An exerpt from a Travels with Lonely Planet column which appeared in the LA Times June 25, 2006. It was also published by several other major US newspapers.

Anyone who regularly visits Tahiti's Faa'a International Airport knows the travel trends: Every time a flight to Bora-Bora comes up on the departure screen, hordes of well-heeled foreigners line up like lemmings at the check-in counter.

Although the name "Tahiti" conjures up images of a white-sand paradise, white sand is rare in Tahiti, so most visitors hustle to the airport or ferry dock for Bora-Bora, Moorea or Huahine. This obsession with white sand has enabled Tahiti Iti, with one of French Polynesia's most sumptuous landscapes, to rest relatively unvisited even though it is only an hour's drive from Papeete, the country's capital . . .

To read more go to: www.latimes.com/travel/destinations/pacific/