Nouvelle-Calédonie

imhotep

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  • Mar 29, 2017
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    We have been to New Caledonia before but only to Noumea, and the Isle of Pines plus another island. This time we flew in last Saturday to Noumea and staying for a week. Hired a 9 seater van as we have four others plus the three of us. Staying in a house away from Noumea, four double bedrooms .
    It's in Paita about 30 min away from La Tontouta airport on the way to Noumea. A private beach front reservation with a boat at the doorstep.

    Yesterday we drove to Bourail - about 2 hr drive from Noumea (160 kms). The most fantastic beaches. We went in there after mid day, you could walk more than 1 km into the sea with water levels not higher than the chest, very calm and the most warm sea water. No pollution, absolutely clean beaches. Only patches of seaweed around. No stones, the sea floor sandy.
    Fabulous.





     

    imhotep

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  • Mar 29, 2017
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    It seems like you are the first of all the travelling guys in Elakiri. You travel a lot. What is the secret?
    The secret is to plan long ahead and buy the airfares when low. Also book the accommodation early. My wife does all these. She already booked everything for Mexico 14 day tour in March. That's the best and peak time to visit Mexico.
    I only hire a car and drive. That's also now outsourced. My son drives mostly. Only if he feels sleepy he stops the car and let me drive. He drives both manual & auto and quite good whether it's LHD or RHD.

    Also I had a friend who could source very competitive airfares. He worked for an airfare consolidator based in BKK. Sadly he passed away - peak Covid period. So no more deals. :(
     

    Honda.putha

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  • Dec 26, 2017
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    The secret is to plan long ahead and buy the airfares when low. Also book the accommodation early. My wife does all these. She already booked everything for Mexico 14 day tour in March. That's the best and peak time to visit Mexico.
    I only hire a car and drive. That's also now outsourced. My son drives mostly. Only if he feels sleepy he stops the car and let me drive. He drives both manual & auto and quite good whether it's LHD or RHD.

    Also I had a friend who could source very competitive airfares. He worked for an airfare consolidator based in BKK. Sadly he passed away - peak Covid period. So no more deals. :(
    The cost of travelling is important too but how about the time? For example even though someone has enough money they may be restricted due to education of children or job demanding.
    Anyway it is really good you travels a lot.

    If you can, plan a trip around the globe in one go. :-)

    780px-Around_the_World_in_Eighty_Days_map.png
     
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    imhotep

    Well-known member
  • Mar 29, 2017
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    The cost of travelling is important too but how about the time? For example even though someone has enough money they may be restricted due to education of children or job demanding.
    Anyway it is really good you travels a lot.

    If you can, plan a trip around the globe in one go. :-)

    780px-Around_the_World_in_Eighty_Days_map.png
    We have only one son. He's been travelling with us ever since he could walk. He never bothers us, we never carried him (in fact, we have to run after him) - we lost him in France and again in Canada when he was small. That's another story. We educated him well with all these activities. We never pushed him to achieve targets. He's an independent being and doesn't have to follow us.
    He now can stand on his own feet and we don't expect too much from him. One day he will leave us. He's still more attached with my mother, obviously because she's the one who raised him up mostly.
    At the moment he's an asset while travelling because he remembers airports, city locations etc (specially the car rental pickups and returns). He's an excellent swimmer, diver and we feel safe when he's around us.

    BTW we have covered a lot of places around the World except the North Korea, Russia. Also we go for short breaks, the longest being just more than 5 but at most 6 weeks in the South Americas and Africa. These are countries that are large and once you visit cover the most and don't plan to revisit.
    We will not consider planning round the globe. But some countries we have visited more than once, visited both US & Canada about four times, and again to the US in next March. Flying in to Mexico is from the US and also we have close relatives. We also planned a visit to Cuba, but my cousins said don't even think about it. Cuba is blacklisted by the US and if you visit Cuba.. finished. :unsure: