When to go to Guadeloupe?
→ The detailed month-by-month page, with real weather records
Best time: December to April (dry season, known locally as carême)
At a glance
Why go to Guadeloupe?
Guadeloupe is the frictionless tropical destination, and yet you feel completely abroad the moment you leave the airport, with trade winds that smell of cut sugar cane and buses honking to the rhythm of zouk. In a single territory the island offers what other archipelagos scatter far and wide: an active volcano and its rainforest full of waterfalls on Basse-Terre, turquoise lagoons and cliffs on Grande-Terre, and three satellite islands that are each a journey within the journey.
You eat well here, sleep at every price point and drive on French roads. It suits families who want calm beaches in the morning and a waterfall in the afternoon, couples who dream of a night on Les Saintes once the day boats have gone, and walkers who come for La Soufrière and the Trace des Crêtes.
Divers and snorkellers will find one of the most accessible marine reserves in the Caribbean, while history buffs confront the memory of slavery at the Mémorial ACTe. Only travellers who refuse to hire a car or who are looking for a car-free island will be disappointed: Guadeloupe is experienced from behind the wheel, and it is bigger than you might think.
Map of Guadeloupe: what is where?
The map shows the 6 places covered in this guide, to picture the distances and plan your route.
- La Soufrière
- Cousteau Reserve
- Les Saintes
- Marie-Galante
- Pointe des Châteaux
- Deshaies
How much does a trip to Guadeloupe cost?
| Style | Per day | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Backpacker | between €70 and 100 per day per person | a shared gîte or a room in a local home, a small car booked early, bokits and market shopping come to between €70 and 100 per day per person, excluding flights. |
| Comfort | €130 to 200 per day | a three-star hotel with a pool, one restaurant a day, a boat trip and a crossing to Les Saintes come to €130 to 200 per day. |
| Premium | €300 per day | a boutique hotel on the beach, restaurant dinners every evening, a dive and a private excursion add up to more than €300 per day. Car hire costs €30 to 60 a day, and petrol is slightly cheaper than in mainland France. |
Is Guadeloupe safe?
The island is safe for travellers, with the usual precautions against theft from cars: leave nothing visible in beach and hiking car parks. At sea, respect the flags on the few lifeguarded beaches and beware of currents on the Atlantic coast and at Grande Anse in Deshaies, and never shelter under a manchineel, a beach tree marked with a red band whose sap and fruit burn the skin. Sargassum, brown seaweed that washes up in episodes on the east- and south-facing coasts, gives off a rotten-egg smell: check the prefecture's bulletins before booking a particular beach. Mosquitoes transmit dengue, so cover up at dusk and use repellent. On La Soufrière, set off early, take water and a warm layer, and turn back if the observatory reports unusual activity. The hurricane season runs from June to November, peaking in September: take out cancellation insurance if you travel during that period.
What to see and do in Guadeloupe
- La Soufrière
- Carbet Falls
- Cousteau Reserve and Pigeon islets
- Grande Anse, Deshaies
- Pointe des Châteaux
- Terre-de-Haut, Les Saintes
- Marie-Galante
- Mémorial ACTe
La Soufrière
The Old Lady, as Guadeloupeans call her, is a 1,467-metre active volcano towering over Basse-Terre and Saint-Claude. Her last crisis, in 1976, led to the evacuation of 70,000 people for several months, and the Volcanological Observatory on the Houëlmont has monitored her continuously ever since. The classic ascent starts from the Bains Jaunes via the Pas du Roy and then the Chemin des Dames, three hours there and back through montane forest and then across a plateau of sulphurous fumaroles, with a summit often lost in cloud. Guadeloupe National Park, created in 1989, protects the whole massif as well as the Mamelles and the Route de la Traversée, where the Maison de la Forêt offers short trails beneath the gommier trees.
Cousteau Reserve
Around the Pigeon islets, opposite Malendure beach at Bouillante, a square kilometre of seabed protected as the core of the national park is packed with sea fans, elkhorn coral, parrotfish and green turtles. The site owes its name to Commander Cousteau, who filmed here in the 1950s and whose submerged bust is a meeting point for divers. You get there by kayak, by glass-bottomed boat or with one of the many dive clubs in the Malendure car park, which offer try dives from the age of eight. The black-sand beach itself, warmed by the hot springs of Bouillante, offers easy snorkelling a few metres from the shore, often in the company of turtles grazing on the seagrass.
Les Saintes
Nine volcanic islets about ten kilometres south of Basse-Terre, only two of which are inhabited: Terre-de-Haut, the postcard with its bay, Fort Napoléon and Pompierre beach, and Terre-de-Bas, more rural, where you walk between wooden houses and chapels without meeting many people. The Saintois are descended from settlers from Brittany, Normandy and Poitou who arrived in the 17th century, and fishing remains the village trade, with motorised saintoise boats pulled up on the sand every afternoon. The fort, completed in 1867 without ever seeing combat, houses a local history museum and a botanical garden where iguanas sun themselves on the ramparts. The crossing from Trois-Rivières takes twenty-five minutes and pitches hard in the Saintes channel on windy days.
Marie-Galante
An hour by boat from Pointe-à-Pitre, this round island of 158 km² has some 10,000 inhabitants spread between Grand-Bourg, Capesterre and Saint-Louis, and still lives largely from sugar cane. It is nicknamed the island of a hundred windmills for the stone towers dotted across its fields, including the Bézard mill, fully restored with its sails. Its three distilleries, Bielle, Père Labat and Bellevue, produce a rhum agricole at 59% ABV that you can taste on site, and ox carts take part every year in hugely popular races. The south coast lines up the beaches of La Feuillère and Petite-Anse, while the north coast ends at the cliffs of the Gueule Grand Gouffre, a collapsed arch where the Atlantic rumbles far below.
Pointe des Châteaux
This eleven-kilometre limestone peninsula extends Grande-Terre eastwards, from Saint-François to a point bristling with jagged rocks pounded by the Atlantic swell. The cross erected on the Pointe des Colibris, at 43 metres, is reached by a quarter-hour path and offers a panorama over La Désirade, the Petite-Terre islets, Marie-Galante and, on a clear day, Dominica. The site has been redeveloped with a car park, toilets and a small exhibition on its geology and flora, and you can swim in the Anse des Salines, a pool sheltered by a reef where the water stays calm. On the way, the beaches of Les Salines and La Douche and the lagoons of Saint-François complete the outing, with hand-churned coconut sorbets sold in the car parks.
Deshaies and the leeward coast
The west coast of Basse-Terre, sheltered from the trade winds, strings together coves of golden or black sand between Sainte-Rose and Bouillante, with Deshaies as its flagship village. This fishing port tucked between two hills became famous as the setting for the series Death in Paradise, filmed every year between April and August, and its botanical garden, opened in 2001 on Coluche's former estate, gathers a thousand tropical species around carp ponds and a lorikeet aviary. Grande Anse beach, the longest on the island, and La Perle, a little further north, share the best sunsets in Guadeloupe, facing the silhouette of Montserrat. Between Deshaies and Malendure, the coast road offers swimming stops at every cove, including the beaches of Petite Anse and Leroux.
How many days, and which itinerary?
A week is the minimum to see both wings of the butterfly without rushing: three days on Grande-Terre for the southern beaches, the Pointe des Châteaux and Pointe-à-Pitre, three days on Basse-Terre for La Soufrière, the Carbet Falls and the leeward coast, and a day on Les Saintes. Ten days let you add Marie-Galante with a night there and slow down between stops. A long weekend only makes sense for an all-inclusive stay on a beach, as the flights alone eat up two days.
🗺️ Day-by-day itinerary · 📓 Free printable Guadeloupe guide (PDF)
long weekend (4 days)
Day 1, arrive at Pôle Caraïbes in the early afternoon, pick up the car and settle in at Le Gosier or Sainte-Anne, first swim on La Caravelle beach and a ti-punch at sunset. Day 2, up early for the Pointe des Châteaux, swim in the Anse des Salines, a bokit lunch in Saint-François then the Damoiseau distillery at Le Moule. Day 3, cross to Basse-Terre on the Route de la Traversée, stop at the Cascade aux Écrevisses, snorkel with the turtles at Malendure and watch the sunset at Grande Anse in Deshaies. Day 4, Pointe-à-Pitre market in the morning, the Mémorial ACTe, then the return flight in the evening.
five days
Day 1, arrive and settle in on Grande-Terre, Sainte-Anne beach. Day 2, the Pointe des Châteaux at dawn then the Porte d'Enfer and the Pointe de la Grande Vigie on the north coast, back via Le Moule. Day 3, drive to Basse-Terre via the south, the Carbet Falls at opening time, Grand Étang, lunch in Trois-Rivières and settle in at Saint-Claude or Bouillante. Day 4, climb La Soufrière early in the morning, a dip at the Bains Jaunes, afternoon at Malendure for the Cousteau Reserve. Day 5, a day on Les Saintes from Trois-Rivières on the first boat, Fort Napoléon, Pompierre, back and fly out the next morning or the same evening depending on the schedule.
one week
Day 1, arrive and settle in at Sainte-Anne. Day 2, the Pointe des Châteaux, the beaches of Saint-François, the Damoiseau distillery. Day 3, morning at the Darse market and the Mémorial ACTe in Pointe-à-Pitre, afternoon on Souffleur beach at Port-Louis. Day 4, the Carbet Falls and the Valombreuse garden, night in the hills above Saint-Claude. Day 5, La Soufrière early in the morning, a lazy break at the Bains Jaunes, drive to Deshaies along the leeward coast with a swim at Malendure. Day 6, the Deshaies botanical garden, Grande Anse, the Cascade aux Écrevisses via the Route de la Traversée. Day 7, a day on Les Saintes or Marie-Galante from Trois-Rivières or Pointe-à-Pitre, last night near the airport.
Getting there and getting around
Guadeloupe Pôle Caraïbes airport is at Les Abymes, ten minutes from Pointe-à-Pitre, and all the rental companies have a desk there: a car is essential, so allow €30 to 50 a day if you book several weeks ahead, and more at the last minute in high season.
The roads are good but distances are deceptive: it takes an hour and a quarter from Pointe-à-Pitre to Deshaies and as long to the Bains Jaunes, with serious traffic jams around Jarry and Baie-Mahault at rush hour. Buses serve the towns but stop in the late afternoon and barely run on Sundays; they will do for a single journey but are no way to go sightseeing.
For the islands, shuttle boats leave from Trois-Rivières and Pointe-à-Pitre for Les Saintes, from Pointe-à-Pitre for Marie-Galante and from Saint-François for La Désirade, all for foot passengers only.
Where to stay in Guadeloupe?
Budget: the gîtes and bungalows of Sainte-Anne, Saint-François and the hills of Basse-Terre remain the best value on the island, often with a kitchen and terrace for €50 to 90 a night. Le Gosier has most of the small hotels and apartment residences under €100, with the advantage of in-town beaches and proximity to the airport. On the leeward coast, Bouillante and Pointe-Noire offer homestays with sea views for the price of a hotel room in mainland France.
Comfort: the coastal strip between Le Gosier and Saint-François lines up three- and four-star hotels with beach and pool, at around €130 to 200 a night, handy for exploring Grande-Terre and reaching Basse-Terre in an hour. Deshaies is the nature alternative, with boutique hotels above Grande Anse, and Saint-Claude, at 500 metres, offers cool nights in old Creole plantation houses a stone's throw from the La Soufrière trails.
Our pick: spend a night on Terre-de-Haut, in Les Saintes, once the last boat has gone, when the village is back to its residents and the bay lights up at sunset, in one of the guesthouses or small hotels on the seafront. On Basse-Terre, former sugar plantation houses turned guesthouses, at Trois-Rivières or Sainte-Rose, serve breakfasts of fruit from the garden facing the sea. On Marie-Galante, a B&B at Capesterre lets you see La Feuillère beach empty at daybreak.
Our places to stay, stop by stop, at three budgets →
What to eat in Guadeloupe?
Guadeloupean cooking is a blend of African, Indian and European influences, best tasted first on the street: the bokit, a fried bread filled with salt cod, chicken or prawns, sells for €5 to 8 from the food trucks of Sainte-Anne, Le Gosier or Pointe-à-Pitre, and salt-cod accras accompany every ti-punch. At the beach lolos (shacks), a whole grilled fish with rice, christophine gratin and sauce chien costs €15 to 20, while a sit-down restaurant charges €25 to 40 for a goat colombo, a red snapper court-bouillon or dombrés with ouassous, the big local river crayfish.
The Darse market and the Saint-Antoine market in Pointe-à-Pitre sell spices, homemade punches and fruit, and the Sainte-Anne night market livens up the village on Friday evenings. As for rum, Damoiseau at Le Moule, Bologne at Basse-Terre, Longueteau and Montebello on Basse-Terre, and Bielle and Père Labat on Marie-Galante open their cellars for free, with tastings.
Hand-churned coconut sorbet in the car parks costs €3 and beats any dessert.
Entry requirements
Guadeloupe is part of France and the EU but outside the Schengen area: EU citizens need only an ID card, and UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports get 90 days visa-free. Carry a return ticket, you may be asked for it.
Rules change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
Frequently asked questions about Guadeloupe
When is the best time to go to Guadeloupe?
The carême, from December to April, is the dry season: little rain, steady trade winds and a sea at 27 °C, but also the highest prices and the Christmas and February crowds. May, June and November remain very decent, with short showers and gentler prices. From July to October, the hivernage brings humid heat, storms and a hurricane risk that peaks in September, which does not rule out fine days but calls for flexibility.
Should you hire a car in Guadeloupe?
Yes, unless you never leave your hotel. Buses are rare in the evening and on Sundays, taxis are expensive, and the major sites, La Soufrière, the Carbet Falls, the Pointe des Châteaux, are scattered an hour or more from Pointe-à-Pitre. Book several weeks ahead in high season, as the airport rental desks are fully booked at Christmas and in February, and choose a small car, as the roads on Basse-Terre are narrow.
How many days should you spend in Guadeloupe?
A week lets you see Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre with a day on Les Saintes; ten days give you time to add Marie-Galante and proper beach days. In four days, stay on Grande-Terre with a foray to Malendure, without trying to do everything. The long-haul flight and the time difference are good reasons not to go for less than a week.
Grande-Terre or Basse-Terre: where should you stay?
Grande-Terre for white-sand beaches, hotels and nightlife, with the Le Gosier, Sainte-Anne, Saint-François strip as the most practical base. Basse-Terre for nature, waterfalls, La Soufrière and snorkelling, with Deshaies and Bouillante by the sea or Saint-Claude in the mountains. Over a week, the best plan is to split your stay in two and change accommodation halfway through.
How do you get to Les Saintes and Marie-Galante?
For Les Saintes, the shortest shuttle leaves from Trois-Rivières, in the south of Basse-Terre, in about 25 minutes, from €25 return per adult with CTM Deher; boats also leave from Pointe-à-Pitre, taking longer and costing more. For Marie-Galante, Express des Îles links the Bergevin terminal in Pointe-à-Pitre to Grand-Bourg in about an hour, for around €50 return. Book the day before in high season and take the first departure to make the most of the day.
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