Letting the South Pacific Sink In

(Dburnest)

WORTH A TRIP:"Somewhere west of Hawaii, a tourist becomes a traveler." Not that P.F. Kluge has anything against Hawaii, but, as he writes in September's National Geographic Traveler, Hawaii for him is merely a halfway point. He's addicted to those more distant Pacific isles -- such as American Samoa, the Marshall Islands and Yap -- whose names register mostly with World War II vets and Peace Corps alumni. Tiny places, some are "fragile filaments of sand and palm"; others are "cloud-covered rain-forested mountains, hulking and muscular."

Speaking with the natives of Palau, Kluge finds conversation to be an unstructured mixture of "gossip, history, speculation, scandal. . . . Sticking to an agenda is like walking into a yard sale with a shopping list." On Pohnpei, though, Kluge recommends just listening -- to the rain ("like nowhere else"), waterfalls or coconuts falling like cannonballs. "The region takes time, tests patience," he concedes. But soon "you divide your life into two parts 1. The years you spend among the islands, and 2. Other stuff."

WORTH A FLIP: Alexander Graham Bell loved it, travel writers praise it -- and now Bicycling proclaims Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to be "one of the best places in the world to ride a bike." That's due partly to the Cabot Trail, a sometimes challenging two-lane blacktop that "traces the island's hills, valleys, beaches and gorges." The striking scenery doesn't hurt, either, nor do the stiff breezes and the abundance of Celtic music. . . . Georgia's on the mind of Melik Kaylan in Travel + Leisure, but it's not the one Ray Charles sang about. Think Tbilisi, not Atlanta. In the former Soviet republic, life has taken a turn for . . . well, who knows. But "money, fun and exuberance are suddenly flowing through Tbilisi from all directions." Kaylan calls the city "improbably beautiful," where 1,500-year-old churches share the cityscape with "defiant, freestanding architectural follies" constructed in spite of decades of restrictive Soviet conventions. . . .

"Glacier National Park is where everything bright and strong and never tamed comes together on high." National Geographic's got photos to help make its case. Bighorn sheep scamper through a snow shower; Vulture Peak thrusts through the snow to its 9,638-foot height; glacier lilies bloom along the Continental Divide ("if grizzlies don't eat the bulbs first"). Put on your boots -- there are more than 700 miles of trails to hike. . . . India is a lot of things, but "small" is not one of them. Nevertheless, Conde Nast Traveler says India can be done in 10 days, if you "keep your ambitions in check." Its suggested itinerary, with almost minute-by-minute directions of where to be when, takes you through Delhis (Old and New), to the Ganges, the Taj Mahal and Jaipur. You'll also time-travel to the age of maharajahs and forgotten dynasties. (Sounds plenty ambitious to us.) . . .

"Singapore? Isn't that where chewing gum is illegal and Cosmopolitan magazine is banned as too racy?" Smithsonian answers its own question with a "not exactly." Yes, the city-state remains a nanny state in many respects, but the good times are rolling there, too. Hip bartenders do the Tom Cruise routine with the liquor bottles, and closing time is "dawn." There's an active night life and theater scene now, although the dramas performed will avoid politics, religion and racial issues. And don't even think about including drugs in your fun times -- conviction for heroin possession can mean a death sentence. "We are fun-loving, but not recklessly fun-loving," says Chan Heng Chee, Singapore's ambassador to the United States.

WORTH A CLIP: Budget Travel has identified America's "10 Coolest Small Towns." Among the villages deemed worth a detour and maybe even a change of address are Yachats, Ore. (with a spectacularly rugged beach); Peterborough, N.H. (home of the MacDowell Colony, an artists' retreat); and Silver City, N.M. (a homing beacon in the high desert for the creative and the outdoorsy). But where are the D.C. area's small towns on this list? (mutter, grumble) . . . Outside says fine, sip your caipirinha on Rio's Copacabana Beach, but then leave town for adventure at one or more of Brazil's best adventure destinations. That would involve sailing off Paraty in a pirate ship, fishing for piranha in the Amazon region or surfing at Florianopolis (also a popular sun spot for would-be fashion models).

WORTH A NOSH: Okay, who do we have to see to get assignments like this? Saveur sends Lucretia Bingham to evaluate clam shacks on the Rhode Island coast. Italian and Portuguese immigrants there created a clam-centric cuisine of chowders, clam cakes and "stuffies" (stuffed baked clams with spicy sausage). Preferring to use clams right out of the sands of Narragansett Bay, local cooks fry, steam, bake and stuff the succulent bivalves, serving them up from "shacks" (some of which seem too nice to wear that label) with names such as Flo's, Iggy's or Chopmist Charlie's.

-- Jerry V. Haines