Guadeloupe
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Shaped like a butterfly taking flight, Guadeloupe is the largest island of the French West Indies. Its left wing, Basse-Terre, is 312 square miles; its right wing, Grand-Terre, is 218 square miles. The two halves are connected by a drawbridge across the narrow salt-water channel of Rivihre Salie. Three dependencies complete the archipelago-Marie-Galante, a pear-shaped island with a plateau in its centre; La Disirade, which is plain in appearance but the perfect getaway when one is looking for an escape; and Les Saintes, itself comprised of three tiny islands and a half-dozen even smaller cays.
Basse-Terre is rich in greenery. The capital of Guadeloupe, also named Basse-Terre, lies at the base of a volcano that last showed signs of wakening in 1976 when fumes surged from its crater. Pointe-Pitre, a playful port city on Grande-Terre, boasts boutiques fit for a Parisian shopper-but the proprietors wear madras kerchiefs instead of silk scarves.
When Columbus anchored off the coast of Basse-Terre in 1493, he was still in a hurry to find Japan so he didn't tarry for long. In 1635, the French grabbed the islands from the Caribs who lived there. A brief British occupation lasted from 1759 to 1763; thereafter, Guadeloupe and its dependencies became a French province. In 1946, they were classified as a department of France. Later, along with St. Martin and St. Barts, Guadeloupe was elevated to a region.
While most British holiday-makers are more familiar with the French Riviera than the French Caribbean (Martinique to the south is the other DOM), French tourists have for years been flocking to Guadeloupian seaside resorts like Saint François and Gosier. Like France, the island not only has a budget-to-blow-out range of hotels but is also home to hundreds of family-run gîtes offering bed and breakfast or self-catering accommodation as an economical option for families. Like France, there is a boulangerie on every other street corner, zinc-topped bars serving shots of Pernod and Ricard and tons of crêperies. Guadeloupe even has two natural springs which, like Evian and Volvic in France, lend their names to bottled water brands.
Guadeloupe has many fine beaches, some of which are nudist. 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. 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.
Jacques Cousteau made many of his early dives here. The country has many excellent snorkelling and diving sites. The 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 great for snorkelling. 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.
Getting There:
There are no direct flights from the U.K. to Guadeloupe. The easiest route is to fly to Paris where you can pick up various direct flights. Alternatively you could fly with British Airways to Antigua and then pick up a LIAT flight
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Guadaloupe is a French-speaking island, English-speaking tourists sometimes have difficulty getting by. . . . Although there's wonderful shopping, a wealth of music and art, and the cuisine's out of this world, the diving is only average. Among the best dives are the Islets Piedgeon, cone-shaped, coral-covered islands that fall to the bottom at 160', and La Sec Patê, a group of large boulders rising to about 40' below the surface. Les Heures Saines (or "the quiet hours") is among the best operations at Piedgeon, and they speak some English. . . . The French diving rules are a bit quirky. Unless you're a dive master yourself, which allows you great freedom, you must dive with a guide.
Tourist Board Information
Gustavia wreck
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