First time visitors to Samoa, Michelle Vandenbroek and Stu Tranger, say they have not seen any live coral in Samoa so far.

And 46-year-old Michelle thinks it's because of all the cyclones Samoa has experienced over the years.

"Lovely beaches, beautiful fishes but coral, it’s all dead. Haven’t seen any live colorful coral, all dead. Might be from the cyclones," she said. 

"Everywhere we’ve been there’s just been dead coral. We couldn’t find any live ones. It’s probably tourists that stand on it why it’s dead which is not good; we don’t wear flippers for that reason, then you don’t damage it so much.

"But the giant clams were cool, they were really cool."

The couple told the Samoa Observer they were recommended to visit Samoa.

"It has been good riding around Samoa. Riding bikes, but we’ve done all the swimming, the clams, the rock pools waterfalls.

"Lovely traditional food, very welcoming, very friendly people," she said.

Asked if the recommendation was a good one Michelle said "no", because it was too hot plus the pestering dogs.

"They don’t like bikes; a couple of dogs run out and bite us, nasty dogs, other than that I like Samoa," she said.

Stu, 50, said the traffic in Samoa is not bad at all compared to where they come from; and mentioned the price of things in Samoa weren't bad either.

"There’s good value in Samoa. We stayed in a lot of fales, some fales are catered more for tourists than others, all beautiful locations.

"The fancy most flashy one we stayed at was Saletoga Sands Resort and really good value," said Michelle.

They have been together for three years and  currently enjoying the comfort of Tanoa Tusitala Hotel.