Driving in Sunny Samoa
Samoa is divided into a number of islands. The two main ones are Savaii and Upolu. Apia, the capital city, and the international airport are both based on Upolu. Our plan was to stay one week on Savaii and one week on Upolu. After talking to a number of people who had been there we decided that we wanted explore the different areas and experience the different villagers’ way of life, instead of staying only in one place and doing day trips.
It is possible to get around both islands by bus. However, one of the villages we wanted to stay at on the most western point was 8km down a dusty road. Though there was a bus stop just before this road, no bus actually went to the village itself. If you don’t have a car it means you either have to walk or if you are lucky catch a taxi and pay exorbitant prices! Before deciding on hiring a car we had to weigh up the impact of us driving a car around the islands vs being able to reach the more remote villages and stay a couple of nights. In the end we chose to hire a car.
Hiring a car
If you intend to travel round in Samoa then hiring a car is definitely worthwhile. Here are some of the advantages of having a car: If you travel between the islands you get to go on the bigger ferry which means you have a choice between an air conditioned lounge with a film or seats under a canopy on the top deck. If you are unlucky enough to land up on what was nicknamed the cattle ferry (a smaller ferry) then it meant you could sit in the car instead of standing in the sun or rain the whole 3 hour trip.
Secondly we didn’t lose time waiting round for buses. If we wanted to go somewhere we just got in the car and went. Sometimes we would see people waiting for a bus up to 2 hours. That is 2 hours of the holiday wasted. Also the buses can be crowded and it is not uncommon to have another passenger sit on your lap if the bus is full. And Samoans aren’t small! Many times the buses didn’t stop at the tourist sites – which meant getting off at the closest village and walking to the site. What many tourists in our one resort did was hire a car for a day. It only takes about 4 hours to drive round the whole island including stopping at interesting spots. We didn’t feel that this gave enough time to really enjoy and appreciate the island, but for some people that was enough for them. They were more interested in the sun, beach and sea.
Thirdly we had a secure place to leave our belongings. Except for four nights, we slept in fales. A fale is basically a wooden platform with a thatched roof. The ‘walls’ are made from coconut leaves woven together into shutters. These shutters could be let down for privacy or tied up for a cool breeze. Basically it was like sleeping in the open. Though theft isn’t common, it was nice to know that our stuff was locked in the car while we went to the beach or went snorkelling.
The fourth reason I enjoyed having a car was it acted like a big suitcase. Because we were travelling around only staying three nights at most in one spot it meant we didn’t have to continuously try and get all our stuff into one bag. All we needed to do was chuck it in the boot or on the back seat and head off.
Yes, this is a lazy way of travelling, but it is also a hassle and stress free way of travelling.
Though if you do hire a car, please keep your impact on the enviroment to a minimum. Driving a car in another country doesn’t mean you can wreck their enviroment by driving on sensitive eco systems, race through villages endangering villagers lives or irritate fellow travellers by fumagating their fala while you try and cool the car down.