Pacific Magazine, February 28, 2008
David Stanley, the dean of Pacific Islands travel writers, is still going strong. His latest guides, the Moon Handbooks for Tahiti and Fiji, are reminders of the value of experience and straight-talk in travel journalism. Both guides have the usual Stanley organization: good maps, concise descriptions and contact information, and extremely useful tables with information on everything from population and size of islands to maritime coordinates.
We particularly like a new feature of the Moon Handbooks series: an up-front "best of" section marked with blue tabs. In this section, Stanley gives you his top recommendations for a typical vacation in either French Polynesia or Fiji. All experienced travelers are asked by friends for top recommendations. These are Stanley's, and given his experience, a visitor to either Fiji or French Polynesia could easily build a memorable vacation around just the "blue" section recommendations.
