Guadeloupe: Ten Attractions and Natural Wonders

A département in the Caribbean

Guadeloupe is an overseas region of France — part of the European Union, using the euro — in the eastern Caribbean, between Antigua and Dominica. Its two main islands, joined by bridges over a narrow channel, form a butterfly shape: low, dry, sugar-and-beach Grande-Terre on the east, and mountainous, forested Basse-Terre with its volcano on the west. Add the smaller islands of Les Saintes, Marie-Galante, and La Désirade and the population is about 380,000. Creole culture, French administration, and a national park cover it all.

The ten below run from the city across both wings of the butterfly and out to the dependencies. The dry season (December to April) is the prime time; the rest of the year is wetter, with a hurricane risk from August to October.

1. Pointe-à-Pitre and the Mémorial ACTe

Pointe-à-Pitre, the commercial hub on Grande-Terre, is a busy, slightly worn port city with a lively covered market (Marché Saint-Antoine, heavy with spices), the Place de la Victoire, and Creole townhouses. Its standout is the Mémorial ACTe, a striking waterfront museum opened in 2015 on the theme of slavery and its abolition — one of the most serious such institutions anywhere.

The nearby town of Le Moule and the Edgar Clerc archaeology museum cover the island's Amerindian past.

2. La Grande Soufrière

"La Soufrière", the brooding, cloud-wrapped volcano at the south end of Basse-Terre, is the highest peak in the Lesser Antilles and very much active — its upper slopes hiss with sulphur vents and hot springs. A steep, often muddy two-hour trail climbs from the Savane à Mulets car park to the summit crater. The 1976 crisis, when 70,000 people were evacuated for an eruption that stayed small, is still debated.

Nearby are the hot pools of the Bains Jaunes and the town of Saint-Claude.

3. The Chutes du Carbet

On the eastern side of the volcano, the Carbet river drops in three big steps through the rainforest. The second fall (110 metres) is the easiest to reach, a 20-minute walk from the road to a viewing platform; the first (115 metres) needs a longer, tougher hike, and the third a separate trail to a swimmable pool. Columbus noted them from his ship in 1493.

Landslides and volcanic activity sometimes close the upper trails; check at the park office.

4. The rainforest and the Route de la Traversée

The Guadeloupe National Park protects the heart of Basse-Terre — dense tropical forest of tree ferns, mahogany, and gcommier, laced with rivers and trails. The Route de la Traversée cuts across it, with short walks to the Cascade aux Écrevisses and the Maison de la Forêt visitor centre, plus the Parc des Mamelles zoo-and-canopy-walk. The longer Trace des Contrebandiers and the climb of the Mamelles peaks are for keener walkers.

It is cool and often rainy up here; bring layers and grippy shoes.

5. The Réserve Cousteau

Off the west coast at Malendure, the two Îlets Pigeon and the water around them form the Réserve Cousteau, a marine protected area the diver and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau helped make famous and reportedly rated among his favourite dive sites. Turtles, parrotfish, and reef life are easily seen; glass-bottom boats, snorkelling trips, and dive schools all leave from the black-sand Malendure beach.

There is a bust of Cousteau on the seabed for divers to visit.

6. Grande Anse and Deshaies

Deshaies, a pretty fishing village on the northwest coast (and the setting for the TV series Death in Paradise), sits beside Grande Anse — a broad golden beach backed by palms and sea grapes, one of the best on the main island. Just inland is the Jardin Botanique de Deshaies, a lush hillside garden on land once owned by the comedian Coluche.

The drive north from Pointe-Noire along this coast is one of the island's prettiest.

7. Pointe des Châteaux

The far eastern point of Grande-Terre is a dramatic contrast to the island's calm lagoons: a narrow limestone peninsula where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean in a chaos of surf, sea stacks, and cliffs, with a large cross on the headland and a short walk up to it for the view back along the coast and out to La Désirade. Nearby are the calm family beaches of Saint-François and the protected lagoon of the Pointe de la Saline.

It is a popular spot for sunset and can be windy.

8. Les Saintes

Les Saintes, a cluster of small islands reached by a 20–45 minute ferry, are often called one of the world's most beautiful bays. Terre-de-Haut, the main one, has a single village of red-roofed cottages, the hilltop Fort Napoléon with its museum and iguanas, and the near-perfect crescent of Pain de Sucre and Pompierre beaches. Golf carts and scooters are the transport.

It gets busy with day trippers; staying a night lets you have it after the last boat leaves.

9. Marie-Galante

Marie-Galante, a flat, round island an hour by ferry to the south, is the most rural corner of Guadeloupe — sugar cane, ox carts, empty white beaches, and the ruins (and a few working examples) of scores of windmills that once ground the harvest. Three artisanal distilleries still make a highly regarded 59% rhum agricole; the Habitation Murat has a sugar-and-slavery museum.

Its beaches, like the Anse de Vieux-Fort, are among the quietest in the whole territory.

10. Le Gosier, La Désirade, and the lagoons of Grande-Terre

The south coast of Grande-Terre, around Le Gosier and Sainte-Anne, is the resort belt, with reef-protected lagoon beaches like the Plage de la Caravelle and a short boat hop to the Îlet du Gosier for a swim. Further out, La Désirade — a single dry ridge of an island, an hour by ferry from Saint-François — is the back-of-beyond of Guadeloupe, with one road, wild goats, and a nature reserve of rare cactus and iguana.

These are the easiest add-ons if you are based near Pointe-à-Pitre.

Guadeloupe suits a two-island trip: a few days on forested Basse-Terre for the volcano, waterfalls, and Cousteau reserve, and a few on Grande-Terre for the beaches, plus a day or overnight on Les Saintes or Marie-Galante. Ten days covers it comfortably.