A wilder side of the South Pacific

It receives far fewer visitors than Tahiti and the like – at only about 120,000 a year – and it doesn’t have any really “starry” hotels. But with its golden beaches, “glistening” reefs and excellent food, the French overseas territory of New Caledonia has everything you need for a “memorable South Pacific holiday”, says Nigel Tisdall in the FT. Named by its first European visitor, Captain Cook, in 1774, the archipelago was annexed by France in 1853 and run for many years as a penal colony. Today, its capital, Nouméa, has “all the hallmarks of a French city”, including “chic shoppers”, aggressive drivers and “massive out of town hypermarchés”. But it’s also home to the striking Centre Culturel Tjibaou, a collection of “egg-shaped” pavilions conceived by architect Renzo Piano to celebrate the culture of the indigenous Kanak people. And the rest of the “baguette-shaped”, 250-mile-long main island, Grande Terre, offers wilder charms.

From the island’s mountain spine, you could head up the “long, winding” road to the “enchanting” Parc des Grandes Fougères, where dense forests are home to giant palms and kagu, an endemic flightless bird with a “disdainful” demeanour. The northeast coast has a delightfully Caribbean air, with its colourful houses, rum shops and honesty stalls selling fruit and jewellery. There’s fine snorkelling to enjoy off the white sand beach of Plage de Poé. And the tourist board can arrange for you to visit a Kanak tribu (clan) in the village of Tiendanite, where the flower-covered graves of Kanak separatists are a sobering reminder of the archipelago’s darker history. See www.newcaledonia.travel for more information.