Some people are lured to the rugged Outback, others are drawn to the bustling, harbor cities. While some travelers wish to sail through the islands of the Great Barrier Reef, others look to explore the Southern Alps of New Zealand. Others want to bask in the warmth of a secluded, sugar-white beach and explore lagoons of breathtaking clarity on a South Pacific island.

If you're a city-lover, Papeete's frantic pace, chic shops, busy Municipal Market, and lively mix of French, Polynesian, and Chinese cultures are sure to invigorate you. If you're looking for old-time Polynesia, you will find it on Tahiti's rural east and south coasts and on its peninsula, Tahiti Iti. Even if you plan to leave immediately for Moorea, Bora Bora, Huahine, and the other less developed islands, you will have to spend at least a few hours here, since all international flights land at Faaa on Tahiti's northwest coast. So make the most of this legendary and still very beautiful island.

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Moorea

Most visitors to French Polynesia soon grab the ferry to Moorea, and with very good reason. Only 12 miles from Tahiti, Moorea is an island that is stunningly beautiful. This still is a surprisingly peaceful island, where a hint of old Polynesia coexists with modern resort hotels and fine restaurants. Compared to the noisy city across the Sea of the Moon, Moorea is a rural paradise. And it's a clean and tidy paradise, thanks to a mayor who sends out crews to pick up roadside trash.

An offshore coral reef around Moorea encloses a calm blue lagoon, making the island ideal for swimming, boating, snorkeling, and diving. Unlike the black sands of Tahiti, white beaches stretch for miles on Moorea..

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Bora Bora

What makes Bora Bora so beautiful is the combination of sand-fringed motus (small islets) sitting on the outer reef, the multihued lagoon cutting deep bays into the central high island, and the basaltic tombstone known as Mount Otemanu towering over it all.

As is the case on Tahiti and Moorea, a road runs around the shoreline of Bora Bora, cutting in and out of the bays and skirting what seem like 1,000 white-sand beaches lapped by the waters of the lagoon. The best of the beaches--in fact, one of the best beaches in French Polynesia--stretches for more than 2 miles around a flat, coconut-studded peninsula known as Matira Point.

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Huahine

The first of the Leeward Islands northwest of Tahiti, mountainous Huahine, known as the "Island of Fruits," is notable for its Bora Bora-like beaches. As the least developed of the islands with luxury hotels and comfortable hostels, Huahine offers one of the territory's best opportunities to observe Polynesian life relatively unchanged by fast-paced Western civilization.

Pronounced "Wa-ee-nee" by the French and "Who-a-hee-nay" by the Tahitians, Huahine is actually two islands enclosed by the same reef and joined by a bridge. About 5,400 people live on the two islands, and most of them earn a living growing cantaloupes and watermelons and harvesting copra for the Papeete market.

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Rangiroa

The largest and most often visited of the Tuamotu atolls, Rangiroa lies 194 miles northeast of Tahiti. Like all the atolls, the islets here are so low--never more than 10 ft. above sea level, not including the height of the coconut palms growing all over them--that ships can't see them until they're a few miles away. For this reason, Rangiroa and its Tuamotu sisters are also known as the Dangerous Archipelago. Hundreds of yachts and ships have been wrecked on these reefs, either unable to see them until it was too late or dragged ashore by tricky currents.

Schools of dolphins usually play early mornings and late afternoons in Rangiroa's two navigable passes into its interior lagoon. Currents of up to 6 knots race through the passes as the tides first fill the lagoon and then empty it.

Most visitors come to Rangiroa primarily for the territory's best scuba diving and snorkeling. Others venture across the lagoon to Rangiroa's islets, where they can literally get away from civilization at a very remote resort.

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Fiji

If there is one thing every visitor remembers about Fiji, it's the enormous friendliness of the Fijian people. You'll see why as soon as you get off the plane, clear Customs and Immigration, and are greeted by a procession of smiling faces, all of them exclaiming an enthusiastic "Bula!" That one word--"health" in Fijian--expresses the warmest and most heartfelt welcome you'll receive anywhere.

On Fiji's marvelous offshore islets--you'll find gorgeous white-sand beaches bordered by curving coconut palms, azure lagoons and colorful reefs offering world-class scuba diving and snorkeling, green mountains sweeping to the sea, and a tropical climate in which to enjoy it all.

For visitors, Fiji is an affordable paradise for every pocketbook. Its wide variety of accommodations ranges from deluxe resorts nestled in tropical gardens beside the beach to down-to-basics hostels that cater to the young and the young-at-heart. It has the largest and finest collection of remote, Robinson Crusoe-like offshore resorts in the entire South Pacific--if not the world. Regardless of where you stay, you are in for a memorable time.

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Cook Islands

A net of 15 islands in the heart of the South Pacific spread over an area the size of India with a population no bigger than a small New Zealand country town, 14,000 souls. These unique and friendly Polynesians have their own language and government and enjoy a vigorous and diverse culture with significant differences between each island. Despite some 70,000 visitors a year to the capital island Rarotonga the Cooks are largely unspoiled by tourism. They offer a rare opportunity for people from the cities of the world to experience a different type of vacation. There are no high-rise hotels, only four beach buggies and very little hype. Ideal for travelers seeking more than the usual clichés associated with the South Seas, each island has its unique qualities and offers the visitor a special experience.

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Australia

Australia has some of the best natural scenery, the weirdest wildlife, the most brilliant scuba diving and snorkeling, the best beaches, the oldest rain forest, the oldest human civilization, the best wines, the best weather, the most innovative east-meets-west-meets-someplace-else cuisine--all bathed in sunlight that brings everything up in Technicolor.

Almost everyone who lands on these shores has the Great Barrier Reef at the top of their "Best Things to See in Australia" list. So they should, because it really is a glorious natural masterpiece that no one should die without seeing. Also high on most folks' must-see' list is Ayers Rock, and the desert around the rock is even more spectacular than the rock. The third attraction on most visitors' lists is Sydney, the Emerald City that glitters in the Antipodean sunshine on the best harbor, spanned by the best bridge in the world.

But as planes zoom overhead delivering visitors to these "big three" attractions, Aussies in charming country towns, on far-flung beaches, on rustic sheep stations, in rain-forest villages, and in mountain lodges shake their heads and say sadly, "They don't know what they're missin'."

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New Zealand

No part of the country is more than 79 miles from the sea, and a coastline spread with splendid beaches dishes up thousands of beautiful coastal walks and chances to surf and soak in the sun. In New Zealand accommodations range from budget to exclusive. You can shop 7 days a week, whoop it up at clubs and bars 24 hours a day, or savor a glass of internationally recognized New Zealand wine in an inexpensive cafe. You can get real coffee in as many variations as you can imagine, and New Zealand's fresh, innovative cuisine will leave you breathless and begging for more.

Small-town pride is beaming, and farmers are turning their hands to boutique tour operations and gorgeous restored B&Bs to supplement farm incomes, changing the whole nature of many backwater rural districts. Yet you'll still find, at its core, the very Kiwi hospitality that has made this country famous.

New Zealand is also a winter magnet for international skiers and is the white-knuckle capital of the world. This is where you can push it to the limits, pit yourself against your fears and limitations, and go for it--leaping off bridges into surging river gorges attached to a giant rubber band, or taking a stab at luging, zorbing, sky diving, paragliding, kayaking, white-water rafting, and jet-boating. There's no lack of invention when it comes to adrenaline-pumping activities in this country.

But you don't have to be an extreme athlete to enjoy New Zealand. There are just as many ways to be laid-back and indulgent--tour wineries that have stampeded their way to the top of world ratings in record time; take in the wealth of Polynesian and Maori culture that forms the backbone of an increasingly multicultural society; or check out the strong historical and architectural reminders of a colonial past. There are lush gardens, art galleries, museums, and plenty of one-off reminders that New Zealand is like no other place.