Samoa or Tonga???

Hi there,

After years of independent travel I am now a new mum who wants to take her man and baby on holidays to one of the Pacific Islands. I've already been to Fiji but would love to take a look at one of the other islands. Thinking of Samoa or Tonga as these are cheaper than the others????
We want a combination of a beach holiday and some exploring, can anyone give me any thoughts and ideas on which island to choose and maybe even where to go and stay???? We want simple but comfortable accomodation, 'roughing' it is probably not the way to go with a little baby! Many thanks for your imput!
New Mum Mandy.

I have only been to Samoa but didn't exactly fall in love with it - see the Samoa link in my signo line.

However, I think what might make a major difference between the two is quite how much "exploring" you want to do.
My guess is that with a baby, not too much.

Samoa has only 2 sizeable islands, close to each other. This means that there is less scope for exploring, but also that you won't have to travel far once in the country, and the plane actually lands you on the prettier of the two islands, which has good beaches within an hour's drive from the capital.

Tonga has many more islands, more diverse ones, more spread-out. This means there would be more to explore, but also that the finest islands are an extra domestic flight (or longish boatride) from the capital, which itself doesn't tend to get raving reviews from visitors.

Either of these two countries are pretty much the Pacific's cheapest besides Fiji and maybe the Solomons.

Beaches in Tonga are all on the outer islands, so it's an extra expense to get to those.