Savai'i

Savai'i, Samoa — the larger, quieter of Samoa's two main islands, where lava fields, blowholes, and traditional villages move at a pace even slower than Upolu.

The Alofaaga Blowholes send seawater dozens of meters into the air through lava tubes — locals sell coconuts to toss in for the show. Saleaula's lava fields, from a 1905–1911 eruption, entombed a church still standing amid the black rock, and swimming holes like Afu Aau Falls and the To Sua Ocean Trench (a short ferry away on Upolu) round out a slow, self-drive loop of the island.