Lalomanu Beach

Lalomanu is at the eastern end of Upolu, the more populated of Samoa's two main islands, about an hour and a half from Apia. It is a long shallow beach inside a reef, facing the island of Nuʻutele offshore.

The tsunami of September 2009 struck this coast directly. An earthquake south of Samoa generated waves that reached several metres inland here; Lalomanu was among the worst-hit villages, with substantial loss of life. The village rebuilt, largely further back from the shore and partly uphill, and the beach fales that had been the area's accommodation were reconstructed. Any account of this beach that omits that is incomplete.

The beach itself is fine coral sand with a reef close in, shallow warm water and a gradual entry — good swimming and snorkelling. Beach fales are the local accommodation model: open-sided thatched huts on the sand, run by families, with meals included and shared bathrooms. They are cheap, simple and the standard way to stay on a Samoan beach. The two islands offshore, Nuʻutele and Nuʻulua, are uninhabited nature reserves and are the view from every fale on the beach.

Land in Samoa is overwhelmingly held under customary title by extended families, and beaches are effectively family-owned. A small entry fee is paid to whoever holds the land, which is normal and universal. To Sua Ocean Trench, half an hour west, is a collapsed lava tube filled with seawater and entered down a ladder, and it is the other thing everyone on Upolu goes to see.

Fales on the sand, meals included, a fee paid to the family who hold the land, and a village that rebuilt itself uphill after the 2009 tsunami. Sunday is observed and almost everything stops. The reef is close in and the water is shallow and warm, and the arrangement is as much the reason to come as the beach.