Pointe-à-Pitre
The main city and port, with a market, the ACTe memorial museum and ferry links.
Guadeloupe travel guide
Things to do in Guadeloupe
A butterfly-shaped archipelago that is legally part of France: an active volcano, a rainforest national park, and euros in the Caribbean.
€25
A dorm bed, from
1,467m
La Soufrière volcano
€
Euros, and Schengen rules
5
Islands in the archipelago
France, in the Caribbean
Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France, which means euros, French administration, EU healthcare arrangements and baguettes — alongside Creole culture, gwoka drumming and a Caribbean climate.
The main island is shaped like a butterfly. Basse-Terre, the western wing, is mountainous and green, with a national park covering much of it, the Carbet waterfalls, and La Soufrière, an active volcano you can climb in a few hours. Grande-Terre, the eastern wing, is flat, drier, and has the beaches and most of the tourism.
Offshore, Les Saintes is a small archipelago with one of the most beautiful bays in the world by common reckoning, and Marie-Galante is flat, rural and known for rum.
Ten days covers both wings and an island. French helps enormously — English is limited outside hotels.
Where to go
Ferries link the islands. A hire car is the practical way around the main one.
Basse-Terre
The mountainous wing: national park, waterfalls and La Soufrière volcano.
Sainte-Anne
Grande-Terre's beach town, with calm lagoon water and a lively market.
Deshaies
1 hostel · dorms from €25
A fishing village in the north-west, with beaches and a botanical garden.
Les Saintes
An archipelago offshore with a famous bay, Terre-de-Haut being the main island.
Marie-Galante
Flat, rural and quiet, with rum distilleries and empty beaches.
Saint-François
The eastern tip of Grande-Terre: the cliffs of Pointe des Châteaux, white coves and boats to Petite-Terre.
What kind of trip is this?
Guadeloupe is a hiking and beach trip with French food and Creole culture.
Adventure in Guadeloupe
A volcano, a rainforest park and waterfalls.
What to do
- Climb La Soufrière
- The Carbet waterfalls
- Dive the Cousteau reserve
Spots to visit
- La Soufrière
- Carbet Falls
- Cousteau Reserve
Best cities for it
Beach in Guadeloupe
Calm lagoons on one wing, wild coast on the other.
What to do
- Sainte-Anne's lagoon
- Plage de Grande Anse at Deshaies
- Pain de Sucre on Les Saintes
Spots to visit
- Sainte-Anne
- Grande Anse
- Les Saintes
Best cities for it
Food in Guadeloupe
Creole cooking and French baking in the same place.
What to do
- Accras and boudin créole
- A bokit sandwich
- Rum from a distillery on Marie-Galante
Spots to visit
- Pointe-à-Pitre market
- Sainte-Anne
- Marie-Galante
Best cities for it
Culture in Guadeloupe
Gwoka drumming, Creole identity and a slavery memorial museum.
What to do
- The Mémorial ACTe
- A gwoka performance
- Rum distillery history on Marie-Galante
Spots to visit
- Mémorial ACTe
- Pointe-à-Pitre
- Marie-Galante
Best cities for it
Budget in Guadeloupe
Pricey, with supermarkets and bokits as the answer.
What to do
- Bokits from a roadside van
- Supermarket picnics
- Gîtes over hotels
Spots to visit
- Sainte-Anne
- Basse-Terre
Best cities for it
City break in Guadeloupe
Pointe-à-Pitre for a day, mainly for the museum and market.
What to do
- Mémorial ACTe
- The covered market
- The waterfront
Spots to visit
- Pointe-à-Pitre
Best cities for it
Things to do
Things to do in Guadeloupe
La Soufrière is the headline hike: an active volcano at 1,467 metres, climbed in about two hours from the car park at Savane à Mulets, with sulphur vents and craters at the top and a view over the island when the cloud clears, which is not often. Check the volcano's alert status before going.
The Guadeloupe National Park covers much of Basse-Terre, with the Carbet waterfalls — three of them, the second the most accessible — and a network of trails through rainforest.
The Cousteau Reserve off Malendure is the diving and snorkelling site, named after Jacques Cousteau who called it one of the world's best, with turtles reliably present.
The Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre is a serious museum on slavery and the Caribbean slave trade, built on a former sugar factory site, and it is among the most significant of its kind anywhere.
Food and drink
Eating in Guadeloupe
Creole cooking and French technique sit side by side. Accras de morue — salt cod fritters — and boudin créole are the standard starters, colombo is the curry brought by Indian indentured labourers, and court-bouillon is fish in a tomato and lime sauce.
The bokit is the cheap street food: fried dough stuffed with chicken, saltfish or cheese, sold from roadside vans for €5 to €9, and it is the best value meal on the island.
French bakeries are everywhere and prices are close to metropolitan France, which means a decent baguette and pastries for very little.
Rhum agricole, distilled from cane juice rather than molasses, is the regional product, and distilleries on Marie-Galante and Basse-Terre run tastings. Ti-punch — rum, lime and cane syrup — is the local drink.
Nightlife
Going out in Guadeloupe
Nightlife is low-key and mostly around Le Gosier and Sainte-Anne on Grande-Terre, where beach bars and restaurants stay open into the evening, and in Pointe-à-Pitre at weekends.
Gwoka, the Guadeloupean drumming tradition, is UNESCO-listed and performances or informal léwòz gatherings are the most distinctive night out available — ask locally, as they are not advertised for tourists.
Ti-punch is the drink, made at the table from rum, lime and cane syrup, and beer is around €3 to €5.
Carnival runs from January to Ash Wednesday and is substantial here, with weekly parades building through the season and a strong emphasis on drumming rather than soca.
Getting around
Getting around Guadeloupe
A hire car is close to essential. Buses exist and connect the main towns, but they run to their own schedule, stop early and do not reach most trailheads or beaches. Rental is €35 to €60 a day and the roads are good, French-standard and signed in French.
Ferries link Pointe-à-Pitre and Trois-Rivières with Les Saintes in 20 to 60 minutes, and Marie-Galante in about an hour, with several sailings daily.
Driving is on the right, as in France, and an EU licence is valid without any additional permit.
Traffic around Pointe-à-Pitre at rush hour is genuinely heavy for an island this size.
Costs
What Guadeloupe costs
Guadeloupe is priced like France with import costs on top, which makes it expensive by Caribbean standards for food and accommodation alike.
Dorms and gîtes start around €25 to €60, restaurant mains are €18 to €35, and a beer is €3 to €5.
A day comes to €60 to €110.
The savings are French ones: supermarkets are well stocked and reasonable, bakeries are cheap, bokits from roadside vans cost €5 to €9, and gîtes — self-catering cottages — are far better value than hotels for a few days.
The euro removes exchange questions for European visitors, cards work everywhere, and EU healthcare arrangements apply, which is a genuine advantage over the rest of the Caribbean.
Safety
Staying safe in Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is generally safe, with French policing and infrastructure. Theft from parked cars at trailheads and beaches is the most common problem reported, and it is common enough that leaving anything visible in a hire car is a mistake.
Pointe-à-Pitre has areas best avoided at night, as in any city.
The natural hazards matter more. La Soufrière is an active volcano with a monitored alert level that does restrict access, and weather on the mountain changes fast. Currents on the Atlantic east coast of Grande-Terre are strong and several beaches there are not safe for swimming.
Hurricane season runs June to November and the island is exposed. Sargassum seaweed has affected some south and east coast beaches seasonally in recent years.
Entry and documents
Entry and documents
Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France and part of the European Union, so EU and Schengen-area citizens can enter with an identity card or passport and stay without restriction.
UK, US, Canadian and Australian citizens generally enter visa-free for up to 90 days, as they would for France, though Guadeloupe is not in the Schengen area itself — days spent here do not count against a Schengen allowance, and a Schengen visa is not automatically valid.
Check the current position for your nationality, as the distinction between French territory and the Schengen area catches people out.
When to go
December to April is the dry season, known locally as carême. The wet season, hivernage, runs June to November with hurricane risk.
Jan
Dry season and peak, with carnival building
Feb
Excellent. Carnival peaks before Lent
Mar
Dry and warm. One of the best months
Apr
Dry season ending. Still very good
May
Transitional. Green and quieter
Jun
Hivernage begins and hurricane season opens
Jul
Hot and humid, with French school holidays arriving
Aug
Peak heat and rising hurricane risk
Sep
Highest hurricane risk. Many businesses close
Oct
Still wet and risky, easing at the end
Nov
Rains ending. Good value
Dec
Dry season returns with holiday prices
Bar height is temperature. Colour is how busy it gets:
quiet
busy
peak
Average highs for Pointe-à-Pitre. Basse-Terre is considerably wetter than Grande-Terre — the rainforest and volcano side gets several times the rainfall — which is worth knowing when planning hikes.
What your trip will cost
Pick how you travel and how long for. Per night, for one person, in euros.
A hire car at €35–60 a day is close to essential here and sits inside the transport line. Gîtes and supermarkets are what bring a longer stay down.
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- Beds—
- Food and drink—
- Getting around—
- Doing things—
What's on
What is on while you are there
Carnival here runs for two months and is drum-driven rather than soca.
January to Ash Wednesday
Carnaval
Nationwide
Weekly parades building for two months, driven by gwoka drumming rather than soca.
August
Fête des Cuisinières
Pointe-à-Pitre
A parade of women cooks in traditional dress, a Guadeloupean institution since the 19th century.
November, every four years
Route du Rhum
Pointe-à-Pitre
The finish of the transatlantic solo yacht race from Saint-Malo.
July
Gwoka festival
Sainte-Anne
The UNESCO-listed drumming tradition, celebrated over several days.
December to April
Dry season
Nationwide
Carême, the best weather and the busiest months.
June to November
Hurricane season
Nationwide
Hivernage, peaking September, with the island exposed.
Hostels
Where to stay in Guadeloupe
What is bookable here, live from Hostelworld. Gîtes and small guesthouses are the norm, concentrated around Sainte-Anne, Deshaies and Pointe-à-Pitre.
Guadeloupe travel questions
The ones we get asked most.
Is Guadeloupe part of France?
Yes — an overseas department, which means euros, French administration, EU healthcare arrangements and French road rules. It is not in the Schengen area, though, so days spent here do not count against a Schengen allowance and a Schengen visa is not automatically valid.
Do I need to speak French?
It helps a great deal. French is the official language, Guadeloupean Creole is what people speak among themselves, and English is limited outside hotels — noticeably more so than in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Basse-Terre or Grande-Terre?
Basse-Terre, the western wing, is mountainous and green with the national park, waterfalls and the volcano. Grande-Terre is flat, drier and has the beaches. They are joined by bridges, so you can base on one and drive to the other.
Can I climb La Soufrière?
Yes, in about two hours from the car park at Savane à Mulets. It is an active volcano with a monitored alert level that does restrict access, the summit is usually in cloud, and the weather changes fast — check conditions before setting out.
Is Guadeloupe expensive?
Priced like France with import costs on top. Dorms and gîtes from €25 to €60, restaurant mains €18 to €35, and a day around €60 to €110. Bokits from roadside vans at €5 to €9, bakeries and supermarkets are the savings.
Do I need a car?
Close to it. Buses connect the main towns but run to their own schedule, stop early and do not reach trailheads or most beaches. Rental is €35 to €60 a day and EU licences are valid without any extra permit.
When should I visit?
December to April, the dry carême season. Carnival runs from January to Ash Wednesday and is a two-month build-up. Hurricane season runs June to November and peaks in September.
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