Do you want a holiday that is truly unique? You might be thinking of someplace that offers beaches and sailing opportunities, plus the cuisine and ambiance of a metropolitan city. A perfect vacation that offers all of this is a trip to the French settlement of New Caledonia, located between Australia and Fiji.

This island is located farther south compared to other South Pacific islands, benefiting from southeast trade winds, lots of sunshine and balmy weather. If a sailing holiday is what you are thinking to have, New Caledonia is situated in a part of the Pacific that has the most remarkable coral lagoon in the world. Sailing charters are available and with the aid 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 find everything you could want on New Caledonia. New Caledonia’s capital, Noumea, is often referred to as the Paris of the Pacific. Noumea boasts delicate gourmet French food and wine along with the other benefits of a active cosmo town. You can find some of the South Pacific’s finest restaurants here. Colonized by France in 1853, New Caledonia has a well-defined French influence when it comes to food and wine.

There are plenty 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 speciality 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, combined with sweet potatoes and bananas wrapped in banana leaves and then cooked covered in sand on hot stones. For the adventurous traveller on a gastronome holiday, you can taste a dish common 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 by the beach.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under Eating Fun, Travel Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.