Samoa prides itself on its strong cultural traditions and sporting prowess (largely rugby-related). There’s also its spectacular natural beauty, as its waterfalls, lagoons and beaches rate among some of the best slices of paradise in the world. Its sales pitch to tourists is simply “Beautiful Samoa” and, for the reopening, “Beautiful is Back”.
“We don’t have the big hotels or resources Fiji or Bali have,” admits Samoa’s Minister for Tourism, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster.
“But we are untouched, unspoilt. You won’t get 200 people on a beach here, you’ll get two. If you want seclusion at a cheaper cost, this is the place to come.”
The lip-numbing ava in a coconut shell. Paul Best
Perhaps that’s why, pre-COVID-19, Australians were beginning to discover this island getaway’s hidden charms, flocking to Samoa in record – albeit still modest – numbers: 41,000 of us from a total of 180,000 visitors for the 2018-19 financial year.
We are staying at Taumeasina Island Resort, where bookings are on the rise. The luxury ocean-front resort is on a man-made island with its own private beach, just outside the capital, Apia.
“In 2019, we’d just started to crack Australia,” confirms Nathan Bucknall, the Perth-born general manager of the resort, which has 80 rooms and 16 two-bedroom and 21 three-bedroom villas (12 of them in a new cove wing). “I expect the number of Australian visitors to continue growing over the next year.”
Interestingly, I start my week in Apia with a flurry of cultural to-dos, as if we need to first tick off the tourism minister’s vow that Samoans are “good at being traditional hosts who nurture their culture”.
The Taumeasina Island Resort lies on a man-made island with its own private beach.
The first stop is Villa Vailima, the one-time family estate of Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and now a museum to his short life here. Known locally as Tusitala (teller of tales), he is buried on the summit of Mount Vaea looking over the property and out to sea.
“You’re only our fourth visitor since we reopened,” my guide says cheerfully as we tread creaky boards through musty artefact-filled rooms where the Treasure Island author lived out his last days, writing and busying himself with local politics.
Apia also has a small Museum of Samoa filled with historical and cultural curios. But the cultural village show, a must on any itinerary, is a more dynamic introduction.
It begins with a traditional welcome ceremony in the fale tele (big house). Offered the lip-numbing ava in a coconut shell, dutifully filled by the reigning Miss Samoa, we cry out “la manuia” (“may you live”) before draining the contents.
Samoan cricket bats at the flea market downtown. Paul Best
In smaller fales, we watch tatau – ancestral Samoan tattoos – being painstakingly applied, ceremonial tanoa bowls being handcrafted from ifiele wood and traditional dishes, such as palusami (taro leaves and coconut cream), being prepared using an umu, an aboveground oven of volcanic rocks. It’s a taste of a communal way of life, known as fa’a Samoa, that has survived German and New Zealand occupation (gaining independence from the latter 60 years ago) and 19th-century Christian missionaries (although the influence of the church remains entrenched).
“Fa’a Samoa has been a functioning culture for 3000 years: a layered, complicated, beautiful way to live,” says New Zealander Hugh Taylor-Pati, the co-star of a series of Samoa Tourism cooking and travel shows.
“But Samoans are quick to embrace outsiders. Hospitality is big.”
While downtown in Apia, it’s also worth checking out the fresh food market, now combined with the flea market; or picking up a traditional elei shirt or puletasi dress from one of two department store chains – Eveni Carruthers, or Tanoa Samoa.
Chef Junior Poulava prepares traditional fish dishes such as oka or vaisu, but with a modern twist. Paul Best
In addition to Bistro Tatau, try my top pick, The Pickled Lam Eatery and Deli (formerly Scalini’s), Milani Caffè as well as Paddles, which offers picture-postcard views of Apia’s harbour and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral. For a more exclusive dining-out experience, perhaps hire a private chef. I had chef Junior Poulava, owner of The Whisk Dining Room, prepare traditional fish dishes such as oka and vaisu, but with a modern twist. If you’re lucky, he’ll do it old school under a coconut palm on the beach.
“There’s nothing better,” he says. “No gas, electricity or plates.”
On day three, we finally leave town for a spot of sightseeing of Samoa’s much-vaunted natural beauty. Under blustery, sunny skies, with the mercury nudging 30 degrees (as it does most days), we hug the coastline for the half-hour drive from town to Piula Cave Pool, tucked behind a theological college.
The Piula Cave Pool is just one of Samoa’s natural beauty attractions. Paul Best
You pay a small admission fee, as you do for most natural attractions on customary land (which is 80 per cent of Samoa) owned by local communities.
But with so few visitors yet, I have the freshwater pool and its fish and eels blissfully to myself – until a Samoan family from Sydney arrives, disturbing my reverie. No surprise, really. “Visiting friends and relatives” is one of Samoa’s biggest markets, making up about 40 per cent of all arrivals.
For the best of the country’s natural wonders, we take a ferry next morning to Savai’i at Upolu’s Mulifanua Wharf, a 90-minute crossing, for an overnight stay.
Known as “the big island”, Savai’i is often thought of as “the real Samoa” – wild, more authentic, less developed, less peopled. The main town, Salelologa, has a single traffic light; the entire island has just the one sealed coastal road.
The Alofaaga Taga Blowholes in Savai’i. Paul Best
We make a beeline for Afu A’au Waterfall (for another swim and chill session) and the Alofaaga Taga Blowholes, where we playfully rocket-launch coconut husks from gaps in the lava fields (the island still has an active volcano).
“You haven’t been to Samoa until you’ve been to Savai’i,” says Elisabeth Siaosi, who manages the Amoa Resort, which has deluxe bungalows and villas set in tropical gardens.
Given I’m there on a Sunday, I go to church, as do most Samoans, smartly dressed in crisp all-whites, their angelic voices filling the hall. Ninety-eight per cent of Samoa’s population of 200,000, across its four inhabited islands (of nine in total), identify as Christian. Expect to be invited to lunch, I’m told.
Samoans, smartly dressed in crisp all-whites, at a church service. Paul Best
You can’t drive far without spying an architecturally splendid roadside house of worship. Savai’i also has a reputation for the best sunrises and sunsets as well as pristine turquoise waters. “The marine life on the reef is better than ever, having had no international tourists for two years,” Siaosi says.
Back on Upolu, we cross to the more remote southern coastline, which is equally blessed with wondrous natural features. There’s the giddying 30-metre deep To Sua Ocean Trench, or swimming hole, and Lalomanu Beach, once listed as one of Lonely Planet’s top 10 Paradises on Earth. At Lalomanu, I again have the place to myself.
Lalomanu Beach on Upolu, Samoa, easily lives up to the saying “paradise on earth”. Karen Halabi
It’s little wonder that everywhere you go, you find beach fales, the thatched, open-air huts providing backpackers, budget travellers and eco-tourists (many from Europe) with good value, if basic, accommodation located between pristine lagoons and forested mountains.
Roughing it in beach fales isn’t everyone’s idea of an indulgent island break. STA chief Petaia-Tevita acknowledges that Australians and New Zealanders generally prefer more luxurious accommodation.
Luckily, many of the island’s best boutique resorts are strung along this southern strip of coast.
I hang my Bermudas for a couple of nights at Return to Paradise Resort – named after the Hollywood film shot here 70 years ago, starring Gary Cooper and Roberta Haynes. The latter’s ashes were interred here, in a memorial fale overlooking the ocean, after her death in 2019.
Opened in 2014, the 40-acre resort has 114 rooms and villas and is located on an idyllic stretch of sand. It’s comfortable but not sumptuous luxury, which means the rates are reasonable. An ocean breeze room costs $NZ300 (about $273) a night, for instance, a beachfront villa $NZ400. “Staying in this resort is the closest you come to village life,” says resort founder Ramona Gilchrist.
Accordingly, we’re treated to a fia fia night (happy get-together): a floorshow of traditional singing, dancing and guitar bands, culminating in highly aerobic fire dances, with men in lavalava skirts furiously twirling flaming sticks.
These boys were ready for a game of Samoan cricket with the writer. Paul Best
I also create my own fun. Driving into the resort one afternoon, we pull over for a game of Samoan cricket (adapted but quite different from our game) with a couple of local children.
Further along the coast, I drop in on Saletoga Sands Resort & Spa, which comes highy recommended. The accommodation ranges from VIP and exclusive villas to family bungalows on the lagoon and more basic hotel rooms.
The Saletoga Sands Resort & Spa offers accommodation options ranging from exclusive villas to family bungalows and more basic rooms.
It’s luxurious but don’t expect a Ritz-Carlton or Four Seasons. Saletoga owner Gavin Brightwell happily volunteers that high-end travellers should recalibrate their expectations. “Samoa has no five-star resorts,” he says. “Even four-star here is probably not four-star in Thailand or other places.”
One of the oldest resorts, Sinalei Reef Resort, with its own nine-hole golf course, is off-limits, fully booked for Survivor.
The tropical coral reef at Upolu is ideal for snorkelling and few tourists means the waters are clearer than ever.
Samoa has none of the big hotel operators, save for Sheraton, which manages the historic Aggie Grey’s Hotel & Bungalows on the Apia waterfront. It is closed for renovations and repairs at present, following flooding. There is a second three-star resort alongside the airport (also taken over by Survivor).
Hotels and resorts, though, are an area Samoa Tourism has in its sights. It knows it needs big-brand hotels if it wants to attract more visitors. It’s also hopeful that existing high-end properties will expand their facilities. “We have a way to go, but we want to become a world-class resort,” says Return to Paradise’s Ramona Gilchrist.
Historically, the lack of flights has been a problem. Previously, Virgin was the only Australian-based airline offering direct flights. Samoa will benefit from Qantas operating weekly flights, for the first time, to Faleolo International Airport. “The Qantas flights are huge,” says Brightwell. “Samoa has never had wide-bodied planes before.”
Samoa will also benefit from $1 million pledged for marketing purposes by the Australian government. But there’s hesitancy to push tourism too hard or too upmarket for fear of overrunning the “authentic” fa’a Samoa hospitality.
“We don’t want to ruin that,” says the tourism minister, Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster, explaining that he would prefer to see a balance between old and new.
If he gets his way, we’ll be watching blues nights with traditional guitar players, church groups staging “Samoan Broadway” shows and local stand-up comics. “We have so many Samoan comedians,” he laughs.
Tupu at the famed giant clam sanctuary at Savaia. Paul Best
With my week fast coming to an end, it’s fitting that nature calls one last time. I visit the renowned giant clam sanctuary at Savaia, five minutes down the road from Return to Paradise. I don snorkel and flippers, and follow my guide and sometimes Survivor instructor Tupu into the lagoon. Gliding above the coral reef, I marvel at the iridescent blues and greens of the massive bivalves, some of them up to one metre in length.
I also keep an eye out for turtles (I’d hoped to visit Sa’anapu turtle sanctuary nearby but Survivor was there, too), without luck.
As we paddle back to shore, Tupu casts a final look over my shoulder at the brilliant blue wash of lagoon, sea and sky. “I don’t know why people leave Samoa,” he sighs. “This is paradise.”
It sure is, and for me, that’s reason enough to return on a future visit.
The writer travelled as a guest of Samoa Tourism and Qantas Airways.
Need to know
- Fly | Qantas Airways has weekly flights from Sydney to Apia, priced from $1721. Virgin Australia will resume flights next March.
- Stay | Taumeasina Island Resort rates from WST760 ($415) for ocean-view hotel rooms to WST3300 for new three-bedroom cove villas.
- Amoa Resort Savai’i sale rates from $184.39 for a deluxe bungalow to $206.81 for a poolside villa.
- Return to Paradise Resort rates from $NZ300 ($272) for garden view rooms to $NZ1100 for a three-bedroom beachfront villa.
- Saletoga Sands Resort & Spa rates range from $NZ395 for an exclusive villa to $NZ922 for the Matai Suite Villa.
- For general information | Go to samoa.travel
