Experience the best of Apia

Apia lies on the north coast of Upolu, Samoa's main island, along a curved harbour backed by green hills. It is the only town of any size in the country, with a seafront road, a clock tower in the centre, a market busy with produce and white-painted churches. A few colonial buildings recall its years under German and then New Zealand rule.

On the slopes above town, Robert Louis Stevenson's former home at Vailima is a museum, and his tomb lies on the summit of Mount Vaea, reached by a steep walk through forest. Waterfalls, swimming holes and the Papaseea Sliding Rocks lie inland, and the To Sua Ocean Trench, a deep natural pool reached by a ladder, lies on the south coast, with the long white sands of Lalomanu beyond.

Food comes from the umu, an earth oven, with taro, breadfruit, fish in coconut cream and palusami, taro leaves baked in coconut milk, and the fish market is busy at dawn. The climate is tropical, with a wetter season from November to April and a drier, cooler one from May to October.