Fodor's Expert Review Robert Louis Stevenson House & Museum

The Samoans called him Tusitala, meaning "the teller of tales." Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson arrived in Samoa in 1889 and built a beautiful two-story white mansion on Mt. Vaea, in the village of Vailima, a few miles south of Apia. Stevenson lived there for the last five years of his life, with his wife Fanny and her two children. After a painstaking restoration by an American philanthropist, the house (set in lovely gardens) was opened as a museum in 1994. Guides show visitors the Tapa Room, various bedrooms— including Fanny's, complete with a secret doorway—and the library where RLS had fireplaces installed to remind him of his Scottish homeland. You can view rare first editions of Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Energetic folk may want to make the 45-minute walk to the top of Mt. Vaea to see the graves of RLS and Fanny and take in the glorious views down to the coast.