In short
Apia is the capital of Samoa, on the north coast of Upolu. It is a small seaside town organised around its waterfront and its market, where collective life counts for more than monuments.
Samoa lives by the fa'a Samoa, "the Samoan way": a body of customary rules covering the extended family, the rank of chiefs and obligations to the village. It is not folklore for visitors, it is the actual social framework.
Arriving and getting around
Faleolo international airport is some forty kilometres west of Apia.
Colourful wooden buses serve the island cheaply, without fixed timetables: they leave when full. Car hire requires a local permit, issued on the spot.
Driving is on the left: Samoa switched sides in 2009, to align with New Zealand and Australia, where the second-hand vehicles come from.
What it really costs
Samoa is markedly cheaper than French Polynesia or Fiji.
The beach fales, open-sided huts on the beach run by village families, are the characteristic accommodation: very cheap, often with meals included.
When to come
May–October is the dry season.
November–April is the wet and cyclone season.
What nobody tells you
On Sunday, almost everything closes. The church service shapes the day, shops are shut, transport is scarce and the beaches often empty out of respect. Arriving on a Saturday evening without supplies is a classic mistake.
The sa, the evening prayer time, is observed in the villages: a bell sounds, and movement on foot or by car stops for ten to twenty minutes. Continuing to drive or walk at that moment is taken as disrespect.
To Sua Ocean Trench, a collapsed pit linked to the sea, entered by a steep ladder, is the country's most photographed site. Access is paid and managed by the village.
Robert Louis Stevenson spent his last years here and is buried at the top of Mount Vaea, above his house at Vailima, now a museum. The climb takes about an hour.
Most beaches and waterfalls belong to villages and an access fee is asked: this is normal and goes to the community.