Sleeping Beachside At Matarava Beach Fales, Samoa

Matareva Beach Fales,Upolo, Samoa

Everyone should consider at least a few nights in a Samoan Fale during their visit. We finished our Samoan Adventure with 4 days at Matareva Beach Fales on Upolo's south coast. It was January and it was HOT but the beautiful ocean breeze ensured that sleeping in a fanless thatched Fale was no challenge at all.

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What are Matareva Beach Fales?

Matareva Beach Fales are exactly what it sounds like. Samoan Beach Fale's on Matareva Beach. You can visit the Fale's just for a day, however staying four days was the ultimate wind down at the end of our few weeks in Samoa.

The beach is beautiful, the fale's are simple but all you need and your accommodation price includes breakfast and dinner. The main reception area has a pool table, lots of books, a seating area and also becomes the main breakfast and dinner spot, inside or out depending on the weather.

The fales you see in the photo below are the day use ones. The overnight Fales have drop down screens all around for some extra privacy, and they are a little larger.

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The Facilities At Matareva Beach Fales

There is a couple of air conditioned brick fales available, but most are the open air timber raised platform fales with thatched roofs. They have small matresses that are covered in canvas and you do need to provide your own sleeping bag or sheet.

We simply used our Sarongs as the matress covering, primarily because the canvas/upholstered matress fabric meant that you didn't have to be concerned about creepy's living in the foam. If you have ever seen the self inflating hiking and camping matresses you can buy, these were very similar to those.

There are caravan park style ablution blocks with toilets and showers, however there is no hot water. You don't need it. Its Samoa – its warm, pretty hot or stinking hot! The cold showers can be a blessing. The toilets were cleaned every day and were all operational with no challenges.

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What Is There To Do At Matareva Beach Fales?

We spent our days swimming and snorkeling and used our time there to visit the Giant Clam Sanctuary just down the road. The day we arrived it was pretty busy with day trippers but the next two days were dead quiet which was divine!

There are some great rock pools close to shore that are full or empty depending on the tide. We often just sat in the water at the edge of a rock pool and relaxed.

You can walk over to the next beach which is very close and has a totally different feel about it. It's more rock pools than sandy beach and we fossiced around at low tide looking for shells and tidal creatures.

If you are a surfer, Cape Mulitapuili, one of Samoa's only surf spots is about a 20 minute drive away. I'm not a surfer and can't tell you the time of the year when the swell is best but the staff will be happy to help.

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Sleeping In The Fales

I'm not a good sleeper. Actually I'm a rubbish sleeper and while I wasn't exactly nervous, with no fan, I did expect to not get any real sleep at all and leave exhausted. That wasn't the case however.

While the Fale's have woven palm leaf privacy screens, you wouldn't sleep with them down (at least in the summer). We kept all but two fully open and the breeze kept us beautifully cool all night. We closed the main one on the side that the rain came from as it rained at some point every night and we kept one closed to stop the lights from the toilet beaming in and that was sufficient to ensure a decent nights sleep.

You do want the mosquito net over you for sure and I slept in a singlet and my undies with no bother what so ever. My other tip would be to make sure you don't have all your clothes and towels draped over the railings when you go to sleep. They will block the breeze and that will make for a very hot nights sleep.

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The Food At Matareva Beach Fales

Your accommodation fee includes breakfast and dinner.

Both meals are great and are good nourishing home style food. While lunch is not included in your per night fee, you can purchase lunch on site if you wish. The lunch meals are affordable and consist of burgers, chicken and rice and easy to prepare but good food.

The drinks are also very cost effective. There is a lovely little bar run by the charming Diego and his offsider.  I was drinking some Diego designed cocktail for $15 Thala which is about $7 AUD. The boys were drinking beer for I think it was $6 Thala for a big bottle ($3 AUD).

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How to get to Matareva Beach Fales

The beach of Matareva is situated on Upolo's southern coast toward the western end of the island. It is easily accessible by driving over the cross island road from Apia and turning right when you hit the other coast. This will take about an hour, or alternatively you can drive around the western point of Upolo from Apia which will take about 10-15 mins longer.  

Once you find the turn off there will be local community people sitting in a fale collecting their gate toll. The resort will give you a voucher to use for entry once you are in there but it's only $20 Thala per car and assists the local community so we weren't that botherred about it.

The road isn't long but you have to drive slowly as there are more than a few big potholes. It is fine with a 2wd car but you do have to be careful. 

Google Maps Location for Matareva Beach

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Would I recommend Matareva Beach Fales??

ABSOLUTELY! They won't work for you if you need aircon and charging (there is no power in the fales at all) but if you are after an off the grid getaway – they are divine.

NB: The phone signal is sporadic so while your local sim card will work, not for anything significant AND this also means that on occasion they can't get signal for you to pay with your credit card so be prepared for a good drive to the ATM or have cash on you.

Check out my Samoa Destination Page for all the info, posts & places to visit in Samoa.

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