New Caledonia
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Travel Tips
I would recommend to book every hotel a few days ahead. There are not a lot of rooms, so even at low season they are mostly full. Some of them even close on weekends. Unfortunately its rare to find English speaking staff at the reception, but if you ask them, they usually do the booking for you.
Sven Bosser, Switzerland (Aug 03)
Telephone. There are telephone cards, but they are expensive relative to Australia, for example, where the rate for a call to the United States at any time can be as low as 200 minutes for A$10.00 or A4.9¢ a minute, with no commission fee. A New Caledonia card, at 1040 CFP, will buy about 8 minutes to the United States. At the current rate of exchange, that's more that US$1.00 a minute. Believe it or not, it cost about half that amount to make a call to the United States from our hotel in Noumea (60 CFP a minute).
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, USA (June 02)
Camping: Spots that we particularly liked were the east coast beaches at Poindimie (free), Touho (very cheap) and Plage Mahmat (free). There is no camping in Noumea.
Money: We were advised that we needed to take cash outside Noumea but we found that almost all retailers accepted Visa and that there were banks throughout the island, many of which had ATMs.
Eating: Tends to be expensive everywhere. In Noumea you can save by eating brakfast/lunch at the market from 5:00 - 11:00 am (not Monday) and take away dinner from the wagonettes in the parking area opposite the markets. We ate there on Sunday night when other places were closed but we don't know if they are there other nights.
Telephones: All public phones require phone card and charge for many information services. Local calls are timed. You can't make reverse charge calls from public phones. We wasted a lot of money finding this out.
Weather: We were there in June. Days were generally warm enough to swim and lie in the sun but night temperatures were chilly and needed sweaters. Definitely take a sleeping bag if you are camping.
Leah Bloomfield & Robin Nahum, (June 01)
Moving About
Local Buses in Noumea. Once you are on the street, ask where the bus actually stops because the stop may not (yet) be indicated. Look for a post with an icon of a blue bus (no matter what color the bus line). If there is a bus post, it may not be marked in any way. If it is marked, a sign will indicate the bus line by number and color, a bus route, and the direction the bus is going. Whether or not there is a bus post, look for a bus shelter and/or a striped area on the road, where the bus pulls over to stop. Be sure to ask the driver where you should go to get a bus going in the direction of your return trip because sometimes the bus will make a circle along part of the route or travel down one-way streets, which means that you cannot count on getting the return bus on the opposite side of the street.
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, USA (June 02)
Neither the bus map nor the bus stops indicate the bus schedule, except to specify that the buses run every fifteen minutes. You are not told that that the buses do not run at night and, depending on the line, they may cease to run after five on the weekend. If in doubt, ask a bus driver in any bus that comes along. All in all, we found the buses clean and pleasant. The driver plays his favorite popular music and we enjoyed being in the company of local people. All boat transportation schedules from Noumea to the Loyalty Islands have been changed due to the introduction of BETICO, a new fast ferry service which connects the capital city to the minor islands.
Luca & Mirna, Italy (Sep 01)
Cycling: The roads are excellent, except between Hienghene and Pouebo, and the hills are not too demanding if you stay on the coast. We didn't attempt to ride across the central mountain range and there were no problems loading our cycles on the large Mercedes coaches.
Leah Bloomfield, (June 01)
Every morning bunches of cyclists pedal round the bays of Noumea, resplendent in colourful lycra. The usual circuit is between Bai d'Orphelinat and Anse Vata.
Patrick Morgan, New Zealand (May 01)
The bus system in Noumea has changed completely. It now costs 180 CPF for one hour of travel and instead of numbers, the buses have colours, eg, 'the green line'. The old bus stations have been removed and the new interchange is at Montravel.
Irene Wyneham, UK (Feb 01)
Gems, Highlights & Attractions
Finding Nemo. The fish that features in the movie Finding Nemo (a clown fish) can be found near Bourail. Go to the beach at the Plage de Poe camping ground at low tide (four in the afternoon when we were there) and Walk out about 8-900 metres to the reef. Make sure to wear sandals or other footwear as sea shells can inflict poisonous stings if you tread on them (I noticed all the locals wearing some type of foot covering). Snorkel around until you find a sea anemone and then wait. After a short while Nemo will appear!
Michael Sullivan, Australia (Sept 03)
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