Do you want a vacation that is truly breathtaking? Fancy somewhere with a beach 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 about halfway between Fiji and Australia.

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 most remarkable coral lagoon in the world. Sailing charters are available and with the help of the trade winds you can sail out of the capital city of Noumea along the coastal line, past the many small islands that dot the ocean around the New Caledonia. The island also offers other outdoor activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling, horseback riding, canoeing, and kayaking.

If you were thinking of a gourmet holiday, New Caledonia has loads to offer. New Caledonia’s capital city, Noumea, also known as the Paris of the Pacific. Noumea features fine gourmet French food and wine along with the other benefits of a active cosmopolitan town. Some of the world-class restaurants in the South Pacific can be found here. 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 places to eat, ranging from sidewalk cafes to high-class bistros. French cuisine is easy to come by, but other alternatives 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 Noumea’s national dishes is Bougna, which is fish or chicken, mixed with sweet potatoes and bananas wrapped in banana leaves and then cooked covered in sand on hot stones. For the adventurous traveler on a gourmet holiday, you can try a dish popular 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 Sunday, October 25th, 2009 at 12:10 am and is filed under Food + Nutrients, Lots Of Travel Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.