Travel to Samoa – Episode 357
categories: pacific travel
Hear about travel to Samoa as the Amateur Traveler talks to Jade Johnston from OurOyster.com about their recent trip to this remote pacific destination.
Samoa is composed of two islands just north of New Zealand. The easiest way to get to Samoa is through New Zealand, Australia, or Fiji.
Samoa is not large. “The big island of Savai’i only takes a couple of hours to drive around and that’s driving slowly. It’s a beach island paradise destination so you are going to want to spend some time lying on the beach, snorkeling, relaxing. The entire island almost is protected by a reef. There are some spots for surfing but it’s not really a surf destination, mostly snorkeling around the reef.”
Jade’s favorite beach was Lano Beach on the island of Savai’i. “The island of Savai’i was by far my favorite. It is the larger of the islands but has less of a population. Some of the places that I went I was the only one staying there so you have this entire beach to yourself – beautiful white sand beaches, calm water, it’s just absolutely gorgeous. The sunsets and sunrises were amazing.”
right click here to download (mp3)
right click here to download (iTunes version with pictures)
Show Notes
Our Oyster
Samoa Map and Information
Lano Beach
Samoan Food
Swimming with Turtles
Samoa Urban Adventures
Bula Pass
Our Oyster on Twitter
Our Oyster on Facebook
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Edwin on Sante Fe Travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico – Episode 356
Hi Chris:
I really enjoy your show and have been listening for a long time to both the Amateur Traveler podcast and This Week in Travel. I appreciate all the great travel information and interesting guests you have on your show. I just finished listening to your Santa Fe podcast and really enjoyed your interview with Billie Frank. I spent 4 months working in Santa Fe a few years ago and shared many similar experiences as your guest. I thought it was funny when she mentioned how the locals do things in their own time. I enjoyed many things about Santa Fe, but the town had the worst service of any place I’ve ever been. I enjoyed the food a lot, but the service drove me crazy.
You know you’re in Santa Fe when “the service in the restaurant is so bad you expect someone with a hidden TV camera to come out and let you in on the joke”.
Thanks for all you do on the show,
Edwin
Lars on Travel to Guatemala – Episode 355
Since I just got back from an overland trip from Antigua to Mexico City, I really enjoyed Shannon’s report.
Unlike her, I had a fantastic different experience in Chichicastenago. By chance, I visited on December 21st, 2012 and experienced the Mayan “new year” festival. The town was bursting at the seams with locals and maybe only 20-30 tourists (the rest might have fled from the crowds) and it was one of the best days of the trip.
Very colorful, unbelievably noisy even by Guatemalan standards who think nothing about having competing trucks with loudspeakers play music anytime day and night while lighting fireworks.
It also featured the most insane carnival ride I’ve ever seen–constructed with an 80 foot pole and some hemp ropes
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by Chris Christensen
Chris Christensen is the creator of the Amateur Traveler blog and podcast. He has been a travel creator since 2005 and has won awards including being named the "Best Independent Travel Journalist" by Travel+Leisure Magazine.+Chris Christensen | @chris2x | facebook
One Response to “Travel to Samoa – Episode 357”
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Tags: audio travel podcast, podcast, samoa
DavidVanV
Says:February 6th, 2013 at 9:35 am
Listening to your latest podcast on Samoa brought back great memories of a trip I took to Samoa and American Samoa 15 years ago. You get a real sense of Polynesian culture in Samoa. The people there are some of the most hospitable you’ll find (and I’m from the Southern U.S. so that says a lot). The Samoan people will very likely either ask you to join them for dinner or visit a church event (as every community is centered around the church). Jade did a great job of describing the friendliness of the people, their deep Christian faith and some of the interesting things to see, but she did leave out a couple of sites that I thoroughly enjoyed. One was Vailima – the home of Robert Louis Stevenson while he lived out the later part of his life. In fact, his grave is actually on the property. While there you can see how he and his family lived and view some artifacts from his life. A couple of other fun excursions on the island of Savaii are the rainforest canopy tour and the massive blow holes along the coast.
While the culture and the beaches in Samoa are fascinating, the scenery in American Samoa is by far much more breathtaking. While this little group of islands sometimes gets overshadowed by Samoa, probably due to its polluted and somewhat run-down capital of Pago Pago, the scenery is incomparable – especially the islands of Ofu and Olosega (which are connected by a small isthmus). In fact, I noticed one of the pictures used in this podcast was actually of Ofu (the picture of a beach with jagged mountains in the background). Ofu and Olosega are two amazing islands of only around 300 people with towering mountains overlooking pristine beaches. The islands are actually part of the newly created American Samoa National Park and have amazing snorkeling/scuba diving. The remoteness of the islands also make them a great place to view the stars in the Southern Hemisphere. Not a whole lot else to do there other than hiking and enjoying the beach but after staying there for 2 weeks I was truly relaxed. They are hard to get to (since the tiny airport in Ofu closed a few years back, one can only get there by steamer a few times a month), but well worth the effort. It’s like stepping back 100 years in Polynesian history (like Hawaii used to be from what I’ve been told). I know the podcast was about the country of Samoa, but a trip to American Samoa and it’s outer islands is a must while you are down there. I long for the day to go back and show it to my family.
our_oyster
Says:February 6th, 2013 at 2:30 pm
@DavidVanV I never made it to American Samoa unfortunatly, but would like to visit some time. I have heard that it is actually quite different than Samoa itself. I wish I had combined a trip there with my trip to Samoa – next time!