Car rental vs. Public transport

Hi there,
I was wondering if I could get some advice on car rental vs. public transport and taxis. I will be in samoa for about 10 days staying at Manase, Aganoa Beach, Virgin Cove and Lalomanu. We were originally planning on renting a car but found it to be quite pricey and i've read a lot about how it can be quite hard to drive around the islands. Mainly I just want to make sure that i'm not limited to staying on the same beach if I want to go and explore, I know there are tours but they seem to leave from the main towns on each island and i want to know if it would be hard to get a bus there. If anyone can just let me know experiences they've had with car rentals or any suggestions that would be great. Thank-you.

Well IMO renting a vehicle whilst away from home beats hands down public transport, due to the freedom it allows!

If you want to stay at all four places you mention you will need a rental car. With public transport it will take about four full days alone to do the transfers. And that still does not include any sightseeing. Besides Apia there are no main towns in Samoa, just villages. So all public transport is focused on getting local people to their workplace in Apia and back or (in Savaii) to and from the ferry wharf in Salelologa. Tourism is too small in Samoa to have any impact on the Public Transport system.

Thanks wksamoa. Think we will rent a car for a few days and then hopefully get by on taxis and pt the rest of the time. Thanks again :)