My girlfriend and I want to do a week long holiday in Samoa with a good mix of adventure/exploring and relaxing on beautiful beaches. What do you recommend?

[u/Educational_Horse828]

[u/Tricky-Truffle]

For great snorkeling:

Giant clam sanctuary - Upolo

Palolo deep marine reserve

Nice swim spots:

Togitogiga falls (also a spot to jump off into the water)

To Sua Trench

Piula cave pool

Taumeasina resort and Return to Paradise are both good places to stay. Taumeasina is more of a classic resort, RTP has a better beach attached to it.

[u/strikeharder1991 → u/Tricky-Truffle]

adding to these beautiful list

swimming with the turtles

Lalomanu beautiful clear ocean white

Vavau Beach

Papaseea (Sliding Rocks)

Samoa cultural village - for that samoan experience like food, handycraft etc

Sunday go to church - listen to the choir hahahaha most of the places closes on sunday

Rent a car - its cheap and itll have you cover all the sites

[u/NLH1234]

Fiji

[u/Senior_Definition427 → u/NLH1234]

This 🤣🤣🤣

[u/Educational_Horse828 → u/NLH1234]

Not worth going to Samoa?

[u/undercovercatmother]

I stayed at the saletoga sands resort and it was amazing ( check it out ) lots of tours daily from the resort to all the amazing attractions. Enjoy your holiday

[u/DifferentlyHairy → u/undercovercatmother]

Same. Just got back a couple of weeks ago. To Sua trench nearby, Giant clams nearby. Ma Tree walk nearby, and the coastal walk near the Ma Tree is beautiful too.

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031 → u/DifferentlyHairy]

We did all these things and stayed at Saletoga too. Was nice.
OP we found food to be poorly executed and generally shit everywhere… be prepared for that.

[u/Wisdomflowerlover]

there is a giant clam sanctuary to snorkel in and a small hotel near by ….

[u/2legit2quick]

I'm here atm, depends on your budget really. If you want to see fiafia night/firedancing, Return to Paradise on Wednesday evenings is excellent, and right by there is the giant clams self snorkel experience or from there you can travel along the south coast to maninoa area where if you have the budget to stay there, they offer snorkel tours from there through Manoa tours and maninoa beach club have budget friendly options for accommodation but also there are 2 resorts on the same beach, and have a nice beach otherwise keep traveling along to the beach fales, I would recommend either manusina or jaymy fales or upper budget there's saleotga sands or aga reef resort. Along that coast road, I would say the only must see would be To Sua trench but if you're into jumping off rocks then togitogiga waterfalls is a nice stop too. The best beach we went to on that coast is vavau beach which is right by To sua trench, it costs $40 Tala per car load to the locals but worth it. From the fales you can do a day trip to Namua Island an uninhabited island with beautiful beach. From there you can travel cross country towards Piula cave pool with falefa falls on the way. Piula cave pool is about 40mins drive from the capital where its very different to the south coast, visit fugalei market for the experience, samoan cultural centre for umu lunch, and scoops ice cream for the koko samoa ice cream and there are plenty of options for accommodations, in the upper range you have taumeasina resort, mid range, the classic samoan hotels are either aggie Grey's or tusitala hotel, or lower budget options like the white house hotel. Let me know if you need any help with planning your trip, I spent many hours researching before we came here. I wish we could have gone to savaii but we had some restrictions that didn't allow for it.

[u/wandering_k1w1]

Beware of scammers. Went to go to a beach that supposed to have restaurant and amenities. Some dude collects an entry fee at the start of the track leading down. Get there and its abandoned. Shouldve taken more notice of the dilapidated sign at the entrance. Go back to gate and ask ol mate if we took a wrong turn somehow and hes like the wind. Vanished. 🤣🤣🤣

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031 → u/wandering_k1w1]

We had to pay an extra $100 “pick up fee” cash only for our rental, then people trying to sell us Temu crap in the streets of Apia.
Beware of scammers/people trying to make a buck

[u/Kila05]

Another thing to note Iis the time to go if you plan to go at the end of the year it's going to very very humid and hot if you can't handle the heat too well I'd suggest going around May,June or July when the heat is much more tolerable

[u/kjwx]

Tack on a few extra days to spend in American Samoa. Well worth the detour.

In Samoa, I stayed at the Sheraton Samoa Beach Resort. Handy location for tours and the airport and the beach is nice - there were better beaches at the other end of the island, though. It’s since rebranded so no idea if anything has changed either.

[u/Educational_Horse828 → u/kjwx]

Is it easy to get to? Even for a few days?

[u/kjwx → u/Educational_Horse828]

Yes, it’s a 35-minute flight. I went for three days, two nights and had a great time.

[u/Educational_Horse828 → u/kjwx]

Any recommendations for American Samoa?

[u/kjwx → u/Educational_Horse828]

Tradewinds Hotel is the classic accommodation choice and the best bet on the island. Otherwise, try Airbnb for cheaper options.

You will need a visa but it’s easily sorted online. Don’t apply until you have booked your flights. Be careful doing so as it’s across the dateline; there are two companies offering flights or if you have time you can take the ferry.

Activity-wise, ride around the island on the colourful buses, explore the US National Park, watch the bats come home to roost at night, visit the old war relics and enjoy a slice of America in the southern hemisphere.

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031 → u/Educational_Horse828]

We just stayed at Samoa Beach Resort (start of sept). Amenities are good. Food is average (as per everywhere on Upolo). Rooms were ‘clean enough’ but not immaculate.

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031 → u/kjwx]

Samoa Beach Resort isnt top quality, it’s a work on progress. Someone told us it hasn’t recovered from Covid. It’s OK, great facilities, wonderful staff. Average food and my take: “clean enough”.
Room for improvement but overall OK.

[u/kjwx → u/Revolutionary-Ad8031]

I found the food better there than Aggie Grey’s; that place was incredibly disappointing, especially given the price.

[u/EducationalRun9372]

would be extremely expensive. price of flights/accommodation/rental car/spending money. better off going to cook islands or bali. there’s a fee you have to pay for every beach you visit, which includes the vehicle you use to park there (50~60wst) you would need exact change as well to pay for the beach. beaches are great but some a super inconvenient to get to if you don’t rent a 4wd cause the roads are super difficult. restaurants can be expensive. if you have a local tour guide you should be fine so you don’t get taken advantage of. tourists get “tourist prices” if you’re not careful.

[u/Expert_Awareness_236]

Enquire online with the Samoa Tourism Authority. There's plenty options to choose from depending on your preference of fun and good times 👌

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031]

Dont skip Namua Island, amazing.

Tip I found to get there -
Shop opposite the beach on google maps, go to the window & the lovely lady with radio the lads with the boat and they’ll come and take you over.

Beautiful blue water, turtles, great snorkelling, good walk uphill (don’t do it in jandals…), there are bats on top of the hill. There’s an island cat named Kitty.
Take your own food & water.

Probably most beautiful part of our trip.

[u/palagi_pepelo]

Imo a week isn’t long enough. But if you’re only able to go for a week I’d highly recommend going straight to savaii . Then spending your last few days in Upolu before you leave.

In Savaii
1st night or so I’d stay somewhere in Manase
For budget friendly I’d do
Regina’s Beach Fales
Tanu Beach Fales
Jane’s beach Fales
Or for more of a resort feel
Stevenson’s at Manase
Le Lagoto Resort
Amoa Resort (not in Manase)
These all have beautiful white sand beaches and it’s close to swimming with the turtles, Lava fields church & maidens grave, Paia dwarf cafe, Mata O le Alelo pool.

Then I would 100% stay atleast one night in Falealupo and watch the sunset at the viewing spot near the star mound.
Again white sand beaches and close to a few attractions like Vae O Moso , start mound, canopy walk (if it’s open) and the church ruins & Vai O Malia or Loimata O Malia

Then on the way back to salelologa continuing around you can stop at Lovers leap, Blow holes , Mu Paoga waterfall , Afu Aau waterfall (amazing place to swim)

Then back in Upolu you can either stay in town and drive around the island, or you can stay at a resort on the other side of the island. Iv seen a lot of people have already suggested most of the best sites , Vavau is my pick for best beach .

Also iv seen a few comments about scammers selling stuff in town , they aren’t scammers , they are kids who have been forced by their parents to go sell stuff to make money. I never buy stuff from them because I don’t want to encourage it but I’ll either give the kid some coins to get themselfs a drink or something or if I’m at a shop I’ll buy them something for them.

There are a lot of good places to eat it just depends on what you like but definitely ask the staff where you’re staying the best place to go.

[u/saspam]

Rarotonga if you’re going from NZ…

[u/Revolutionary-Ad8031 → u/saspam]

Second this, as someone who returned from Samoa a week ago