South Pacific Handbook (Moon Travel Handbooks) [Paperback]

But it's also my job to design new snorkeling programs. For areas in the Pacific that extend beyond my personal familiarity, I turn to David's South Pacific Handbook as the place to start researching new destinations.

With this book, as with all of David's books, this process is simple. I read the excellent background information for a selected specific destination, along with some of the practical info (such as accommodations, etc.) After that, the sections I find most helpful for research are the extensive bibliography and the detailed Internet and email directories.

Of course, the South Pacific Handbook is much more than a list of other references. In my estimation, David's South Pacific Handbook is THE REFERENCE. David's books inspire loyalty and deserve the continued attentions of conscientious travelers. I first started using this book (2nd edition) back in 1982. I still have that travel-worn copy which sits on the shelf alongside many of the subsequent editions. And although they have served as invaluable reference in years past, I'll be now be using this new 7th edition.

It's a challenge to find adequate words to describe this book. It seems to me to be a scholarly or encyclopedic work because of its depth and scope, but the information is so well organized and clearly presented that everything falls comfortably in place. You can quickly find what you want to know.

I am writing this comment with the 7th edition of the South Pacific Handbook next to me. The first part of the book, through page 123, provides an extensive background to the South Pacific. Subjects covered include the formation of coral reefs, flora and fauna, the history of discovery, exploration, settlement, colonization by Europe and The Pacific Today, government, economy, the people of the South Pacific, conduct and customs, health, food and drink, and much, much more.

David Stanley (the author) devotes the next 800 pages to the islands of Tahiti-Polynesia, the Pitcairn Islands, Easter Island, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Kingdom of Tonga, American Samoa, Samoa, Tokelau, Wallis and Futuna, Tuvalu, Melanesia (Fiji), New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands. Reading these pages, you will feel as though you are there. I don't think anything has been left out.

At the end of the book, under the general heading of Resources, is a list of all the information offices (including web sites and e-mail addresses) for all the island groups discussed in the book. There is an extensive Bibliography, including guidebooks, geography, natural science, history, publishers, and periodicals. A Discography section listing noncommercial recordings of Pacific music follows. A section on the South Pacific on the internet - websites and e-mail addresses for everything you can imagine - is next. Finally, there is a Glossary section and an extensive Index.

In the 1980s, I went to Aitutaki (an atoll in the Cook Islands) after reading a seven-sentence description in the first edition of the South Pacific Handbook. Aitutaki was exactly as Mr.Stanley describes it and I owe my exciting experience there to him.

The next time you are in a bookstore, I suggest that you at least browse through this book. If you buy it, you might try reading it in bed at night. If you're like me, you may start to dream about Bora Bora (French Polynesia), Aitutaki, or some other jewel in the South Pacific.

Steve Schlein

This encyclopedic single volume is indispensable to backpackers, island-hopping travelers, business people, and anyone else who is going to the South Pacific region for more than a short vacation.

If I may offer my greatest praise conversely, I am very disappointed that David Stanley has not written such a guidebook about Northern New England. I'm sure that I could live a much richer (and much more efficient!) life here on the Connecticut River if I had a Stanley-written guide to the resources of my region.

The book includes basic vocabulary, maps, lodging directories, transportation choices, dining suggestions, park listings, entertainment guides, very helpful travel tips...I might as well quit itemizing, because the list of features in this book is as endless as the list of opportunities in the South Pacific paradise.