Guadeloupe travel guide: your first trip, from Grande-Terre to Les Saintes

At the last bend of the trail, the forest suddenly vanishes: all that is left is bare rock, the smell of sulphur and plumes of steam drifting into the clouds.

An active volcano in Saint-Claude, La Soufrière rises to 1,467 m at the heart of Guadeloupe National Park. Its last eruption, a phreatic one, dates back to 1976-1977; the OVSG-IPGP monitors it constantly and kept it on yellow alert in summer 2026.

The classic climb starts from the Bains Jaunes car park, at around 950 m, via the Pas du Roy: dense forest, then low vegetation and scree up to the summit plateau. Allow half a day there and back, more if the weather turns.

On a clear day, the summit reveals Les Saintes and, further south, Dominica.

You hear the roar long before you see the water: a white ribbon dropping from a cliff smothered in tree ferns.

In the municipality of Capesterre-Belle-Eau, inside the national park, the Grand Carbet river tumbles down the flank of La Soufrière in three falls of about 115 m, 110 m and 20 m.

The easiest to reach is the second fall, at the end of a maintained trail from the visitor area. The first, and highest, has to be earned: the park's trail sheet gives 4.8 km there and back, about 3 hours and 500 m of elevation gain, with a river crossing that is dangerous after rain.

Trois-Rivières, where boats leave for Les Saintes, is only about twenty minutes away by road.

A few fin kicks from the shore, the blue turns turquoise above the coral, and a turtle rises to breathe.

The Cousteau Reserve is the marine part of the national park around the Pigeon Islands (îlets Pigeon), facing Malendure beach in Bouillante. Jacques Cousteau made its seabed famous; it is now protected, with about 10,000 dives a year on compulsory mooring buoys.

Snorkelling boats and dive clubs leave from Malendure; you can also rent a kayak and paddle to the islands in about twenty minutes. Allow half a day.

The shallow waters around the islands can be explored with just a mask and snorkel.

Here the island ends in a blade: on the left the Atlantic pounding the rocks, on the right the calmer Caribbean Sea, and a wind that never stops.

At the south-eastern tip of Grande-Terre, about ten kilometres from Saint-François, the headland owes its name to jagged rocks that look like the ruins of castles. A large cross stands over the promontory.

A short waymarked path climbs to the cross in about fifteen minutes, with views of La Désirade and Petite-Terre. Below, the Anse Tarare and the Grande Anse des Salines have beaches, but the sea there is often rough.

Facing east, the headland catches Grande-Terre's first sunlight at dawn.

The boat enters the bay and the village appears: white houses with red roofs, colourful fishing boats and yachts at anchor below green hills.

The Les Saintes archipelago is made up of nine islands covering 14 km², only two of which are inhabited, Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas. Terre-de-Haut, the most visited, has kept the feel of a fishing village, with its islanders wearing the salako, the traditional hat.

You get around on foot, by e-bike or by scooter: climb up to Fort Napoléon and its cactus garden, swim at Pain de Sucre beach or Anse Crawen, and have fish for lunch at the harbour. A day covers the essentials, a night gives you the calm.

Hire cars are not carried over: you get around on foot, by scooter or by e-bike.

Sugarcane fields as far as the eye can see, ox carts by the roadside and almost empty beaches: Marie-Galante seems to live in slow motion.

Round and flat, the island covers 158 km² south of Grande-Terre. It is nicknamed "the island of a hundred windmills" for its old sugar mills, and it is home to several rum distilleries, including Bielle, Bellevue and Poisson.

On the island, rent a car or a scooter to drive around it: Capesterre beach and its coral reef, Folle Anse, the Gueule Grand Gouffre sinkhole on the north coast, the Habitation Murat estate and tastings at the distilleries.

During the carême, at harvest time, the distilleries run at full speed and the smell of crushed cane drifts over the roads.

On the former site of the Darboussier sugar factory, a long dark building wrapped in a silver mesh faces the harbour: the architecture sets the tone before you even walk in.

The Mémorial ACTe, the Caribbean centre for the expression and memory of the slave trade and slavery, opened in Pointe-à-Pitre in 2015. Its permanent exhibition traces the history of slavery in the Caribbean, from the slave trade to abolition, and its legacy up to the present day.

Allow two hours for the permanent exhibition, then take the footbridge that links the building to the Morne Mémoire hill, which looks out over the bay of Pointe-à-Pitre.

A kilometre of golden sand, a row of coconut palms, and the hill closing off the bay like a stage set.

On the leeward coast of Basse-Terre, about 2 km from the village of Deshaies, Grande Anse stretches its golden sand for about a kilometre.

You spend the day swimming, napping in the shade of the trees and eating lunch at the beach shacks; the village of Deshaies and its botanical garden are five minutes away by car.

Facing west, it gets the sunset over the sea, around 6 pm all year.

At the very north of Grande-Terre, white cliffs drop into a deep blue sea, and the wind flattens the shrubs on the plateau.

The Porte d'Enfer ("Gate of Hell"), in Anse-Bertrand, is a narrow cove sheltered by reefs, where the water stays calm despite the Atlantic. A few kilometres away, the Pointe de la Grande Vigie marks the northern tip of the island, on top of cliffs about 80 to 90 m high.

A coastal path links the two sites along the clifftops; allow half a day to combine the walk, a swim in the cove and lunch in a lolo in Anse-Bertrand.

It is about a 45-minute drive from Sainte-Anne or Saint-François.

In a few bends, the coastal heat gives way to the damp shade of a forest of giant ferns and lianas, where the air smells of wet earth.

The Route de la Traversée cuts across Basse-Terre from east to west through the national park's rainforest, between Petit-Bourg and the leeward coast. It passes close to the Cascade aux Écrevisses ("Crayfish Falls"), a small waterfall that drops into a pool where you can swim.

The waterfall is a few minutes' walk from the car park along a maintained path; further on, other stops let you walk in the forest or see the giant trees at the Maison de la Forêt.

It is an easy stop on the way to Bouillante or Deshaies, with no detour.

Flamingos by a pond, chattering parrots and paths lined with flowers of every colour: the garden climbs the hillside with the sea as a backdrop.

Laid out on the heights of Deshaies, the garden has, according to the Routard guide, more than 1,500 species of tropical plants, with a waterfall, water-lily ponds and aviaries.

You visit on foot along a signposted route of about an hour and a half to two hours, with a panoramic restaurant overlooking the bay.

Much of the route is accessible with a pushchair.

Seen from the Pointe des Châteaux, it looks like a table set on the sea; up close, it is a quiet village, iguanas by the roadside and deserted coves.

The island covers 21 km² and rises to 275 m at the Grande Montagne. Left out of mass tourism, it is a protected nature reserve for its geological heritage.

You explore it by e-bike or scooter along its single coastal road: Souffleur beach, Anse d'Échelle, the lighthouse and former leper colony in the east, and the climb to the Notre-Dame-du-Calvaire chapel for the view.

The water is so clear and shallow that you walk a long way before you swim, between leaning coconut palms and the reef that breaks the waves offshore.

On the south coast of Grande-Terre, Sainte-Anne has some of the finest beaches in the archipelago according to the Routard guide: the town beach, La Caravelle and, a little further on, the Bois Jolan lagoon.

You swim in a sheltered lagoon, ideal with children, go paddleboarding or snorkelling near the reef, and have lunch in the town's beach restaurants.

The town's restaurants, rental shops and mini-markets are within walking distance of the beach.