Samoa - Accom Apia 1st night? Safety/Food/ theft

I am considering going to Samoa, late July. As flight arrives @ 1am any recommendations re accomodation for first night! ....I am on budget & intend on staying in beach fale later...any can recommend? Also is it safe for sole woman traveller & is theft still a problem? Finally I dont eat fish ( could be a problem in the pacific!), how is availability of other foods / restaurants?
Thanks

I stayed at Valentines Motel in Apia and found it good value.

Samoa is probably as safe for women as for men.
Surely the theft issues apply to both, and I am pretty sure they haven't vanished in the past years, so take all care and precautions recommended on the Samoa Warnings thread.

It is very easy to avoid eating fish, though doing so and eating in a healthy way is more of a challenge. Like in most of the Pacific Islands, the local staples or favourites these days are actually imported junk food items like fatty turkey-tails and canned corned beef.
There are very few restaurants away from Apia, and most people eat at the place where they stay. Food is often included in the deal anyway, and as the operators tend to know that westerners are not fond of corned beef and the like, fish is often served as the alternative. You should tell them in advance if you want something else, but that might just result in having to eat some kind of vegetarian option.

There are no more turkey tails being served in Samoa (due to a import ban more than a year ago). Chicken legs replaced them as the main goody of a decent meal. If you do not eat fish just tell your host. They are used to these kinds of strange habits ;-)

Now, that's good news!
I recall a post about this, but it's still hard to imagine a turkey-tail-free Samoa.
Turkey tails are gruesome, but I bet many locals are missing them! ;-)

Arriving at 1am is possibly a bit late to go direct to a beach fale. It may be better to stay in a hotel in Apia for the first night unless you find a fale close to the airport.
It would be a long trip to go to a fale at Lalomanu beach at 1am as those seem to be the most popular.

I had turkey tails once... They were too good. I don't want to eat them again (why does fat and salt taste SO good together?)

I was served turkey tails with tomato sauce, I think. Or at least some deep red, sweet sauce. Fat tasted worse that way!

We're going to Samoa for the first time in August. Our flight arrives at 2am, and we've pre-booked our first night in Apia at Berties,as they do good room/airport pick up deals. We then want to stay at Fales as well, but as someone mentioned before, I think the best way would be staying in Apia for a night and then travel to wherever you want to go.

If you don't want to make the trip into Apia that first night, you could consider the Airport Lodge. It has been recommended to us as a good place to stay for our first night as it is reasonably priced and very close to the airport. Accommodation is in garden bungalows and it also looks much nicer in photos than the bland name suggests!