Two Australian couples from Bunbury are travelling Samoa for the first time under the expert guidance of Henry Mapusaga, of Ene's Samoan Tours.

Liz and James Lett and Deborah and Neil Devereux are seasoned travellers. They said they like to venture out of Bunbury at least once a year, and when their first choice of the Christmas Islands proved too pricey, they booked a package to come to Samoa.

After 22 hours of travel from their home to Perth, then Sydney and finally Samoa's shores, the couples have journeyed around Upolu and are relaxing at Tafua Beach Fales in Lalomanu before venturing to Savai'i.

Neil and Deborah Devereux said they did a fair amount of research before they left Australia, so have not been surprised by Samoa’s sights and smells.

"I don’t think we’ve seen anything we weren’t expecting to see,” Mr. Devereux said. 

But the warm waters were a treat on their first day of scuba diving.

“It’s not like at home where you have to get all rugged up in wetsuits,” he laughed.

Liz Lett said she is not usually a beach goer, but she is delighted with Samoa.

“I love the way the families are together. Family is everything. In Australia, that’s disappearing,” she said.

“I ask people, and even at the market, they’ve got their family together running all of that and they have their little children with them.”

Travelling to the Pacific Islands so recently hit with tsunamis and cyclones has been interesting, the pairs said.

Mrs. Devereux said an early trip to Vanuatu not long after a large hurricane was a first-hand look at the devastation natural disasters cause.

“And we have just learned that you got hit with that cyclone that passed through Japan in 2009,” she said.

“The devastation is hard.”

Mr. Mapusaga said he met the travellers at Cocktails on the Rocks, and they were eager to see as much of the island as possible.