Kleon Howe, of The Art of Travel, at Bar Bambino, Saturday, June 2, 2007.

by Brook Wilkinson

I had lunch at the new Bar Bambino in San Francisco's Mission District this past Saturday with Kleon Howe, French Polynesia travel agent extraordinaire. (He's on Conde Nast Traveler's list of the world's best travel specialists, Wendy featured him in the accompanying article back in 2004, and our readers rave about him.) Kleon fell in love with French Polynesia and the Cook Islands early into an 11-and-a-half year sailing trip around the world -- the Cook Islanders were so impressed that he arrived there under his own power than they gave him a Polynesian name: Fai Nui, or Big Manta Ray.

Kleon loves to introduce his clients to the local cultures of French Polynesia and the Cook Islands, and one of the best times to do that, he told me, is mid-July. That's when Heiva takes place, a huge festival with traditional dancing and sport competitions. Teams from all over French Polynesia's 5 archipelagos congregate on Tahiti around Bastille Day to show off their singing, dancing, drumming, tattooing, weaving, canoeing, and other traditional skills. I'd love to see the spear-throwing competition, when the athletes aim at a coconut on top of a tall pole. I'm a sucker for local festivals (like the Pushkar Camel Fair) anywhere in the world, but Kleon told me that Heiva is a particularly great time to be in Tahiti because the French Polynesians are usually a bit reserved, and this is when you can see them at their most relaxed. The only hitch is that you must have a flexible schedule, because each year the specific dates aren't released until May -- but if you're looking to go somewhere next month, Kleon can still get you flights and accommodations during Heiva 2007.

What other tidbits did I pick up from Kleon?