

my plan at the mo is 9 days upolu, 12 days savai'i in august

and i cant help thinkin fales will be wet and hard to sleep in being so close to the ocean?

Sean,

You're going to Samoa - it really won't be like at home - that is what makes it special!

Perhaps it's time to re-ignite a little bit of the South Pacific Dream:

Tiare Tahiti



Mamua, when our laughter ends,
And hearts and bodies, brown as white,
Are dust about the doors of friends,
Or scent ablowing down the night,
Then, oh! then, the wise agree,
Comes our immortality.
Mamua, there waits a land
Hard for us to understand.
Out of time, beyond the sun,
All are one in Paradise,
You and Pupure are one,
And Tau, and the ungainly wise.
There the Eternals are, and there
The Good, the Lovely, and the True,
And Types, whose earthly copies were
The foolish broken things we knew;
There is the Face, whose ghosts we are;
The real, the never-setting Star;
And the Flower, of which we love
Faint and fading shadows here;
Never a tear, but only Grief;
Dance, but not the limbs that move;
Songs in Song shall disappear;
Instead of lovers, Love shall be;
For hearts, Immutability;
And there, on the Ideal Reef,
Thunders the Everlasting Sea!

And my laughter, and my pain,
Shall home to the Eternal Brain.
And all lovely things, they say,
Meet in Loveliness again;
Miri's laugh, Teipo's feet,
And the hands of Matua,
Stars and sunlight there shall meet,
Coral's hues and rainbows there,
And Teura's braided hair;
And with the starred tiare's' white,<BR>And white birds in the dark ravine,<BR>And flamboyants' ablaze at night,
And jewels, and evening's after-green,
And dawns of pearl and gold and red,
Mamua, your lovelier head!
And there'll no more be one who dreams
Under the ferns, of crumbling stuff,
Eyes of illusion, mouth that seems,
All time-entangled human love.
And you'll no longer swing and sway
Divinely down the scented shade,
Where feet to Ambulation fade,
And moons are lost in endless Day.
How shall we wind these wreaths of ours,
Where there are neither heads nor flowers?
Oh, Heaven's Heaven! -- but we'll be missing
The palms, and sunlight, and the south;
And there's an end, I think, of kissing,
When our mouths are one with Mouth. . . .

`Tau here', Mamua,
Crown the hair, and come away!
Hear the calling of the moon,
And the whispering scents that stray
About the idle warm lagoon.
Hasten, hand in human hand,
Down the dark, the flowered way,
Along the whiteness of the sand,
And in the water's soft caress,
Wash the mind of foolishness,
Mamua, until the day.
Spend the glittering moonlight there
Pursuing down the soundless deep
Limbs that gleam and shadowy hair,
Or floating lazy, half-asleep.
Dive and double and follow after,
Snare in flowers, and kiss, and call,
With lips that fade, and human laughter
And faces individual,
Well this side of Paradise! . . .
There's little comfort in the wise.

Papeete, February 1914

Rupert Brooke

check out falealupobeachfales.ws for a remote and peaceful stay.