A week in Guadeloupe

We recently traveled to Guadeloupe to start our backpacking trip of the Southern Caribbean Islands. Guadeloupe is a french overseas region,  however they do speak English on the island as a second language.

How to get to Guadeloupe

 Guadeloupe was the easiest island for us to travel to from Boston, catching a flight with Delta/Air France to Guadeloupe via Atlanta. The flights were pretty reasonable price wise, and we received a meal on the Atlanta to Guadeloupe portion which was good however there was no in flight entertainment which made for a boring 4 hour flight. On landing at Guadeloupe airport you disembark on the tarmac and then make your way to passport control who don’t ask any questions just stamp you passport and then we collected our luggage.

Travelling around the island

To travel around Guadeloupe we rented a vehicle so we could explore the Island at our own pace.  On arrival you will make your way over to the rental car desks which for a small airport was extremely busy, be prepared to be patient and wait awhile. They will go through all the details of your reservation and then you are to catch a shuttle to the car collection area where they will give you the keys and check the car with you, they do not speak much English so make sure to take photos of the cars if you cant speak French so they don’t try to take advantage of you for pre-existing damage to the car, ie our car had cigarette burns in the car seat. The roads are pretty safe to drive on, just remember its an Island so they do drive pretty fast and careless. The rental car company we went with was Sixt as they were the cheapest and most reputable.

Where to Stay

There are many different areas of Guadeloupe you can stay from downtown business district Pointe a Pitre where the big cruise lines pull into port to our in the different towns around the Island. We stayed at a nice Air Bnb near Saint-Francois right on the beach in a secured gated community. The complex was an old hotel which had been converted into beach front apartments.

Things to see and do on Grande-Terre Island

Point Des Colibris is about a 15 minute drive from the town of Saint-Francois, on arrival at the car park you can do a small hike up a hill to where the giant cross is situated and gives you a great overlook of  the eastern side of Grand Terre and the Caribbean Sea. After the hike you can walk back along the beach. Make sure to stop at one of the local vendor stalls to try the local delicacy for sale guava sorbet its a nice refreshing treat after the hike. Porte De Enefe  is a lovely ocean spot where you can walk along the cliffs and see a few hidden swimming spots, it is about half way between Saint Francois and Gros Cap. If you drive along the D120 main road through the town of Moule and Gros Cap to make your way to a fantastic coastal overlook and picnic spot Pointe De la Grande Vigie. If not wanting to venture to the other side of Grand Terre there are great beach swimming and a picnic spots at Plage De Bois Jolan, you can sit among the coconut trees just watch out for falling coconuts. Also make sure to stop at the town of Saint Anne its right next to the beach and has some cool local market stall selling local foods and arts.

Things to see and do on Basse Terre

The other part of Guadeloupe to explore is Basse Terre you will need a at least two days to see everything on this part of the Island. As if you are staying near Saint francious area like we did it will take you a good 2 hours just to get across the Island and onto the bridge to cross over onto Basse Terre, also note if you go on a weekend day there will be a lot of traffic.

We spent two days exploring Basse Terre, driving around the whole Island stopping at a few beaches, towns and tourist spots along the way. A nice swimming spot is Grande- Anse beach, the parking area is quite small for the beach but it is worth stopping if you can find a park. To swim inland we stopped at waterfall in the middle of Basse Terre called Cascade aux Ecrevisses, we did have to wait to take turns to swim in the small waterhole under the waterfall as it was packed with tourists but definitely worth it. While driving around Base Terre,  I stumbled across a Cacao Plantation museum called La Maison Du Cacao, this place was really interesting for us as I love chocolate and never knew what the Cacao tree looked like or how it was processed. The museum costs 7 euro per adult for entry and you get to walk around there Cacao garden, learn about how the plant is processed and then do some tastings of Cacao, they offer presentations in English and French.  Also if you like animals make sure to stop in at Zoo de Guadeloupe ay Parc Des Mamieles, the entry fee is 15 Euro per adult. The zoo is definitely different you can do a treetop walk over the zoo which was fun and see some of the local animals found in the Caribbean.