One or both islands?

Hi,

Would we be missing out if we spent all or most of our time on Savaii?

We only have 5 nights... so we were considering Lalomanu beach fale for 2 of them, but that would be cramming things in. Is this beach really one of the most beautiful in the South Pacific? We mostly want a quiet, nature-oriented vacation with 2 young kids.

Considering also Si'ufaga combined with a fale on Manese.

Thanks!

Hi there,

Just returned from Samoa a couple of weeks ago - we spent 5 nights there - had a rental car and did both islands staying apia, tafisoala, lalomanu, falealupo and manase.
this was a full on itinerary and we saw a lot so i thought i'd share our experience.

i would definately recommend manase. we had only 1 afternoon there and a night but it was beautiful and i'd love to go back just to stay there again! the snorkling and swimming is great, and i'd recommend either janes or regina's fales to stay. the lava fields down the road are a must see. if you rent a car it is not too far for day trips from here to the taga blowholes and the falealupo rainforest (climb up in a massive treehouse). it was not that busy there, plenty of space between the fales at janes, whereas we found lalomanu great for us (no kids, young backpacker type), the fales there are extremely close together and packed (by samoan standards) with tourists. for upolu island i would recommend even just doing the top - the sliding rocks just out of apia were our ultimate highlight, and return to paradise beach was the most beautiful we saw there.
also a nice family run fale (pj sina's) at tafisoala on the west coast - sheltered lagoon (black sand), lovely kids living there, great samoan food, and very very quiet. there is a new zealand couple living there that can take you out on their boat for an ecological tour of the mangroves. definately the best hospitality we had in samoa!

i hope this helps. enjoy your trip!

Thanks for this reply.

I checked pj sina's but they can only fit one double bed per fale which would make it pretty expensive for a family. The mattresses are also elevated, so not as safe for a baby. Looks nice, though.

Did you get around to the south side of Savaii? We thought the Si'ufaga cottages looked nice, and there appears to be some nice hikes and beaches.

I'm having some difficulties getting info and booking online. I'm not sure if email is a problem on the island, but I'm not getting any replies. Even the samoa-hotels site doesn't work. Do most people call to book? (that would be soooo expensive from here!)

try this - i make sure i am spelling everything correctly and thn google the name of the resort plus "contact us". you should end up with a link to the home page of the resort or fales.

didn't really get a chance to explore the south side of the island - but siufaga accommodation does look nice - and only takes 4 hours i think to circumnavigate the island so wherever you're based, you're pretty close to any attraction.

we booked all accommodation by emailing the contact address. normally got an email back within a couple of days - guess a lot of places do operate on island time - apparently the only thing that is always on time in samoa is the ferry to savai'i suprisingly!

Managed to book Regina's fale through a website: www.samoa-hotels.ws which I think is new. It seems the trouble I was having was due to it being so far ahead of time so the agents did it for me (though some of my emails did get lost!). They took a 15% deposit. Don't think there's anyway to do it directly with this fale. Hope it works.

Also booked Si'ufaga via their website, though still haven't heard back by email!

Thanks for the replies... we'll try sticking to Savaii.

Hi,

My boyfriend and I are in our mid-twenties and are planning to go to Samoa for a week in July. We're pretty set on staying the entire time at Litia Sini Beach Resort in Lalomanu, but I was wondering if anyone knows if there are sites or anything to do withing a maximum of a day trip from that location? We just want to relax, but to see some sites, snorkel, paddle ski etc... would be great! Is there a party scene, or is that mostly in the city?

Thank you!