Samoa with a 3 year old

I see a few posts on here from people asking about travel with kids in Samoa. I can certainly add a few comments for those who are interested.

Our three year old complained constantly about walking around in the heat and I think we carried him more than he walked. If your child will oblige, a stroller would be smart!

Our first week, he developed heat rash which was very uncomfortable and itchy. There is nothing you can do for it except keep them cool and clean. After about a week it went away on its own.

Peanut butter and bread was a staple in his diet for about two weeks. I think it frustrated us more than him, he was happy to eat the same thing every day.

Pit stops at McDonalds were great for cooling down, ice cream, a bit of air conditioning and a new toy made travels in Apia a bit more kid comfortable.

We decided to rent a car this time (last time we took buses). If you have small children (say under 3) I would recommend a car. The buses take a long time and children lose patience fast. Car was great for spreading out toys in the back seat.

Rough waters on the boat to Savaii can make for a terrible experience. Make sure you pack a towel and some motion sickness meds in your backpack. Our son (and a few other kids) threw up.

Lalomanu was perfect except that you have to cross a busy road to get to the bathrooms. The water is fairly shallow and clear. I felt comfortable sitting on the beach and watching him. I did wish however, that I would have brought his lifejacket. Tafatafa was also recommended to us as a good swimming place for children. The kids loved it because there is a little tiny lagoon of shallow water by the shore. The adults found it too shallow and a bit muddy.

We had to have a discussion about “friendly” and “unfriendly” dogs as well as road safety. He understood and we didn’t have any problems. In fact, we made friends with “Simba the dog” and our son got to play with some new puppies. Too cute!

Sinalei wouldn’t even let us in to take a look. Too bad, they lost potential clients. We ended up stopping at Coconuts for a break. They made us pretty good strawberry banana milkshakes at the bar and even let us tour the resort (motel rooms start at $198 US).

A lot of the bathrooms don’t have hand soap or toilet paper so I was really glad to have packed some hand sanitizer and a roll of tp.

An Australian friend gave me some Pawpaw ointment for cuts and scrapes. It worked wonders on little infections which can get much much worse in the humidity. I would recommend some kind of treatment as you will not find any of this stuff outside of Apia.

The marketi fou has some great kid treats. Our little guy decided he loved Samoan bananas, pankekes, popcorn and pinapple pies about halfway through our trip and we didn’t have any food problems after that.

Traveling with a three year old was really hard work. The tantrums were enough to drive me crazy. But the reward was watching the look on his face when he saw the fire dancer, the curiosity while watching sea turtles!

Hi
We are travelling to Samoa with a 3 1/2 year old and a 4 mth old baby in Feb next year, so your post was really helpful! Our daughter eats loads of fruit so I'm hoping she'll be OK food-wise, but I hadn't thought of heat rash so I will def bring some natural skin calming cream just incase. We had planned to take a car over to Savaii on the ferry but I'm not so sure after your seasickness experience.. might fly over instead.

We have 4 nts at Aggie Greys in Apia, 8 nights at Litia Sini's at Lalomanu and then 5 nts at Aggie Greys beach resort (a treat at the end of the trip). If you have any other words of advice I'd love to hear them.

There are no flights to Savaii at all anymore.
Two different ships going to Savaii - the much bigger one leaves Mulifanua (Upolu) Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 am, 12 pm and 4 pm, and goes back from Salelologa (Savaii) at 6 am, 10 am and 2 pm. No big boat on Tuesday, morning boats do not go on Sunday.
Travel time on the big boat is 60 minutes; 90 minutes on the small one. So try to get booked on the big boat and check the weather conditions anyway before you go.

That's really sad about flights to Savaii being cancelled. Do you think there's any chance of their being reinstated at any stage because I really don't fancy the ferry?

Since the flights did not go from Fagalii (Apia) anymore but from Faleolo International near to the wharf, there was no more real advantage of taking the plane. Furthermore they changed the ferry schedule to departures every two hours instead of four. So the 5-minutes plane trip was not even really faster altogether, including the check-in time and the transfer to Salelologa, but it did cost more than 120 Tala roundtrip compared to 18 Tala by boat. Hardly any locals were taking the plane anymore and the booking by tourists did not even fill the tiny 8-Seater plane (Britten Norman Islander). That decades old plane was recently sent away for inspection and has apparently been put out of service then. As Polynesian Airlines has just given back their leased Dash-8 plane as well and cancelled their flights to Tonga, their whole operation now runs with one single Twin Otter aircraft, which services the Pago connection.

Regarding all that it is very unlikely that the Savaii route will be reinstated any time in the nearer future, if ever at all. Nevertheless the Moata Airstrip is still being kept operational so far.

You can get a powder for heat rash too that would probably be better in a humid climate. The other thing you can do to keep young kids cool is buy a big bucket and let them sit in it regularly (only feasible if you are staying put for a few days though). For a baby - leave him / her diaper free as often as possible.

Hi jeremybec

Glad that you found my post useful. As Api mentioned, powder would be better than cream. Cream/lotion just sits on your skin and doesn’t really absorb well in Samoa. I would simply recommend lots of time in the salt water followed by nice cool freshwater showers for heat rash. This seemed to do the trick for our little guy.

As for the boat, there are plenty of good days when the water is nice and calm. I wouldn’t worry too much about sickness. Just be prepared for it, that’s all. Take a towel in your backpack and some children’s gravol for your 3.5 year old. We found it helpful to sit in the centre of the boat and watch the big TV with your head rested on something solid like your hand or the bench. For kids, if you can get them to lay down it makes a big difference.

If it is a nice day, the ride is totally worth it and really beautiful. You may even see dolphins!

Let me know if you have any questions.

We travelled with a kid and my partner is pregnant. Our boy loved it there! The warm weather, the animals in the streets and gardens, all the colours and people, he just hadd a great time. Most importantly the parents need to relax and enjoy the place, kids pick up on that. We stayed with a local family and their kids made friends with ours. We swam 3 times a day and that cooled him down. The mosquitos were a problem, get somegood repellant, and some beaches have sharp coral, so reef boots are a good idea. My partner will update this later with more info.

Hello
Well I just paid for our trip and we are off on Feb 18th. I have a couple more questions for those who have been to Samoa with young kids.
When we arrive we had planned to take a taxi to Aggie Greys where we are staying a couple of nights. One thing I hadn't thought of is carseats.. we aren't taking these with us and I assumed that we'd have to hold our 4 mth old on my knee and buckle our 3 yr old in. What have others done? I'm not sure now if I feel OK about the baby not being in a carseat.
We are staying at litia sinis for 8 nights in an enclosed family fale, it has a ceiling fan.. but Im thinking about how hot it's going to be and how that might make sleeping hard for the kids. Do you think taking a fan with us would be worth the hassle?
Our other transport option would be to hire a car at the airport when we arrive and have it with us until we go to the other Aggies at the end of the trip. It's quite expensive though once you pay the additional fees for carseats.

Any other last minute tips for us?
Thanks!

not sure about the car seat situation, i gather most people must just hold onto there babies while in the taxi's, then hire a car with a car seat. we got one for an additonal $10 a day , on top of the car hire. the car companies won't hire direclty from airport as you have to get your licence endorsed (another $10)
with lalamano (we have stayed there many times) it is now so lovely with the celing fans' you won;t need to pack your own, put one thing i do pack is a sheet, as it's so hot and the sheets are polyester, i felt i sweated all night and that my sheets felt damp. so the other times i just thrown in a nice fitted sheet and i am in heaven, for my kids i just lay down some of my lava lava's (sarongs).
have a wonderful time, we are all going back in sept again.