Fale close to villages?

Hi there,

my partner and I have 6 nights in Upolu and are now planning on where to spend them. We haven't picked specific Fales/hotels yet, we are just thinking of where (geographically) to spend them.

As neither of us can lie on a beach for 8 hours a day, we definitely want to do some hiking, snorkelling and canoeing/whatever.

We have our first night in Apia pre-booked. We then thought about spending two nights at Lalomanu Beach just to relax, enjoy the beach, read and maybe do some snorkelling.

We definitely want to explore O Le Pupu Pue National Park and therefore thought of spending the next two nights somewhere close to the park.

As for the last night, we thought of spending it in or near Saanapu or Sataoa as the Mangrove area sounds nice to us. I have read that villagers offer canoe tours through the mangroves... experiences anyone?

Does that sound like a wise plan to spend the nights?

We've already picked where we'd like to stay at Lalomanu (Taufua), but can anyone recommend nice, clean, cheap Fales for the NP and Mangrove areas?

I have never been to Samoa before, so maybe this is a stupid question: Ideally we'd like to stay somewhere close to a village, so that we can have a wonder around during the day and check out a Samoan village, maybe meet some locals? (we won't have a rental car, we're planning on getting taxis)

If we stayed in a Fale accommodation close to the National Park, would we be able to get a taxi to pick us up from there and take us into the park?

And, finally, and slightly off topic: Do we need a guide for Lake Lanotoo?

Cheers!

Near to the National Park there is the new, but a bit more expensive Iliili Resort and right at the Mangroves you could go to the Malaetia Resort.

I doubt if transport by taxi will work as there hardly are any outside Apia but you will see and you can always rent a car on short term. But maybe the resort people can organize a private transport.

And finally: yes, you definitely need a guide to go to Lake Lanotoo.

thanks for the links. Illili Resort looks fantastic, but I'm afraid it's out of our price range. I really like Malaetia Resort, though! We'd like to stay at places that have anything to offer, eg trips, hikes, bike hire...

Where would we find a guide for Lake Lanotoo? Can we just ask at the place we're staying, or in the nearest village? What would be a reasonable price?

As for the taxi situation:
We first wanted to rent a car for the week, but then I've read about other people just getting taxis for the day.
Is it impossible to get eg a taxi that would take us from our accommodation at Lalomanu Beach to our next accomm. near the NP, and then from there to Malaetia Resort and so on?

Is M. Resort within walking distance to a village?

As I mentioned before, ideally we'd like to stay somewhere that allows us to wander off for a day into a nearby village or so...

Cheers for your help!

@kornspitz
Sorry to say that but quite clearly your idea of Samoa is quite different from what it really is. Anywhere you can go it is village here, besides the National Park maybe and that is a rather inaccessible area of dense forest. I found somewhere in your activity list that you are a native German speaker (just as myself). So I assume that you come from Central Europe.

There are no villages with houses close to each other as they are in Europe. Villages are wide areas of more or less used farm land with houses. Somewhere you change from one village to the other and you will never know. So the idea of walking into a village is not logical - you never are outside one. Villages hardly have a centre, there is more than one church, the school is somewhere in between. There is no business area and no business activity anyway, a few tiny stores, all far apart from each other. No administration, no taxi stand, no post office, just houses and a lot of space between them.

If you are lucky someone in the neighborhood of the resort owns a taxi and is not busy in Apia. The resort might have pity and give you a lift to somewhere. If other people said that they were going around the island by taxi they stayed in Apia. That makes sense - for you a rental car is the only reasonable (and cheaper) option if you do not want to spend your few days with organizing transport.

You will have to organize the Lake Lanotoo excursion while in Apia. There are 'Adventure Tours' somewhere up the mountain, not too far from the lake. they normally do kayaking but as they are in the area they might be able to assist with a guide as well. E-mail: kayak@islandexplorer.ws; Phone: (+685)-7771814

There are no other resorts near the National Park - but when you have a car you can easily drive there either from Lalomanu or from Malaetia. Have a look at the National Park first while passing by on the way. Most likely you will skip it anyway. There isn't anything reasonable to do there.

Actually, I found Lake Lanotoo perfectly doable on my own, without a guide, using just the description in my guide book to walk there from the main road.
OTOH, once at the lake, I met an English couple who came with a guide and got lost on the way! :-)
The nearest local homes were about a good half hour's walk from the lake, in case you decide to look for a guide just for the last stretch.
The trail was unmarked, so if you are not confident about your ablities of following such trails through bush for such a distance, you might prefer getting a guide after all.

The way is still unmarked. I met people too who had found their way to the lake themselves. However there was someone who slipped on the path, was injured and he was only lucky that someone else came by later the day. It is not the case every day that someone visits the lake. After that incident the Samoa Tourist Authority advised all local operators to strictly recommend a guide. And I agree with that even though I am not an operator ;-)

uh, sounds like we really are better off with a guide! What would be a reasonable price for this trip?

@wksamoa:
You're right, I'm from Central Europe originally, from Austria to be precise, although I'm now living in NZ. I didn't know you're a German native speaker as well, where are you from?

Ok, back to the topic now:
Hm, yes, seems like my image of a Samoan village is quite a different one, indeed! I thought there might be small towns, with a few local (grocery) shops, a restaurant and a church, kinda thing. I didn't expect small cities with banks or clothes shops or something though!

We don't want to stay in Apia for the whole week, we definitely want to stay in Fales on the beach. So by the sounds of it, we'll be renting a car! :)

Well, most Samoan villages are certainly smallish, with a church and a few small (grocery) stores, although they might cover a wide area.
Of course some are bigger than the others, but the only thing I could really call even a "small city with banks or clothes shops or something" on Upolu would be Apia itself.

There are 325 villages in Samoa and at least 1071 churches - so there is certainly more than one church per village (at least in average). This means that the church (which?) is not the centre of the settlement, like it would be in Europe.

And Laszlo is right, outside Apia there is no bank, no restaurant (except in resorts), no pub, no shop other than basic groceries. You would not even find a gas station with reliable supply (keep that in mind!). On Upolu everything like that is in Apia.

The idea of a town simply is not Samoan Way at all as there never had been any kind of trade, markets and such before the Europeans came. And even now the only market on Upolu is in Apia.

that's quite interesting to hear, and as we only just start to look a bit deeper into the whole matter, I have to say I am quite surprised - but not disappointed! We're not going to Samoa for shopping or anything, I just assumed (for whatever reason) that there will be small towns with shops and stuff to have a wonder around.

As you've mentioned the gas station situation: We will now definitely hire a car. As i said before, we want to circumnavigate the island once, spending 2 nights in Lalomanu, and then the other nights along the South Coast. What if we run out of petrol? :) It sounds a bit inconvenient having to drive all the way back to Apia to fill up the car. Is it possible to take jerry cans?

is it quite straight forward to get an international drivers license? Do they accept all other licenses? I don't have a NZ license yet, I'm still on my Austrian one, which is fine in NZ. Will they accept it in Samoa?

There is a gas station in Lalomanu but it does not always have supply. So do not rely on that. But check the distances - it is never really far to Apia ... When you change locations just take a side trip over the mountain. From Siumu to Apia it is a 20 minutes scenic drive each way only, so there is nothing to worry about. Just fill up every time you pass Apia. With a speed limit of 55 km/h countrywide you will not need that much gas anyway.

You do not need any international driver's licence. The Austrian one is fine but you will have to get it endorsed by the Ministry of Transport. Major rental car companies can do that themselves, others will take or direct you to the respective office. As you will be in Apia the first day this is a matter of minutes.