Related New Caledonia Favorites Tips

Favorite thing: One of the best things about New Caledonia is the it feels largely unspoilt by tourism.

Only Noumea and the outer islands have a range of those typical South Pacific-style hotels and resorts and get a noticeable number of visitors, and even there, the majority of them are French holidaymakers, rather than foreign tourists.
These are also the places where cruise-ships stop every now and then - but they are gone the same day.

In rural parts of Grande Terre, the most interesting part of the territory, you are most unlikely to meet any foreign tourists, and the campsites and other accomodation seem to cater mostly to young metros exploring the island on weekends and during holidays.
Noumea's excellent youth hostel is also usually filled with young metros, recently arrived from France in search of work, rather than foreign backpackers.

This may be bad news if you come here expecting to mingle with your own kind, but if you want to have beautiful, friendly places all for yourself, you won't go wrong here!

Favorite thing: New Caledonia has some of the very best-organized and most informative tourist offices in the entire South Pacific region!
Staff speak English, have excellent brochures and maps, lists and rates of accomodation around the territory, schedules and fares for buses and ships... you name it!

All three provinces also have their own tourism websites.
They are worth a look:

Noumea & Southern Province

Northern Province

Loyalty Islands

Favorite thing: Just to show you that Noumea isn't just an idyllic paradise where everybody lives by the coast in tropical beach huts....
The local bus dropped us off in this area when we wanted to go to the Zoo (which was closed for Siesta).
The area looked rather poor indeed, and was quite a surprise, as though some areas in Noumea looked rather simple, I wasn't expecting to see high rise apartments such as these, in quite a barren landscape so far removed from the area near our hotel.

Favorite thing: If you get the chance, get out into the countryside around the city of Noumea.

Unfortunately, all we managed to see of it were some good views between the airport and the city, which was quite some distance.

Here is what must be a traditional village hut.

Favorite thing: My one trip out of the centre of Noumea (since I was young and couldn't afford more than 1 expensive day trip) was to Phare Amedee, pictured here.
It was a great choice of daytrip, leaving from the Noumea waterfront on a nice large cabin cruiser, with nice on board Polonesian music played by a couple of guys with guitars.

Here we are, arriving at the Island.

Favorite thing: My favorite memory of New Caledonia was spending New Year's Eve with my travelling companions at a beachside restaurant at our hotel, seeing all the cars doing laps of the beachfront area, and the brilliant fireworks they let off at midnight.

Fondest memory: The whole tropical feel of Noumea was great.

Favorite thing: Take a day trip out to the neighbouring islands. See the locals and appreciate their simple way of life.

Fondest memory: Watching the locals from Lifou take on the the boys from the cruise in a game of soccer. International relations at its best.

Favorite thing: rent a mountain bike. You can find the nicest places with the bike. One beach is as more beautiful as the other on.
Sometimes you find a beach in front of a cows under palms. It is really funny. At first you see a wonderful white beach and a very nice sea with the nicest colours of blue and directly behind it, you see cows chewing the gras. Smile!!!