It is dotted with more than 100 volcanic craters and contains most of Samoa's native species of flora and fauna, making it one of the world's most globally significant conservation areas.

Samoan society is communal and based on extended family relationships and socio-cultural obligations, so that kinship and genealogies are important.

These faʻa Sāmoa values are also associated with concepts of love (alofa), service (tautua) to family and community, respect (faʻaaloalo) and discipline (usitaʻi).

Behind the villages are cultivated plantations with crops of taro, cocoa koko, coconuts popo, yams palai, ʻava, fruit and vegetables as well other native plants such as pandanus for weaving ʻie tōga fine mats and bark for tapa cloth.

Fagamalo was the main village for the colonial administration at the time on Savaiʻi, situated where the small post office is today.

In October 1839, Savaiʻi and the Samoa Islands were surveyed by the famous United States Exploring Expedition led by Charles Wilkes.

With local guides Dr Pickering had travelled some way into the interior of the island, reaching one side of a volcanic crater about one thousand feet above the sea and some seven miles (11 km) inland.

The modern national Government of Samoa, based in the capital Apia with the roles of Prime Minister, Members of Parliament and western styled political structure, is referred to as the Malo.

The main government administration offices of the Malo on Savaiʻi are situated in the village of Tuasivi, 10 minutes north of the ferry terminal and market at Salelologa.

Volcanic craters in the highlands are strung across the central ridges from Tuasivi (literally, backbone) village in the east towards Cape Mulinuʻu to the west.

Rich in Polynesian history and oral tradition, Savaiʻi is mentioned in myths and legends across the Pacific Islands and has been called the "Cradle of Polynesia.

Nafanua, Samoa's warrior goddess, hails from the village of Falealupo at the west end of the island, which is also the site of the entry into Pulotu, the spirit world.

The Savaiʻi forest is dominated by a 15 to 20 m high canopy of Dysoxylum huntii, Omalanthus acuminatus, Reynoldsia pleiosperma and Pterophylla samoensis.

[28] Common plants with everyday usage include the smooth reddish purple leaves of the ti (Dracaena terminalis) plant used with coconut oil for traditional massage, fofo, and the dried root stems of Piper methysticum (Latin "pepper" and Latinized Greek "intoxicating") are mixed with water for the important ʻava ceremony conducted during cultural events and gatherings.

Animal species include fruit bats such as the Samoa flying-fox (Pteropus samoensis), land and seabirds, skinks and geckos.

[29] The tooth-billed pigeon, (Didunculus strigirostris), also known as the manumea is also endemic and now increasingly rare, leading to the current proposition to upgrade it to critically endangered.

Surrounded by a variety of tropical fauna, Samoan mythology is rich with stories of animals incorporated into their culture, traditional beliefs and way of life.

There are wetlands in the village of Satoʻalepai on the central north coast where large sea green turtles (Chelonia mydas) are kept by the locals as an eco-tourism experience for visitors and provide extra income for communities.

A regular passenger and vehicle ferry operates seven days a week in the Apolima Strait between Salelologa and Mulifanua wharf on Upolu.

Driving in Samoa is on the left side of the road, effective from 7 September 2009 when the government changed the law to bring motoring in line with neighbouring countries.

There are also clothing stores, several small supermarkets, a wholesaler, petrol stations, bakeries, budget hotels and accommodation,[37] buses, taxis, rental car companies as well as public amenities such as internet access, banks and Western Union money transfer outlets.

There are hotels, but like the rest of Samoa, many villages provide beach fale accommodation for visitors all around the island such as Manase on the central north coast.

Other surfing spots around Savaiʻi include breaks off the villages of Lano, Aganoa Beach by Tafua, Lefagaoaliʻi, Lelepa and Fagamalo.

In 2008, an American company South Pacific Development Group (SPDG) obtained a 120-year lease for 600 acres (2.4 km2) of prime oceanfront customary land in Sasina, to build a luxury resort estimated to cost $450 – US$500 million.

In theory, the Samoa hotspot is a result of the Pacific Tectonic Plate moving over a 'fixed' deep and narrow mantle plume spewing up through the Earth's crust.

[52] The discovery in 1975 of Vailuluʻu Seamount 45 km east of Taʻu in American Samoa has since been studied by an international team of scientists and contribute towards understanding of the Earth's fundamental processes.

The Peʻapeʻa Cave, named after the swallows that inhabit it, is a lava tube one kilometre in length, formed during the Mt Matavanu eruptions.

[55] With most of the population living off their land in a mostly traditional way of life with little paid employment available, villages such as Falealupo were forced to sell logging rights to their native forests in 1990, to pay for their school buildings, following threat of closure from the government.

An American ethnobotanist, Paul Cox, who had lived in the village with his family, raised funds internationally to save the school and create a conservation covenant with matai to protect their native forest.

International volunteer programmes including the American Peace Corps also provide teachers throughout schools in Savaiʻi and the rest of the country.