Guadeloupe Things to Do Tips by Flaul

Activities
Guadeloupe has many...

Activities
Guadeloupe has many fine beaches, some of which are of the clothing-optional variety. There are white-sand beaches in the resort towns of Gosier, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François. On the northern side of the peninsula leading to Pointe des Châteaux are a couple of remote beaches: Anse à la Gourde, a gorgeous sweep of white coral sands, and Anse Tarare, an adjacent nudist beach. While most of Grande-Terre's eastern coast has rough surf, there's a swimmable beach at Le Moule and a little protected cove at Porte d'Enfer. On the western side of Grande-Terre, Port-Louis is the most popular swimming spot, with a broad sandy beach that attracts weekend crowds. On Basse-Terre, the best beaches are along the northern side of the island just north of Deshaies: Grande Anse beach, with its expansive golden sands, and Plage de Tillet, a secluded clothing-optional cove.

The country has many first-rate snorkeling and diving sites. Guadeloupe's top diving site is the Réserve Cousteau at Pigeon Island off the western coast of Basse-Terre. Ilet du Gosier, which can be reached by boat from Gosier on Grande-Terre, is a snorkeler's dream. Spearfishing has long been banned and consequently the island's waters are teeming with fish, sponges, sea fans and corals.

Guadeloupe has good surfing from October to May at Le Moule, Port-Louis and Anse Bertrand, and from June through August at Sainte-Anne, Saint-François and Petit-Havre. Windsurfing is centered near the resorts on the southern side of Grande-Terre and on the island of Terre-de-Haut.

You can hike many short trails on Guadeloupe that take in waterfalls, primordial rainforest and botanical gardens. Serious hikers head for longer, more rigorous trails in the Parc National de la Guadeloupe, including one to the volcanic summit of La Soufrière and another to the base of Chutes du Carbet, the Eastern Caribbean's highest waterfalls.

Money & Costs
Currency: French...

Money & Costs
Currency: French franc (FF)

Meals

Budget: US$5-10
Mid-range: US$10-20
Top-end: US$20 and upwards

Lodging

Budget: US$35-70
Mid-range: US$70-140
Top-end: US$140 and upwards
You can travel in style on Guadeloupe for about US$200 a day, though that figure rises with the number of islands you choose to visit. Travelers on a moderate budget should be able to get by on about half that, depending on whether they rent a car or not; budget travelers can expect to spend around US$50 a day.

Hotels, larger restaurants and car rental agencies accept Visa (Carte Bleue), American Express and MasterCard (Eurocard). For most other situations, you'll need to use francs. Avoid changing money at hotel lobbies, where the rates are worse than at exchange offices or banks. You can exchange major foreign currency notes using the 24-hour currency-exchange ATM next to the Crédit Agricole bank in the arrival lounge at the airport; other franc-dispensing ATMs take credit and bank cards and are located throughout the island. Taxes and service charges are included in the quoted rates at hotels and automatically added to your restaurant bill.

Attractions
Pointe-à-Pitre
Guadeloupe's largest municipality, Pointe-à-Pitre, is a mix of old and new: largely commercial in appearance, it's peppered with colonial architecture and West Indian flavor. The city began as a fish market at the edge of the harbor in 1654, and there's still a lively, colorful open-air publicmarket running along La Darse, the inner harbor. Women wearing madras cloth turbans sell island fruit, vegetables, flowers, pungent spices, handicrafts and clothing while boats along the dock sell fresh fish. The hub of town is the Place de la Victoire, an open space punctuated with tall royal palms and sidewalk cafés.

The city has a couple of good museums, including the Musée Schoelcher, dedicated to abolitionist Victor Schoelcher and featuring artifacts relating to slavery, and the Musée Saint-John Perse, which occupies an attractive 19th-century Creole home with ornate wrought-iron balconies. The museum is dedicated to the renowned poet and Nobel laureate Alexis Léger (1887-1975), better known as Saint-John Perse.

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Parc National de la Guadeloupe
At the heart of Basse-Terre, this national park makes for a great drive and/or hike through orchid-filled rainforests and fern-covered hillsides. The 17,300ha (42,750 acre) forest reserve is bisected by the Route de la Traversée, a lovely mountain drive that passes thick bamboo stands, enormous mahogany and gum trees, heliconia and ginger. Maison de la Forêt, in the middle of the park at the very center of Basse-Terre, has an exhibit center with (French-only) displays on the forest. A short trail starts at the center, crosses a swing bridge over the Bas-David River, and proceeds through a verdant jungle of gommier trees, tall ferns and squawking tropical birds. Cascade aux Ecrevisses, a jungle waterfall in the center of the park, is worth a visit, as is the modest zoo at the western edge of the park

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Saint-François
This former fishing village has boomed into the country's second-largest resort area, not always with a high degree of sensitivity. While the western side of town is still largely provincial in character, the eastern side has been given over to tourism development. The deep U-shaped, yacht-filled marina is lined with restaurants, luxury hotels, car rental agencies and boutiques. If a round of golf and sunbathing by the pool are the highlight of your overseas trips, then Saint-François is probably the place for you. Either way, it's the major jumping-off point for trips to the smaller islands of Terre-de-Haut, Marie-Galante and La Désirade.