Below, you’ll find a detailed breakdown of how I spent two weeks in French Guyana, Suriname, and Guyana. It is a difficult region to get to with very limited flights departing from South America which is why so few travelers have made it there. I had a surprisingly great time there. The region may not be overflowing with touristy sights but the people are amazing!
Important to Know Before You Go
Normally, no one would start a travel blog telling aspiring travelers not to go somewhere. However, in this case, I think it is somewhat warranted. Compared to other places in South America, the Guyanas are painfully expensive. I spent more money in three days in French Guyana than I did spending a week in Europe. Food, accommodation, and transport are all expensive and to be honest, it doesn’t really feel worth it. I would really only recommend it for fellow “country-counters” who want to say that they finished up all of South America.
French Guiana
I flew from Paris to Cayenne with Air Caraibes. The flight took around 9 hours which wasn’t bad considering that flying from New York would have taken around 6 hours. I was asked to show my yellow fever vaccination card twice before boarding the flight in Paris so make sure that you have that with you before you travel.
I got into Cayenne around 7:40 p.m., picked up the rental car, and drove straight to my Airbnb. I managed to get a whopping five hours of sleep before my body decided that it was time to wake up…..at 3:30 a.m. (damn jetlag). I decided to make the most of my early morning rise by hitting two of the nearby hiking trails. One, the Sentier du Rorota was a lovely 5.5-kilometer jaunt through the forest and au highly recommend it. The other, the Sentier du Salines looked promising when I checked out photos of the route on Google. In reality, it was just a 1.5-kilometer walk along the beach until the very end when the trail wound its way through a beautiful mangrove. This definitely made the hot slog through the sand worth it but I was very glad when it was done and I could get out of the sun!
After getting cleaned up and checking out of my Airbnb, I drove to downtown Cayenne. The city center was much slower than I expected and it completely lacked the hustle and bustle that I have seen in other South American capital cities. In many ways, it reminded me of Port Louis in Mauritius. Same slightly crumbly, laid-back vibe which was a welcome change after hopping my way through European capitals just a few days earlier. I had a very disappointing pizza and then wandered back to my rental car to head to my next destination…..Kourou!
Best known for being the home of the Guiana Space Center, Kourou is a mid-sized town that is very, very quiet. Almost eerily quiet for a city of that size. The drive from Cayenne took about an hour which give me plenty of time to get a few hours of work and some exploration in before sunset. Much like Cayenne, there wasn’t a huge amount to see here. I admired some of the old-school colonial buildings and walked down to the beach which was strangely lacking water. I finished off the day with some mediocre fried noodles at a Chinese restaurant and then passed out.
The next morning, I joined an 8 a.m. tour of the space center. I remember learning about this place during grad school and being somewhat surprised that the European equivalent of NASA was based in South America but that’s imperialism for you! This three-and-a-half-hour-long tour takes you to the launch sites of a variety of different rockets. We started the tour by driving 27 kilometers through the jungle to the furthest launch site and then began working our way back. There must have been lots of interesting info given during the tour since the French speakers seemed really interested but I couldn’t understand anything. One of the guides would take pity on me from time to time and translate info for me so I wasn’t completely lost but I definitely would have preferred to be on an English-speaking tour!
After finishing up at the space center, I drove 2.5 hours to the town of St. Laurent du Maroni. I had somewhat high hopes for this place since it was relatively well-nourished. I was surprised to find everything quite run down with some of the downtown’s most impressive buildings being completely abandoned. I hope that in the future, they will be able to fix everything up before it all crumbles away.
Crossing from French Guyana to Suriname
The next morning, I walked down to the ferry terminal and took the car ferry to Albina, Suriname for €4.30. The ferry crossing took about 30 minutes and although the water was quite choppy, the ride itself was smooth.
Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about my arrival into Suriname. I made my way to immigration and was told to fill in a form. I was looking through my bags for a pen but couldn’t find one and asked the immigration guy if I could use his quickly. He told me no because it was his pen. I asked what pen could I use and he pointed me over to a small podium/table with no pen on it. I told him there was no pen and searched more before finally finding one. I started filling out the form at the counter and he told me to go do it elsewhere because there were other people. There were no other people at all in the room besides a guy who was trying to get me to ride in his taxi to Paramaribo. I sat down and filled in the entire form except for the part that said departures and took it back to the immigration desk. The man told me it wasn’t completed and that I needed to finish it. I filled in my departure information, went back up, and he then asked for my hotel. I showed him my reservation and slid my phone over to him. He then refused to stamp me in until I calmed down. I then had to go back and sit like a naughty child but was eventually stamped into the country.
I then took a shared taxi for the two-hour drive to Paramaribo. My taxi driver and my companions were all elderly and adorable and I felt like I was their grandchild going on an adventure. The drive was uneventful and very green with jungle surrounding us almost the entire drive.
Suriname
We finally crossed a surprisingly tall bridge and reached downtown Paramaribo. I checked into the Twenty4 Hostel and since it was raining cats and dogs, I sat inside and worked for my first few hours in Suriname.
When I eventually ventured outside, I encountered a very laid-back town with a slew of historic buildings. The best word I can think of to describe Paramaribo is gentle. I had a pretty relaxing week there. I asked at the hostel about different tours that I could take and unfortunately, not of the ones that I wanted to do had departure dates while I was there. I then thought briefly about renting a car and exploring a bit but ended up deciding against it in the end as I didn’t want to have to deal with the price and the hassle.
I switched to the lovely Albergo Alberga Guesthouse after spending three nights at Twenty4 Hostel. This was mainly because the woman working there had told me that she had extended my stay when she actually hadn’t and the room I was staying in got booked by someone else. This ended up being a bit of a blessing in disguise because I LOVED my new guest house. The women working there were nice, the other guests were friendly, and there was a swimming pool where I could cool down after going for a run. This made me even lazier and I spent more and more time bouncing between my oh-so-comfy hotel room and the various cafes and restaurants on offer.
Eventually, I knew that I needed to see something besides Paramaribo so I ventured out to the Peperpot Nature Reserve with a guy that I met at my hotel. We wandered through the forest for a few hours and spotted monkeys, snakes, and a ton of lizards. Although it was super exciting in terms of flora or fauna, it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Crossing from Suriname to Guyana
After a very “lazy” week full of good food, long runs, and work in Paramaribo, I started to make a move towards Georgetown. A minivan picked me up at 4 a.m. and after making what felt like 15 billion stops, we finally arrived at the ferry terminal where we could board the ferry to Guyana. The drive is supposed to take around four hours and it ended up taking us around five. Although it wasn’t super fun to ride an extra hour in a crowded minivan that smelled like fish, I had enough room for my legs and used the time to catch a few cat naps.
Once at the ferry terminal, I bought my ticket and gave the ticket woman my passport before going to stand in a nicely air-conditioned room. They then brought the passports out in bunches along with your ticket. We were then able to proceed to immigration. From there, we were directed to an outdoor waiting area where you could buy food at the cafeteria or do some last-minute duty-free shopping. Altogether, the experience was surprisingly well organized on the Surinamese side of the border.
The ferry crossing took about 30 minutes and we left roughly 10 minutes late. Immigration was relatively quick and I was on my way to Georgetown within about 30 minutes of the ferry docking. The ride then took about four hours to Georgetown. We made a few stops along the way for food and bathroom breaks but overall, it was a pretty easy, but long, border crossing. Altogether, it cost $70 ($50 for the driver and $20 for the ferry) and everything was timed out pretty perfectly.
Guyana
I arrived in Georgetown late in the afternoon after a long day on the road. I checked into my cute little Airbnb in a colorful residential area just south of the city center. For $45 per night, I got a tiny two-bedroom house which was by far the best deal I could find in Georgetown! I had just enough time to grab some dinner before it got dark and then spent the rest of the evening working.
The next morning, I got up bright and very early to go explore the city a bit. I managed to see all of the sites within just a few hours and then spent some time working from the Coffee Bean Cafe. The wifi is surprisingly fast and stable which made it a good place to get a few emails taken care of before walking the hour back home.
The next day, I did pretty much the exact same thing as the day before except that I worked for a few hours in the morning, went out for lunch and a stroll, and then spent the evening working. Riveting stuff, I know. Surprise, surprise, the next day was almost exactly the same. Only this time, I spiced things up a bit by taking the bus to Parika. I was promised that this was a cute town on the river with good restaurants….
And interesting boats. As it turned out, the restaurants didn’t look too appetizing so I grabbed a Blizzard from Dairy Queen, wandered around for about 30 minutes, and then got right back on the bus to Georgetown.
Kaieteur Falls
One of the only must-see attractions in the region, Kaieteur Falls is the world’s largest single-drop waterfall. I was originally unsure as to whether or not I wanted to go on a tour because a) it cost a tear-jerking $300 for a four-hour tour and b) I was slightly terrified of flying in the itty-bitty plane to get there. In the end, I figured that I would regret not going and decided to put on my big girl pants and go.
I booked my seat about a week and a half in advance through Wanderlust GY. A few days beforehand, I hadn’t received any confirmation that the tour was actually going. Two days beforehand, I was told that there was a tour and then right after that, I got another email that there was availability on the morning tour. So on Saturday morning (the tours basically only go on weekends), I headed to the airport at 7:30. Our trip kept getting delayed due to bad weather in Kaieteur but we eventually took off around 10:30 after being told that we would only have an hour at the waterfall due to the delay. Since beggars can’t be choosers, everyone basically had to agree to it.
The flight out to the falls was pretty scary with a few bumps. The plane only held 10 people with no central aisle so it felt like we were crammed in there like sardines. And it made every bump feel much bigger than it actually was. After about an hour, we touched down on a tiny airstrip in the middle of the rainforest. We all got out and excitedly looked around to see…..nothing but more jungle. We walked inside the visitor center and waited for our guide. After a few minutes, we started the short walk to the falls. Because we had limited time, we weren’t able to do the full loop walk and missed two out of the three viewing points. These were the ones that were furthest away so we still got to do the main viewpoint but it was still a little disappointing. The water level was also significantly lower than it normally is so we definitely didn’t get the “full experience”. However, I am still happy that I went for one very big reason. Although I enjoyed my time there, I am very unlikely to go back to Guyana any time in the near future and I am even less likely to want to organize a trip there that coincides with a weekend and then risk not even being able to go on a tour (which has happened to people).
The flight back to Georgetown was much less scary than the flight to Kaieteur Falls but I was still very glad to touch down safely. I then headed to the main OGL airport which was about a 10-minute walk away to get ready for my flight to Barbados.
