Samoa

Samoa - officially the Independent Nation of Samoa, is a nation comprising a group of islands from the South Pacific Ocean. Previous names were German Samoa from 1900 to 1919, and Western Samoa from 1914 to 1997. It was recognized by the United Nations on 15 December 1976 (UN members) as Samoa. The entire group was called Navigators Islands before the 20th century due to the Samoans' good seafaring skills. Population of 176,710. Capital - Apia.

Samoa has some of the most beautiful and enticing islandscapes in the South Pacific. It's an opinion few travellers will disagree with once they've spent several weeks rattling up steep rocky trails to stare into the overgrown maws of extinct craters, swished their way from your lush undergrowth of sprawling plantations to clamber into eerie lava tubes, and strapped on the mask before coming face to face with multicoloured coral and other marine life inside shallow waters of deliriously lovely lagoons. Some of the beaches are so stunning that you will just would like to fall more than and pretend you will be a piece of driftwood, and hidden inside isolated valleys inside hinterlands are paradisal waterfalls that plunge into idyllic swimming holes. Add the rainforests and rugged sea cliffs of 'Upolu, and the lava flows of Savai'I to the mix, and you are able to begin to appreciate the enigmatic physical nature of these islands.

The inhabitants of Samoa have taken a few cues from their languid tropical home. Samoans are in no way in much of a hurry to do anything, a trait which tends to incite culture shock including a mild, temporary panic in targeted visitors who have arrived from schedule-centric, clock-watching societies. And Samoans' moods can sometimes improve as quickly as the tropical weather, with bright outlooks giving way to stormy fronts previous to inevitably clearing up again. But most conspicuously, they are also famously hospitable: Samoans are rarely short of the toothy grin, a flap in the hand or a friendly comment in which outsiders are concerned.

So don't underestimate how much time you need to spend tramping into Samoa's wild interior, bobbing around its lagoons or lying on one of its sun-baked beaches. Follow the lead of Samoa's generous spirit and just spoil yourself.