Guadeloupe discovery guide

Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly and its two wings are different islands joined by a bridge. Basse-Terre is volcanic and rainforested, with La Soufrière at 1,467 metres climbable in a morning and a national park of waterfalls and hot springs; Grande-Terre is flat limestone, cane fields and white-sand beaches. Offshore lie Les Saintes, with one of the Caribbean's finest bays, and Marie-Galante, quiet and full of rum distilleries. It is France -- euros, good roads, excellent bread -- with Creole cooking many rate the best in the region.

The main travel issue

The dry season from December to April is also when French visitors arrive in numbers and prices peak, and that buses are infrequent outside the urban area.

The solution

Hire a car, treat the two wings as separate bases rather than driving back and forth, and allow real time for the congestion around Pointe-à-Pitre and the Rivière Salée bridges.

December to April is the dry season, careme, and the best window: around 28 to 30°C, low humidity, steady trade winds and little rain. It is also high season, when French visitors arrive in numbers and prices peak.

Carnival runs from Epiphany in January through to Ash Wednesday, longer than in most of the Caribbean, with parades most weekends and the climax over the five days before Lent. It is a local event rather than a tourist one.

June to November is hivernage: hotter, humid, with heavy showers and the hurricane risk peaking from August to October. Prices fall sharply and the rainforest is spectacular.

Sargassum seaweed affects the Atlantic-facing south and east coasts, mainly between March and August, and varies greatly year to year.

Whale watching runs from December to May, and the Route du Rhum transatlantic race finishes here every four years in November.

Basse-Terre and the park

Climb La Soufriere — about two hours up through steaming fumaroles, frequently in cloud and rain, and worth doing early. The Carbet falls, the Maison de la Foret trails, and the Route de la Traversee across the middle of the island through rainforest.

Diving and the west coast

The Cousteau reserve off Pigeon island is the best-known dive and snorkel site, easy and full of fish. Deshaies in the north-west has a botanical garden and good beaches, and the west coast has dark volcanic sand and clear water.

Grande-Terre

The white-sand beaches at Sainte-Anne and Bois Jolan, the cliffs at Pointe des Chateaux where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean, and Le Moule on the windward side for surf.

Les Saintes

An hour by ferry. Terre-de-Haut has a bay often ranked among the world’s finest, Fort Napoleon above the village, and a scale small enough to cover on foot or by scooter. The best day trip in the archipelago.

Marie-Galante

Flat, quiet and agricultural, with three working rum distilleries, windmill ruins and empty beaches. An hour by ferry and a different pace entirely.

Guadeloupe is Creole and French together, and rather less preoccupied with that tension than Martinique — the tone here is more relaxed and more rural.

A French departement

Like Martinique, this is not a colony but a departement of France and part of the European Union, with the euro, French schools and hospitals, and full citizenship. Many Guadeloupeans live in mainland France, and the connection is constant.

Creole identity

Creole is spoken by nearly everyone and is a point of pride rather than embarrassment, with its own literature and a strong presence in music and Carnival. The African inheritance from the plantation era runs through the drumming, the dance and the food.

Gwoka

The island’s own drum music, descended directly from the music of enslaved people, is UNESCO-listed and thoroughly alive — seven rhythms, a lead drum answering a dancer, and open lewoz gatherings where anyone can join. It became a symbol of Guadeloupean identity during the political movements of the 1970s and 1980s.

Politics

Social conflict over the cost of living, land ownership by beke families and the chlordecone scandal has produced major general strikes, most notably in 2009. Independence sentiment exists but is a minority position.

Village life

Outside Pointe-a-Pitre the island is small-town and agricultural, and the pace reflects it.

The Guadeloupe National Park covers much of Basse-Terre and includes a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Stay on the marked trails, which are well maintained and which keep walkers off fragile slopes, and take everything out with you.

Chlordecone. As in Martinique, a pesticide used in banana plantations until 1993 has left long-term contamination of soil and inshore waters, with fishing prohibited in affected zones. It is a serious public health scandal and a live political grievance. Buy fish through normal commercial channels, which are monitored, and do not gather shellfish yourself.

The reserve at Pigeon — the Cousteau underwater reserve — is heavily dived. Use operators with mooring buoys, never touch anything, and use reef-safe sunscreen.

Eat and stay locally. The gites, the market at Pointe-a-Pitre and the beach lolos keep money on the island rather than with mainland operators.

Manchineel trees on beaches are marked in red; do not touch or shelter under them.

What a day costs, by how you travel

Relative cost across the country

Guadeloupe is expensive, at French price levels plus freight, though generally a little cheaper than Martinique and with more self-catering options.