I had looked to TTOL for information about Guadeloupe before departing, so here is out trip report!

My wife and I went to the Island of Guadeloupe for 2 weeks for our 25th wedding anniversary. No one we talked with had ever been there and I first became aware of it looking at one of the guides to Caribbean Islands. As it turns out, Guadeloupe is a very popular destination for the French and those who speak French, but few others visit that much. My wife speaks no French and my vocabulary is limited to greetings and a few essential phrases, but we managed well. If you are not adventuresome and afraid of going somewhere where you might have difficulties communicating, Guadeloupe is not for you. If you are willing to adventure a bit out of your everyday comfort zone, it is amazing! The key words we learned quickly: langouste (lobster), lambis (queen conch), poulet (chicken), ouassous (giant shrimp), boeuf (beef), poisson (fish), jambon (ham) and eau (water). If you know these words, you can survive in most restaurants very well.


The people of Guadeloupe were amazing. Even though we struggled greatly with our limited French, when it came to communicating, they were really helpful and friendly. Once in a while we met someone with some knowledge of English, but that was rare. We never worried about that and managed very well.


Travel: Direct flights are not easily found from the states. We ended up overnighting in San Juan, Puerto Rico each way, which actually worked out well, Seaborne Airlines has a relationship with American and provides service from San Juan to Pointe-A-Pitre, Car Rental, which also worked out well, since their agent at the airport spoke no English. We had a VW Polo, which was a roomy mini car. The roads in Guadeloupe were among the very best that I have seen in the Caribbean. All of the main roads and traffic circles were well marked, so we never got lost. The only exception to this was the exit off the freeway heading to the airport from the east side of the island. We missed that exit and ended up driving around for a bit until we found the right road again – just a little more adventure!


Accommodations: I found our apartment on VRBO. Since I had read that there were a lot of nice beaches with gentle surf east of Sainte-Ann, so that is where I concentrated my search. We ended up at Anse des Rochers, just east of Saint-Francois, which had a beautiful sandy beach. There were a number of properties listed in this gated condo community, but I focused on one with a queen size bed and a washing machine, so that we could cut down packed clothes. We ended up with perhaps the best unit available, on the third floor of the building next to the beach. The only thing between our end unit and the water was the little restaurant, Ti Coco, which was not even open every night. We have always judged Creme Brulee, based on how it compared to Captain Oliver’s at Oyster Pond in St. Martin – Ti Coco made it even better – thin with a crisp coating in every bite! We spend a number of days on that beach and were very happy!


We tried a number of restaurants in St. Ann and St. Francois, and never had a bad meal at any of them. Some were mentioned on Trip Advisor and some we found by chance. The thing to keep in mind is that service is rarely fast, and you will most likely need to go to the counter to request your bill and settle up. Tips were never included, nor were they expected. Everything was so good that we chose to tip. I happen to like Conch, and I had it in ways I have never before encountered, including a stroganoff – all good! I could list a bunch of places to eat, but as I said, all the meals were good and we were not really depending on a list of the best places. I will mention I Pate in St. Francois, however, since this was an authentic Italian restaurant, rather than the seafood places we ate at most of the time. It was outstanding and did have an English language menu.



We managed to drive around almost all of the coastline of both Grande Terre and Basse Terre. Not too far south of Sainte-Rose on Basse Terre are the Severin Rhum Distillery and the Musee du Rhum, both worth a stop. The distillery was not giving tours on the day we were there, but they have a great shop with an enormous variety of rums. The museum tells the history on cane sugar and rum on the island with displays in both French and English and a shot film offered in a choice French, English, Spanish and Itallian, plus a great tasting bar. Upstairs in the museum, totally unrelated to rum, are displays of insects and sailing ships, along with a number of large plastic animals. It was really a hoot.


The drive through the rain forest on Basse Terre is definitely worth the experience. There are multiple places to stop and it does take you up into the clouds over that part of the island. If you are a hike, there are lots of well-marked trails to waterfalls and up the old volcano.


The groceries on the island were great. Leader Grand and Super U are two big names. If you see sign for Geante Casino and Petit Casino, just be aware that these are groceries as well and not places to gamble. Outside every grocer we visited as a bakery with a large selection of both sweet and savory pastries as well as the wonderful baguettes. The bread from these shops dried out quickly, but it was so good that you did not let it sit around for days at a time. We had lots of sandwiches on the beach while we were there. (There are real casinos on the island as well, but we only visited one. We had some grins but definitely were not winners!)


We did check out Anse Tarara, not far from the eastern most tip of Grande Terre, the eastern half of the main island of Guadeloupe. This is the naturist beach. You can find it by turning on the road of Chez Man Michael, a great restaurant that is open for lunch most days. The beach is a short hike down the hill behind the restaurant. It is a beautiful beach protected by a reef. There were a few local men, however, some of who just sat, fully clothed and watched people, and a couple of whom might approach couples is the water and display an erection. This was something that we had never encountered on naturist beaches in the past, and took away from the fun. We indicated we were not interested and were not bothered after that, but I would not recommend this beach to a single woman. This was not a monitored beach, like Orient Beach in St. Martin, so I guess that you cannot expect to always encounter proper beach etiquette. We did not let those actions spoil out enjoyment of the beach that day!


I could go on for 50 pages, but this should give you a sort of brief overview of the island. It was a great adventure and we are both very glad to have been there. The limited ability to communicate definitely took my wife out of her comfort zone, but it hardly deterred us from have a great time and an anniversary trip that we will remember forever!