Your Guide to a Holiday in Samoa: What It's Really Like

White sands, palm trees, blue waters – welcome to the paradise island of Samoa – but where exactly is it?

I was invited to visit Samoa by the Samoa tourism board, and of course, I was thrilled. I literally jumped at the chance, only slightly faltering when I looked up the flight time and realised it’d be 40 hours plus.

But to go somewhere no one I know has been is a rare opportunity I wouldn’t say no to. It’s the same reason I ended up in Papua New Guinea that time.

Both lands as yet undiscovered by the many, many bloggers and instagrammers I know. Not knowing everything there was to know about a place, from the tens who’d been before, made a trip to Samoa look like a real adventure to me.

Google searches revealed palm trees, beaches, and the famous To Sua Trench. Photos I didn’t quite believe actually – it couldn’t really be that beautiful right?

Photoshop much?

My holiday to Samoa

And it definitely wasn’t, when I arrived at 6am. I’d broken up the 40ish hour journey there with three wonderful days in Sydney. But with the excitement of the city, and the ever present need to tell people about how much I loved Australia on my social media, I hadn’t managed to catch up on the jet lag.