July 2010

Hi Briar

Just a short note to thank you for all the arrangements you made for us in Samoa.    We had a great time and loved Samoa.

Sinalei Reef Resort was a lovely place to stay. The rebuilding is practically complete – they are just adding a few more beachside Fales. The new restaurant on the jetty is better now than the old one apparently. The service and accommodation was good and the food was great. We got chatting to the Chef one day and he said he liked to try out different dishes and asked if we would like to try a whole steamed parrot fish in coconut cream. He did it for us the next night with a special entrée and dessert and it was very good – I’m attaching a photo to show you! Since we had the ‘meal plan’ it didn’t cost us any extra. We felt it was very worthwhile having the meal plan – the only downside was that I ate too much!

The only thing to be wary of is the ferry from Upolu to Savaii. We ended up on the 2.00pm one which was the small old ferry and only took about 30 people and since it was a Friday and that’s probably one of the busiest days because Samoans travel back to Savaii for the weekend there were heaps of people wanting to get on, so we missed out.  We couldn’t believe it when they said they weren’t taking any more people! The next one was at 4.00pm and luckily this one was The Lady Samoa which was a newish large ferry so everyone managed to get on board. Apparently the Ferry Service is always a bit unreliable and trips are often cancelled. If people are going over to Savaii it might be best if they didn’t plan to go on a Friday since that is the busiest day for going from Upolu to Savaii.

The Le Lagoto Resort in Savaii was good and the snorkeling was great and easily accessible just from the beach in front of the resort. The other resort the Savaii Lagoon Resort that we had thought about going to was just next door and that also looked very nice, they didn’t have a pool but with the beach so close it really didn’t matter. They had a restaurant and we had a very nice dinner there – probably better food than at the Le Lagoto.

Once again thanks for all your help booking our holiday.

Cheers
Ellen Bullock