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Samoa

Polynesia

An independent Polynesian nation of two big volcanic islands, Upolu and Savai'i, in the heart of the South Pacific, Samoa is the cradle of fa'a Samoa, the Samoan way, still lived through village life, the matai chief system and Sunday church song. Upolu holds the capital Apia, the reef surf of the south coast and the To Sua ocean trench; Savai'i is the larger, quieter island of lava fields and blowholes. Robert Louis Stevenson spent his last years above Apia at Villa Vailima, and each September the Teuila Festival fills the capital with dance, fire-knife and fautasi longboat racing.

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What you can do in Samoa

Museums & Galleries

ApiaMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctThe Robert Louis Stevenson Museum at Villa Vailima is the best reason to spend a half-day off the beach in Samoa, and the finest colonial-era house museum in the South Pacific. Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped, sailed the Pacific for his health and settled above Apia in 1890, buying 314 acres on the slopes of Mount Vaea and building the mansion he called Vailima. Samoans took him to heart and named him Tusitala, teller of tales, and when he died suddenly in 1894 they carried his body up the mountain to a tomb on the summit. Restored to how it looked in his day and opened as a museum in 1994, the house holds his furniture, photographs and belongings, including the only working fireplace ever built in Samoa, which he installed to remind him of Scotland. A guided visit walks you through the rooms and the story, and behind the house the Road of Loving Hearts climbs through rainforest to the grave on Mount Vaea, cut by Samoan chiefs as a gift to the writer. Together the villa and the tomb make Vailima the cultural anchor of the whole country.

Music & Culture Festivals

Teuila FestivalApiaSepThe Teuila Festival is Samoa's flagship cultural week, and the single best time to see fa'a Samoa performed all in one place. Held in Apia every September since 1991 and named for the red ginger that is the national flower, it turns the capital's waterfront parks and the Tuana'imato sports complex into a week of competition and display. The centrepiece is the siva afi, the fire-knife dance, where performers spin a bladed war club wrapped in flame; around it run traditional and contemporary dance contests between village and church groups, choir singing, umu food demonstrations, craft and tattoo stalls, and the fautasi longboat races that send crews of nearly fifty rowers thrashing across Apia harbour. The week builds to the Miss Samoa pageant, a national event as much about oratory and culture as glamour. For a visitor it is a rare, concentrated look at Samoan song, dance and sport that villages spend months rehearsing, and it lands in the drier stretch of the year when Apia is at its most alive.

Scuba Diving

ApiaMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctApia is the easiest base for diving in Samoa, a capital where the reef starts almost at the doorstep. A five-minute walk from the town centre, the Palolo Deep Marine Reserve drops from a shallow coral garden into a deep blue hole you can snorkel or dive straight off the shore, and the dive boats out of the Apia Marina reach a run of reef walls, drop-offs and swim-throughs within minutes of the harbour. This is warm, clear, low-traffic Pacific diving: green and hawksbill turtles, reef sharks, lionfish, moray eels, schooling jacks and dense soft coral, with barely another boat in sight because Samoa sees a fraction of the divers of Fiji or French Polynesia. Operators run everything from a first Discover Scuba session to full certification, and the same shops guide snorkelling trips to the giant clam sanctuary and, on the calm days, out to the To Sua ocean trench on the south coast. Add year-round warm water and sites suited to beginners and experienced divers alike, and Apia works as both a place to learn and a place to log relaxed, high-visibility reef dives.

Surfing

SalaniApr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct NovSalani is the heart of surfing in Samoa, a warm-water reef zone on the south coast of Upolu that stays uncrowded because the whole country still counts only a handful of surf camps. Right in front of the river mouth sit Salani Rights, a short, powerful reef wave that throws open barrels, and Salani Lefts, a longer wall that peels across the pass when the swell lines up. From here open-bow skiffs run to a dozen more setups along the coast, from mellow, forgiving walls for intermediates to heavy slabs for the experienced, so a boat crew can chase the best bank each day by wind and tide. Samoa pulls consistent Southern Ocean swell from April to November, the reef holds size cleanly, and the water sits in the high twenties Celsius year round, so nobody wears more than boardshorts or a spring suit. The catch, and the appeal, is that these are shallow coral reef breaks with strong currents and no sand-bottom fallback, so this is a place to come once you are past the beginner stage, with guides who know exactly where the reef sits.

Trekking / Hiking

O Le Pupu-PueMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctO Le Pupu-Pue is the place to walk into Samoa's rainforest interior, a national park whose Samoan name means from the coast to the mountaintop and whose trails cover exactly that span. On the coast, the Pupu lava field forms a jagged black sea-cliff where waves explode through blowholes and a marked path traces the edge above the surf. Inland, the Ma Tree walk leads through dense lowland forest to a colossal buttress-rooted rainforest giant, and the Togitogiga stream tumbles over the Togitogiga waterfall into deep pools you can jump into and swim. For the fit and properly guided there is the long, steep climb toward Mount Fito on the crater rim, a full day through untouched forest that few visitors ever attempt. The park shelters flying foxes, the manumea tooth-billed pigeon and other native birds, and because Samoa sits off the main tourist track you often have the trails to yourself. Beyond the park, the same guides link Upolu's other classic walks, the Road of Loving Hearts up Mount Vaea to Stevenson's tomb and the crater-lake circuit at Lake Lanoto'o, so a few days here cover the island's best hiking on foot.

Best months at a glance

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Museums
Music Festivals
Scuba Diving
Surfing
Trekking

Upcoming events in Samoa