Savai'i Travel Guide
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Samoa Islands
Pacific Travel Guides
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Savai'i
Travel Guide
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Savai'i is one of the most down to earth destinations in the South Pacific. Here you'll find a great range of sights from volcanic craters and lava tubes, rain forest canopy walks, blowholes and some lovely beach settings alongside traditional Polynesian villages which are even more laid back than on Upolu.
Savai'i is in fact the largest of the Samoan Islands and ranks the largest Polynesian island outside of Hawaii or New Zealand. Five daily flights from Apia to Moata Airport (Salelologa on the south eastern point of Savai'i) take just 20 minutes. The airport at Asau on north western Savai'i is dysfunctional. Slow ferries depart from Mulifanua on the western side of Upolu 3-times per day and travel across the 18km straight separating the two islands arriving in Salelologa after one and a half hours at sea, costing just ST$7 one way. The fast ferry takes 40-minutes and also departs Mulifanua Wharf three times a day. Buses on Savai'i are even more irregular than on Upolu making it unreliable to get about using public transport, and taxis are expensive and hard to find outside of Salelologa and Asau.
Flights, Ferries, Tours and Car Hire
The wharf and main airport at Savai'i are at Saleologa on the south east corner. Saleologa is a functional town for the islanders - a few rowdy bars, supermarkets and garages but has little to offer tourists except for its colourful market. There are a few cheap restaurants and basic motel style accommodation in town as well as the lovely Lagoon Chalet Fales on a sheltered turquoise lagoon ideal for kayaking and swimming. The Safua and Savaiian hotels can be found a few miles north of town although these are functional hotels with no beach and on a rather ordinary coastline. The greatest attraction of the region is the Tafua Peninsula to the south of town with its huge accessible crater and splendid wild coastal views. The hike around Tafua Crater takes approximately an hour from its base. On the south-western side of the peninsula is the lovely Ananoa Beach with its excellent offshore surfing and the Ananoa Beach Fales.
Salelologa Town
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Ananoa Beach
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Savai'i is a complex geographical island dominated by its active but presently dormant volcanic activity. Every 150 years or so, eruptions take place, creating a new crater and spilling lava down its mountainous landscape and into the lagoon. Travelling up the east coast of Savai'i gives a typical picture - long stretches of black rocky coastline and lava pools followed by fine stretches of golden sand and snorkelling lagoons, and suddenly at Sale-aula, the arid landscape of volcanic lava flow from the last eruption between 1911-1916. A walk around Sale'aula offers a good insight into volcanic activity with some unusual geographic formations and the half buried town where lava engulfed several churches and burnt all the Samoan wooden houses to ashes.
East Coast View
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Saleaula Lava Fields
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The east coast is the most developed stretch of Savai'i with traditional villages and extraordinarily large churches, and several lovely beaches and snorkelling lagoons - this is the place to visit to immerse yourself in Samoan village life, which comes alive at sun down.
At Satoalepai, on the north-eastern tip of Savai'i, there's a lovely inland lake and natural fresh-water pools where a local family has created a Turtle sanctuary. Here you can stay in the Satoalepai Overwater Fales and enjoy great views of the mountains, explore the lakes on a traditional outrigger canoe, and swim with turtles in the freshwater ponds.
Satoalepai Wetlands
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Manase Beach
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The most popular beach location on Savai'i is between Lelepa and Manase villages, a few miles beyond Satoalepai. The swimming beach stretches for several miles and makes a great spot for strolling, interacting with the local villages along the shoreline and snorkelling. The only upmarket resort is Le Lagoto, on the outskirts of Lelepa Village, and offers 5 self-contained bungalows, a great restaurant and views of Matautu Bay, one of the few places in Savai'i with good yacht anchorage. Across the bay is Manase Village where five families have set up beach fales aimed at backpackers. The pick of the bunch is Vacations (offering the most authentic style fales with excellent food and service), Janes (offering enclosed fales and scuba diving) and Tanu's (the largest property with the liveliest atmosphere). At the far end of Manase is Stevensons which offers more upmarket self contained beach villas and cheap rooms across the road.
Beyond Manase, another huge lava field has made the coast inaccessible. The coastal road cuts inland where you'll find several interesting lava tubes, the Peapea caves and trails to the summit of Mt. Silisili, the highest point in Samoa at 1,858m. This arduous hike takes 2 days round trip and requires an experienced guide and warm clothing.
Peapea Cave
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Canopy Walkway
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The road rejoins the coast at Asau, a picturesque town with good anchorage in its bay (although large container ships have been unable to access it since the 1991 hurricane blew in huge rocks at its mouth) and a good place to spot turtles. Asau once had an airport, but this has been closed for almost ten years. A few miles beyond is Vaisala, a small town with lovely white sand and surfing - the Vaisala Beach Hotel offers affordable rooms and a restaurant overlooking the beach. At the very western tip of Savai'i is one of the most scenic areas of the island. Falealupo Rainforest Preserve is a natural low lying tropical forest with trails and canopy walkways with breath taking views. The coast around Cape Mulinu'u is wild yet peaceful with a couple of lovely beaches and attractive sea arches and cliffs. Unfortunately the beach fales here are all run down.
The southern coast of Savai'i has excellent winter surfing particularly off Satui'atua. This peaceful spot has a lovely sandy beach backed by huge trees with some good snorkelling offshore. Satuiatua Beach Fales have some of the loveliest thatch fales in all of Samoa and provide excellent meals making it a popular choice with travellers and surfers. It's possible to walk from here to the magnificent blowholes near the village of Taga, but allow yourself a full day walk along undisturbed and uninhabited coastline. The Alofaaga Blowholes are one of the great sites in Samoa with plumes of water up to 30 metres high. Nearby is the unusual Nu'u black sand beach although the currents here are treacherous making it a beach of beauty rather than practicality.
Alofaaga Blowholes
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Afu Aau Waterfall
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Heading back towards the main town of Saleologa keep an eye out for the Gataivai Falls which tumble 5 metres directly into the sea - the river is usually a hub of activity for the neighbouring village with kids playing and fishing and women washing clothes. A few miles on is the turn off for AfuAau Waterfall. This refreshing waterfall plummets from virgin forest into a deep natural and fresh swimming pool. The track is difficult to navigate unless you have 4-WD but from the main highway it's just a half hour walk inland. About 20 minutes drive further down this inland track is the fascinating Pulemelei Mound, the largest archaeological site in Polynesia. The grand pyramid here is more than 60 metres in length and rises to a height of 15 metres.
From here, it's about six miles back to Salelologa Town, the airport and wharf.
Flights, Ferries and Car Hire
Savai'i Accommodation
Tour Companies
Readers may also be interested in the following destinations:
Cook Islands Travel Guide
Fiji Travel Guide
Samoa Travel Guide
Tonga Travel Guide
Tahiti Travel Guide
Hawaii Travel Guide
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