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Food & Entertainment The
main hotels have dining rooms and Samoan feasts or 'Fiafia Nights' are
held at these hotels on a weekly basis. Entertainment includes traditional
singing and dancing. There are also several bars, clubs, and cocktail
bars, and at the hotel Tusitala, Aggie Greys and the Beach Bar nightclub,
there are live bands and a floor show every Saturday night. A recent
addition to this paradise is McDonalds.
It
is advisable to boil drinking water or buy bottled water available from
stores throughout both islands at reasonable prices.
Activities
& Shopping Sporting
facilities are mainly concentrated in Apia. They include the Apia Park
Stadium, the Royal Samoa Golf Country Club, public tennis courts, squash,
a fitness centre, lawn bowls, hockey, netball, rugby, soccer, and Samoan
cricket. There are also numerous marine activities including swimming,
snorkelling and diving.
A
wide variety of artifacts made by Samoan families for their personal use
are also sold to visitors because of the beauty and quality of the
craftsmanship.
Siapo and Tapa cloth made from the mulberry bark and painted with native
dyes is made into mats, hats and baskets. Kava and food bowls are hand
carved from native hardwood. Shell jewellery and printed fabrics are also
available. Shopping hours are from 8am to noon and 1.30pm to 4.30pm week
days and 8am to 12.30 Saturday.
Local Transport The
two large western Samoan islands have more than 2,000 kilometres of
highway. In Apia there are taxis and rental cars available and driving is
on the right side of the road. The first traffic lights in Samoa were
installed in 1995. There is a good bus service on the islands of Upolu and
Savai'i, and Polynesian Airlines internal service operates flights between
Apia and Savai'i.
Getting thereThe major carriers to Samoa are Air
New Zealand and Polynesian Airways. Most of them land at Faleolo airport
35km (22mi) west of Apia in Upolu. Airport buses, public buses and taxis
run from the airport to the centre of Apia. There is a departure tax of
about US$10, payable at Faleolo Airport. The days of hopping a cargo ship
and working a passage around the Polynesian Islands are fast becoming a
thing of the past although you might just snag one if you hang around the
shipping services for long enough. Yachting to Samoa is an attractive
option in anybody's books so if you can show enthusiasm for all things
yachty or, better still, display some working knowledge of sailing, you
can sometimes bum a ride on a yacht as a crew member.
Getting to Pago Pago by air is fairly
straightforward, though rarely inexpensive. Depending where you're coming
from, you'll need to get yourself to Hawaii, Tonga, West Coast USA,
Australia or New Zealand and catch a connecting flight. Air New Zealand,
Air Pacific, Polynesian Airlines and Air Samoa all fly the blue skies
above American Samoa. There is a US$3 departure tax when leaving American
Samoa by air, but it's usually included in the cost of the ticket.
It is also possible to arrive by sea if you've
got a bit more time on your hands. Thumbing a lift on a yacht from the US
West Coast or Australia's north east is possible for those with sailing
experience, or the desire to cook meals and scrape barnacles. Generally,
you'll be hooking up with yachties in the USA between May and October as
they take advantage of favourable winds and weather conditions. They'll
all scatter by late November as the cyclone season fires up. If you're not
planning to batten down the hatches with the locals, you probably should
scatter with them.
Getting Around
Getting around Samoa is uncomplicated
but time-consuming. You can normally hopscotch around the islands by bus
as long as you remember that a Samoan timetable is a vague idea that may
or may not be acted upon depending on the level of interest shown by the
driver. Patience is required.
Travelling by bus is an experience. The buses are
brightly coloured and run by a timetable that is known only to thedriver
and if you are lucky local police officer. They start running early in the
morning but if you want to catch one after dark don't be surprised if you
can't find one. If you are hoping to travel from or to a more remote area
there may well only be one bus a day.
The buses have the name of the final village on the
front so you will have to ask someone which bus it is you need to catch.
Don't worry most Samoans understand and speak English, but it might be fun
to try asking for directions in Samoan.
If you are in Apia there are two places where you
should be able to find a bus, the new market (márketi fou)and behind
the old market, marketi tuai.
The buses can get very full and you might find it
necessary to si'i, that is to have someone sit on your lap or sit on
someone's lap. The buses are not meant to travel with anyone standing, but
this is frequently ignored. However buses can be pulled over by the police
and people asked to get off and wait for the next bus.
It used to be possible to tell that a bus was
coming by the noise it made, but it is now illegal for them to have the type
of sound system that would blend in at the Notting Hill Carnival.
Ferries and boats will get you from one
island to another but, despite what you may have imagined about the
paradisical nature of sea travel in the South Pacific, crossings can often
be unpleasant experiences. Cars are a possibility on most islands but
petrol can only be obtained in major towns. If you're feeling incredibly
fit you might want to cycle around the islands but you will have to
contend with the heat and the rugged terrain.
Samoa Air and Polynesian Airlines ply routes
between Pago Pago and a variety of American and Independent Samoan
destinations including Ofu, Ta'u, Apia and Savai'i. Buses are a great,
unpredictable, noisy way of moving about the main islands. The aiga busses
on Tutuila are brightly painted trucks that blast reggae music all day.
Drivers are a law unto themselves; they'll knock off work whenever they
feel like it. Never rely on a bus after about 2pm.
Car hire will set you back about US$50 a day plus
insurance and fuel, but if you're on Tutuila for only a day or two,
there's no better way to see the sights.
When to go
When you're talking paradise, any time
is a good time to go. As a general rule, however, you might find your
Polynesian parade being rained on in December and January and your holiday
smile melting in the humid months between November and April. The very
best time to go is in the dry season between May and October when the
weather is perfect and the events calendar is full. See also next
weeks weather forcast for Upolu (Apia). If you're a keen diver
or into big game fishing, the Polynesian Dive Fest and the Game Fishing
Tournament take place in mid-August. The Rising of the Palolo, one of the
most fascinating natural phenomenon, takes place on the coral reefs of
Savai'i in October and the Samoan cultural event of the year, the Teuila
Tourism Festival, takes place in September.
Money & Costs
Independent (Western) Samoa is one of the cheapest countries
to travel in the South Pacific, making it a particularly attractive
destination for budget travellers. If you're happy to do it fa'a Samoa
(the Samoan way) and stay in fales (thatched houses without walls
built from coconut fronds and fibre), eat food at local road stalls and
catch public transport you can get away with spending as little as US$20 a
day. Staying at air-conditioned hotels, eating at restaurants, and getting
around by hire car will set you back about US$50 a day. If you've got a
hankering for the whole chorus and verse of South Pacific complete
with movie star atmosphere, private swimming pools surrounded by tropical
gardens, lobster à la Samoa and tropical coconut concoctions, expect to
pay upwards of US$150 a day. Some accommodation prices in the middle to
upper range are actually listed in US dollars so check before checking in.
Exchanging money in Samoa is straightforward.
Travellers cheques and most currencies can be exchanged without hassle and
there is no black market to contend with. Because of Samoa's proximity to
American Samoa it is possible to sometimes pay in US dollars although the
Samoan tala remains the official unit of currency. Most middle to
upper range hotels and car rental firms will accept major credit cards.
Tipping is neither expected nor particularly
encouraged in Independent Samoa and bargaining is definitely not accepted.
The price you see is the price you pay.
Meals
- Budget: US$3-5
- Mid-range: US$5-10
- Top-end: US$10 and upwards
Facts for the
visitor
- Climate:
Pleasant tropical approximately 30º C year round. The rainy season is
from December to March.
- Clothing:
Bikinis and brief clothing are OK by the beach
or pool but considered offensive in the villages or public places.
Short shorts are frowned upon in the villages. The locals wear a 'lava
lava', a cloth wraparound.
On Sundays people wear white to church.
- Electricity:
220
volts AC/50 cycles
- Time
Zone: GMT minus 11 hours or AEST minus 21 hours.
- Currency:
Tala (WS$ = 0,30 €)
- Tipping:
Not compulsory, but
you can give a gift for excellent service.
- Departure
tax: WS$20; Am-Samoa
- Visas
& Health: Visa not required if you have an
onward ticket. Visitors are permitted entry for a stay of up to 30
days. No
vaccination certificates required.
- Holidays &
Festivals:
The biggest cultural event in independent Samoa
is the Teuila Festival in September when choir singing,
fire-knife dancing, siva (traditional dance), and fautasi
(long-boat) racing take place. A month before the Teuila Festival is
the Polynesian Dive Fest which provides an opportunity for both
professional and amateur divers to explore some of Samoa's best dive
sites. One of the most spectacular natural phenomenon is the Rising
of the Palolo. Palolo are bluey-green vermicelli-shaped worms that
emerge from the coral reefs, sometime after midnight on the seventh
day after a full moon, to mate. The first rising takes place in
October and the second one around November. No visit to Independent
Samoa is complete without a visit to Magrey Ta's Beer Garden
where Cindy, Independent Samoa's most famous fa' afafine, or
transvestite, sashays out onto an elaborate stage, complete with fake
waterfall, to strut her stuff. Below we list the most important
holidays in Samoa.
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January
4 - Head Of State's Birthday, Head Of State's Golf Tournament
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March
28 to 29 - Arts & Crafts Fair
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May
19 to 24 - Youth Week
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June
1 to 3 - Independence Day Celebrations, International Fishing Tournament,
Independence Triathlon:(40km cycle & 10km run)
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July
19 to 21 - Musika Extravaganza
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August
15 to 16 - Flower Gala
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September
1 to 7 - Teuila Tourism Festival
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September
7 - Le Tausala Samoa Pageant
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September
7 - National Triathlon Championships
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September
8 to 23 - 7th Pacific Arts Festival
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Octoberi\
- Savai'i Palolo Festival
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October
13 - Children's White Sunday
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October
19 - Miss South Pacific Pageant
For
more general information
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