The Tifler Blog

Do you want a holiday that is truly extraordinary? Fancy somewhere with a beach and sailing opportunities, plus the cuisine and atmosphere of a metropolitan city. A perfect vacation that provides all of this is a trip to the French colony of New Caledonia, located between Australia and Fiji.

This island is situated farther south compared to other South Pacific islands, benefiting from southeast trade winds, plenty of sunshine and warm weather. If a sailing holiday is what you are looking for, New Caledonia is situated in a part of the Pacific that has the largest coral lagoon in the globe. Sailing charters are available and with the assistance of the trade winds you can sail out of the capital city of Noumea along the coastline, past the many small islands that dot the ocean around the New Caledonia. Other outdoor activities on the Island are scuba diving, snorkeling, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.

If you were thinking of a gourmet holiday, you can get everything you could want on New Caledonia. New Caledonia’s capital city, Noumea, also known as the Paris of the Pacific. Noumea boasts fine gourmet French food and wine along with the other benefits of a active cosmopolitan town. The restaurants here are some of the best in the South Pacific. Claimed by the French in 1853, New Caledonia has a well-defined French influence when it comes to food and wine.

There are lots of restaurants, ranging from sidewalk cafes to high-class bistros. French cuisine is easy to come by, but other options include Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and African food. Seafood is a specialty of the Island, including spiny lobster, prawns, crab, and mangrove oysters. One of New Caledonia’s national dishes is Bougna, which is fish or chicken, mixed with sweet potatoes and bananas wrapped in banana leaves and then steamed covered in sand on hot stones. For the adventurous traveller on a gastronome vacation, you can sample a dish favourite with the locals, bat stew.

You can make a holiday to New Caledonia anything you want it to be: a sailing holiday, a gourmet holiday, or a time to just relax on the beaches.