This is surely a question that you ask yourself when planning your vacation: where to go to Guadeloupe Basse Terre or Grande Terre? Half half ? Between the two ? Here is some sound advice from a local tourism professional to help you choose the best place to settle down, based on several criteria to take into account and which you might not have thought of.
Where to stay between Basse Terre and Grande Terre
Many people choose to do a traveling trip and split their stay into 2, 3 or even 4 stages. It's a legitimate choice, but given the size of the island, not necessarily necessary. So if you don't want to pack your bags and clean several times during your stay in Guadeloupe, it's ideal. is to choose central accommodation on the island. By choosing JADEN KREYOL, you will never drive more than an hour to get to the other end of the island. But it's not just what you don't want to do that matters. You also have to consider what you want to do, but it’s not just that.
The Jaden Kréyol gîte is ideally located to travel throughout Guadeloupe
Where to stay in Grande Terre
If you come to Guadeloupe mainly to go to the beach with the children, choose Grande Terre. There is no shortage of “postcard” beaches and the turquoise sea protected by a coral reef. The region of Sainte Anne or Saint François are the most popular, with what this also implies in terms of attendance, prices, etc. Another downside is that these beaches on the Atlantic coast exposed to the dominant wind and current from the east can at times be invaded by algae called “sargassum”.
Where to stay in Basse Terre
If your main objective is the beach but you don't really like the (over)tourist crowds of the high season, the alternative would be the north of Basse Terre, with Deshaies in the spotlight. This town is located to the north of the so-called “leeward” Caribbean coast which, as its name suggests, is protected from the prevailing wind. A wilder region where there is less crowding than on the Grande Terre riviera. Basse Terre also offers many magnificent and quiet beaches as our article explains Most beautiful beaches in Guadeloupe.
Plage de la Grande Anse - Deshaies
Do activities in Guadeloupe
If you are especially into sports and nature, choose the leeward coast of Basse Terre (Bouillante, Pointe Noire, Vieux Habitants, etc.) to be as close as possible to diving and hiking sites in particular. For sailing or wing sports such as kite-surfing, wingfoil or windsurfing, Saint-François and Sainte-Anne offer the best spots and even schools. For surfing, the Damencourt spot in Moule is the most famous and most often passable because the dominant swell generally comes from the East, but depending on your level, Sainte-Anne by East - South East swell or Port-Louis by North swell also have very good spots.
Visit entire Guadeloupe
Finally, if you want to discover as much as possible, visit as a couple or family, do various sports, cultural activities or outings such as boat tours, and if the sea view is not an imperative for you, choose a central location like JADEN KREYOL in Lamentin / Petit Bourg. From there, you can go wherever you want without ever being very far! Plus, with friendly hosts who know the island well, you'll be in good hands.
What about the weather in Guadeloupe ?
I often hear our visitors say “Thursday we are going to do Soufrière!”. Perfect. Except that if the weather is not favorable, you risk having a bad memory of it, or even putting yourself in danger because, even if the weather in Saint François or even in Basse Terre is beautiful, it is not. necessarily at altitude where there can be strong winds and rain, and zero visibility. Really not great, especially when you're climbing with children on your shoulders and a mother-in-law in flip flops.! Soufrière Guadeloupe weather.
In general, you should plan your activities in Guadeloupe taking into account the weather forecasts. More precisely depending on the risk of rain of course, but also on the direction of the swell and the strength and direction of the wind for the state of the sea. Surfers know very well how to read coastal weather forecasts to know where there will be waves. The weather websites they use are a great help for them in knowing where to go, and for you perhaps in knowing where not to go to the beach with your children. Because on an island, when the sea is not beautiful on the right, you can go to the left, and when it rains at the bottom or can often go to the top of the island to find magnificent weather.
So if you have planned to divide your accommodation between a week in Saint François and a week in Bouillante for example, you risk finding yourself during your week not being able to do half of what you had planned because of the weather. For example, the beaches of Deshaies are not very suitable for swimming in a northerly swell because of the rollers, but magnificent in an easterly swell. So if during your week in Basse Terre the swell is North, bad luck! Or, if during your week in Saint François there are massive strandings of sargassum seaweed (yes, it happens sporadically and predictably only a short time in advance) you will have to travel miles to go to a beach practicable.
By choosing central accommodation like JADEN KREYOL for your entire stay, you will not have to travel great distances to get anywhere, in Grande Terre or in Basse Terre, by choosing your trips according to the day-to-day weather conditions.
And as a conclusion, my advise to check the weather forecast: there are of course a plethora of websites. For my part, I simply recommend watching the weather forecast in the evening on the local television channel Guadeloupe 1ère. The bulletin is at 7:25 p.m., just before the local news. It is easy to visualize the direction of the wind and swell to decide where you will go the next day. Also, from my modest experience as a sailor I know that forecasts beyond three days are often not reliable. Afterwards there is also a saying among sailors which says "He who listens too much to the weather forecast stays in the bistro". To the wise...😉
Where to stay in Guadeloupe ?