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The Meridien pool was beautiful and room service staff lovely. 'The Roof' restaurant was fabulous with top class chefs. Pizza place was very good. Not that easy to get around so have to take a bus [waiting a lot for this] to get around unless you hire a car and drive on RHS of road with very fast local drivers. [be very careful crossing road as they don't always stop at pedestrian crossings and cars are going the opposite way to what we are used to] Extremely expensive and info on 'what to do' was pretty much by 'word of mouth'. very few maps or brochures - all online] Not good at promoting their island. Alot of signs in French with no translations to English. Sharks are very hungry so no beach swimming unless within the very small enclosure with shark net. [knee to waist high water] Outer island trip for the day to Lighthouse was fun and glad we did this. beautiful lunch supplied and festive dance [watch out for Banded Krate sea snakes on land] Aquarium was fabulous with extensive range of sea life. corals and plankton very good. Wide range of cuisines and cafes to try different food styles. Great place to go and just relax and chill by the pool and fantastic gym facilities at Meridien- Relaxation was what we were after.

Great little city - very pleasant and plenty to do on a pacific island. Not ideal as a single base as island roads aren't that fast but works for seeing the south of the island and easy enough to get buses, rent a car and walk around the city. Nice green spaces, views and various day trips and places to go for food.

For a kiwi, Noumea is pretty expensive. Cheap and quick to get to, but the pricing is set about the same as the French are used to in euros. Food is expensive but nice quality. Seafood is often cheaper than the beef option and the beef is from NZ anyway, so go the seafood - yum! Cultural experiences (museum, aquarium) are oddly cheap. The bus service is great, modern and seemed reliable. The beach is lovely and has a long wide paved promenade which is nice to walk/run on in the day, or eat at tables there in the evenings. The beach has a lot of fish we could see, but was closed (Anse Vata) when were there due to shark attacks. For a pacific island, it had no big bugs anywhere although a quite few snakes on Amadee Island but they kept to themselves.

We loved the choices in the supermarket, the weather, the efficient bus route and the beaches. However it is expensive for travellers. We stayed in an apartment and catered for ourselves, which was definitely more cost effective.

Absolutely loved my visit to Noumea, the people are friendly and helpful even though English is limited which is my only language. we found it difficult to find our way around as everything is written in French and there didn't seem to be easy access to maps and information . we bumbled our way around in the first few days we were there but that was part of the charm. we had expected it to be very expensive and indeed it was probably the most expensive country I have ever visited however we knew that when we went and we did take some food with us in the form of snacks and breakfast items. we enjoyed finding our way around I travelling on local buses it was intended to have a relaxing holiday and even though we walked many kilometres it was very restful for us both in body mind and spirit .highly recommend Noumea and look forward to my return trip to explore more of New Caledonia, next time by car.

Noumea is a great place to visit for a week. The people are very friendly and helpful. The buses are very easy to use so you don't really need to hire a car. Bluewave Wifi was also fast and reliable and worked in some locations outside our apartment. We also hired a Pocket Wifi device from the airport which was quite expensive and i don't think we fully appreciated how to use is. Probably didn't need it as BlueWave Wifi worked well. Food is vey good but quite expensive if eating out all the time. We averaged about $160 a meal for 3 adults and that was 3 mains and 3 drinks. Take the taxi boat from the beach next to Cafe Le Fun to Isle de Matre for a day trip. Its about $40NZ for a return trip that takes 15mins each way. Good day out.