Car hire wise idea?

Hi,

Me and my girlfriend are travelling to Noumea for 2 days before taking off to Ile-des-Pins.

We'll be staying at Le Meridien. I heard it's a good hotel, but a bit out the way of the city centre. A friend told me that taxis are expensive and very hard to get by, and given the distance of some top attractions such as Tjibaou, we were advised to definitely rent a car.

Car hire rates I've seen with Tontouta pickup and Magenta drop-off are about $160-200 minimum, incl. insurance.

Do you think it would be worth it?

I think our plan would be as follows:
Saturday: Get from Tontouta Airport into the hotel around 1pm. Maybe visit the Aquarium and have dinner nearby or in Anse Vata.
Sunday: Expore city centre incl. Mwa Ka and New Caledonian Museum, walk around Place de Cocotiers, and of course visit Tjibaou.
Monday: Relax in the morning, in the hotel or walk around Anse Vata.

What would the above cost us in taxis? Would it be worth to bother with the car, given the parking/fuel charges and the obvious hassle.

What do you think?

Thanks in advance to all replies.

hi gypsyinabigtown,

i live in noumea and can tell you one thing or few:
from the airport you can get a shuttle bus with your hotel if you ask them to reserve it for you, about 2500 cfp one way per person. anse vata and aquarium are walking distance from meridien hotel as it is located at the end of the anse vata bay, it make a nice 15-20 min walk alongside the beach. just behind aquarium there's lemon bay with lots of restaurants and bars, less than a minute to walk :)
ps. aquarium is closed on mondays.

from meridien hotel and anse vata you can quite easily catch a local bus or get a taxi to the city centre which will cost you about au$15 one way, tjibaou centre may be a bit more.

lastly being just at the bottom of the ouen toro hilltops i'd recommend walking to the top of it, it's only about 128m high but the road is gentle and you have some pretty amazing views on noumea peninsula and the lagoon around :)

you can get a car if you want, but honestly I wouldn't bother too much if you're staying in noumea only 2 days. shuttle bus and taxis will suffice easily plus it will allow you to have a cocktail or two and not worry who's gonna drive.

hope this helps, unless you've been here already then this whole message is a bit too late LOL

have fun
xx