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When I started planning my honeymoon, my first thought was of the Maldives. An overwater bungalow surrounded by sparkling, pristine water sounded like just the thing – relaxing but memorable. Something a little more distinctive than our other resort holidays. Then I found out that from Sydney it takes anywhere from 16 to 22 hours flying time each way to get the Maldives via Singapore. That seemed like a lot of money and a very long way to go to sit by (OK, above) the water. So I went looking for overwater bungalows a little closer to home and found DoubleTree by Hilton Noumea Ilot Maitre Resort. In addition to bungalows perched over stunning water, Noumea is just a 3 hour direct flight from Sydney.
Accommodation
This was one of those rare holidays for me where the accommodation is a major feature. Usually I just want somewhere clean, comfortable and conveniently located to sleep in. But this time the accommodation was a highlight. The overwater bungalows are huge. Ours had a large living room, balcony with day bed, king-size bed and huge bathroom. The living room and bedroom had massive windows, so no matter what you’re doing you see water everywhere. It really is every bit as good as it looks in the photos on their website: https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/noudidi-doubletree-noumea-ilot-maitre-resort
Of course, the real appeal of staying here was being able to lower the stairs down from the bungalow and go swimming. It was brilliant! The water was refreshing but not too cold. You could just sit on your private steps in the water or dangle your feet in. You can wander inside at any time for a drink of cold water or a glass of wine. There’s no sand to get everywhere. In the evenings, we’d watch the sunset from our balcony and then head to the restaurant for dinner. Bliss.
The king deluxe overwater bungalows cost around 35,000 pacific francs as of Feb-2024, which is around $490 Australian dollars.
Wildlife
Because the resort is inside a marine reserve, the water is crystal clear. We saw turtles every morning and afternoon from the balcony. We could see lots of fish both from above the water and while swimming. The water is so clear you didn’t even need to go snorkelling to see the wildlife clearly, but there is snorkel equipment for hire if you’d like to. You can also hire kayaks. We saw so much from our bungalow and while swimming that we did not feel the need to do any of those things.
Food
Breakfast
We found the food at DoubleTree by Hilton Noumea Ilot Maitre Resort to be a bit hit and miss. The breakfast buffet was always very good and had a large range – eggs, ham, sausages, pommes noisettes (potato gems), cheese, sautéed vegetables, noodles, fruit, yoghurt, pastries, bread, coffee (from a machine, but still).
Quick tip – Only choose coffee with cream if you like coffee creamer, like they have in the US. Apparently it’s typically made from water, sugar, and vegetable oil so it is a very weird experience for your taste buds to get creamer when they are expecting real cream.
Lunch
Lunch options were a lot more limited. The options were basically a full buffet at the restaurant (6,900 pacific francs per person, or around $95 Australian dollars) or the Beach Shack for a casual, eat outside option, like burger and chips, steak and chips, panini and chips. We prefer to eat smaller meals and healthy snacks instead of large meals, so we bought some cheeses and bread and other snacks at the supermarket and made our own lunches.
Dinner
For dinner, the restaurant gives you 3 options:
1. a full buffet (6,900 pacific francs per person, or around $95 Australian dollars)
2. Cold buffet with dessert (4,900 pacific francs per person, or around $68 Australian dollars)
3. Hot buffet with dessert (4,900 pacific francs per person, or around $68 Australian dollars)
If you’re a Hilton Honors member, you get a 10% discount of the cost of a full buffet. It’s free to join, so if the buffet appeals to you it is worth signing up for the Hilton Honors membership program.
https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/join/
We typically don’t eat very large meals, so our preferred option was to go to the bar next to the restaurant, sit at the outdoor tables, order a seafood platter of tuna and coconut salad, smoked tuna, prawns or oysters, warm baguette, and a Greek salad.
We enjoyed this meal so much we had it just about every night. It was a generous portion for 2 of us and we sometimes struggled to finish it. Our seafood platter with a Greek salad and a drink each cost us 8,600 pacific francs, or around $120 Australian dollars. So only slightly more than we would have paid for a full buffet for just one person.
I was a little disappointed overall by the food choices. I didn’t do my research and I had assumed lunch and dinner would be a la carte, probably something mostly local with a little French flair. This was really the only disappointing part of our stay. The food was excellent quality and generous portions, just not the variety I had expected.
The bar serves pizzas but we baulked at paying $40 for a basic pizza. They also serve ‘buckets’ of chicken or fish which is a variety of fried fish or fried chicken with chips.
This is the room service menu and there were extra charges for delivery, but the individual item prices were the same as at the bar.
Getting there
The ferry to the resort departs from Port Moselle, which is about a 45 minute drive from La Tontouta International Airport. The trip from Port Moselle to the resort takes around 30 minutes. Transfers between 7am and 5pm are on the larger ferry that seats 96 people. Outside those hours the transfers are on a much smaller, 12 person boat. You need to book your spot in advance.
There is a Double Tree Hilton kiosk next to the ferry wharf in Port Moselle where you check in. It is right next door to Le Bout Du Monde restaurant if you want to grab a bite while waiting for the ferry.
For more information on how much we paid for everything else including flights, transport and room rate, check out this post.
Service
The service was consistently very good. All the staff were polite and helpful.
The verdict
It was amazing! Before we had left we were already planning to go back. If you’re planning a visit to DoubleTree by Hilton Noumea Ilot Maitre Resort, be sure to check out this post of helpful travel tips:
https://www.katsjourneys.travel/top-8-travel-tips-for-visiting-noumea/
