New Caledonia is not necessarily famous for service, although the bar went up in many places in recent years.
In my eyes, and although the place in itself is nothing to write home about, the Hotel Koniambo sets the bar very high with the most amazing staff and dedication.
The 'Bonsoir' and smile at reception, a large and clean room, a good bed, the most effective waiters with the great and varied buffet at night made this week's stay in Kone a very pleasant one.
The manager who recently took over told me how proud he was about the staff that had taken ownership of their workplace and would do anything they can to make it a great experience for guests.
This is obviously not a seaside resort hotel, since it's about 2.5 k from the centre of Koné, across the street from Koné airport and at this stage mainly a hotel for people working on the newly built Koniambo Nickel mine and metallurgical complex.
If you wish to go for a run, expect to run along the road for about 1 k before you can take other streets/tracks.
I was there for three nights this week and the only trouble I experienced was with the WIFI network. It worked OK for emails on the first 2 nights (skype did not), but on night 3, there was just no way to making it work, no matter what I tried.
But since I had an excellent internet connection on the mine, the WIFI troubles were not really an issue and allowed me to enjoy the evening buffet and great service without working.
