Guide to Guadeloupe

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Guadeloupe gives travelers a taste of France in the Tropics. In addition to its Gallic flair and fine Creole cuisine (among the best in the Caribbean), it offers some excellent beaches and mountainous, lush terrain full of gorgeous scenery. The resorts are not as spectacular and plush as those on, say, Anguilla or Jamaica, though there are some large beachfront properties, but you can have a real island experience at small inns where locally prepared food and tranquillity will be highlights of your stay.

Guadeloupe is part of the Lesser Antilles, about 322km (200 miles) north of Martinique. It actually comprises two different islands, separated by a narrow seawater channel known as the Rivière Salée. Grande-Terre, the eastern island, is full of rolling hills and sugar plantations. Basse-Terre, to the west, is a rugged mountainous island, dominated by the 1,440m (4,723-ft.) volcano, La Soufrière, which is still alive and dotted with banana plantations. Guadeloupe's mountains are covered with tropical forests, impenetrable in many places. Beautiful white-sand beaches ring its islands. In the unlikely event that you should grow bored on Guadeloupe, you can hop over to really remote islands offshore, including Iles des Saintes and Marie-Galante.

Find a Resort, Hotel, or Lodging Room in Guadeloupe, The French West Indies

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Anse Marcel hotels Baie Nettle rooms Dashaies Bay hotels Deshaies rooms Gosier hotels Gosier resorts Gosier rooms Grand Bourg hotels Grand Case lodging Grand Cul-de-sac lodging

Gustavia hotels Gustavia rooms Le Gosier hotels Les Saintes rooms Marigot hotels Marigot lodging Marigot resorts Marigot rooms Orient Bay hotels

Orient Bay lodging Pointe-a-Pitre hotels Pointe-a-Pitre rooms Saint Barthelemy hotels Saint Barthelemy resorts Saint Barthelemy rooms Sainte-Anne hotels Sainte-Anne rooms Saint Francois hotels

Saint Francois resorts Saint Francois rooms Saint Jean hotels Saint Jean rooms Saint Martin hotels Saint Martin resorts Saint Martin rooms Saint Rose rooms Terre de Haut hotels

About 14km (8 3/4 miles) east of Gosier, little Ste-Anne is a sugar town and a resort offering many fine beaches and lodgings. In many ways, it's the most charming village of Guadeloupe, with its pastel-colored town hall, its church, and its principal square, Place de la Victoire, where a statue of Schoelcher commemorates the abolition of slavery in 1848.

Continuing east from Ste-Anne, you'll notice many old round towers named for Father Labat, the Dominican founder of the sugar-cane industry. These towers were once used as mills to grind the cane. St-François, 40km (25 miles) east of Pointe-à-Pitre, used to be a sleepy fishing village. Then Air France discovered it and opened a Meridien hotel with a casino. That was followed by the promotional activities of J. F. Rozan, a native who invested heavily to make St-François a jet-set resort. Now the once sleepy village has first-class accommodations, as well as an airport available to private jets, a golf course (it's the golfing center of the island), and a marina, where there's a casino. It also has some good beaches and is known for its Creole restaurants.

A cluster of eight islands off the southern coast of Guadeloupe, the Iles des Saintes are certainly off the beaten track. The two main islands and six rocks are Terre-de-Haut, Terre-de-Bas, Ilet-à-Cabrit, La Coche, Les Augustins, Grand Ilet, Le Redonde, and Le Pâté. Only Terre-de-Haut ("land of high") and, to a lesser extent, Terre-de-Bas ("land below") attract visitors; Terre-de-Haut is the most interesting, and the only island with overnight accommodations.

Some claim that Iles des Saintes has one of the nicest bays in the world, a Lilliputian Rio de Janeiro with a sugarloaf. The isles, just 10km (6 miles) from the main island, were visited by Columbus on November 4, 1493, who named them "Los Santos."

The history of Iles des Saintes is very much the history of Guadeloupe itself. In years past, the islands have been heavily fortified, as they were Guadeloupe's Gibraltar. The climate is very dry, and until the desalination plant opened, water was often rationed.

The population of Terre-de-Haut is mainly Caucasian, all fisherfolk or sailors and their families who are descended from Breton corsairs (pirates). The very skilled sailors maneuver large boats called saintois and wear hats called salacos, which are shallow and white, with sun shades covered in cloth built on radiating ribs of thick bamboo. Frankly, the hats look like small parasols. If you want to take a photograph of these sailors, please make a polite request (in French, otherwise they won't know what you're talking about). Visitors often like to buy these hats (if they can find them) for use as beachwear.

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