Where to stay in Guadeloupe for 2 weeks ?
Posted by Henri KESSELS, updated on 11/25/2024
This is surely a question you ask yourself when planning your vacation: where to go in Guadeloupe ? Basse Terre or Grande Terre ? Half and half ? Between the two ? Here is some wise advice to help you choose the best place to put down your suitcases, based on several criteria to take into account and which you may not have thought of.
Where to stay between Basse Terre and Grande Terre
Many people choose to make a traveling trip and split their stay into 2, 3 or even 4 stages. This is a legitimate choice, but given the size of the island, not necessarily necessary. So if you don't want to do the cleaning, packing, inventory and handing over the keys several times during your stay in Guadeloupe, the ideal is to choose a central accommodation on the island. By choosing JADEN KREYOL for example, you will never travel more than an hour to go to the other end of the island. But it's not just what you don't want to do that counts. You also have to consider what you want to do to choose the most suitable place to stay.
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 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 prevailing wind and current from the East can sometimes be invaded by algae called "sargassum". This is relatively rare, but difficult to predict in advance.
Stay in Basse Terre
If your main objective is the beach and you don't like the (over)crowding of tourists in high season, the alternative would be the north of Basse Terre, with Deshaies as the headliner. This town is located north of the Caribbean coast called "leeward" which, as its name suggests, is protected from the prevailing wind. A wilder region where there are fewer people than on the Riviera of Grande Terre. Basse Terre also offers many beautiful and quiet beaches as explained in our article What are the most beautiful beaches in Guadeloupe.
Doing activities in Guadeloupe
If you are mainly into sports and nature, choose the leeward coast of Basse Terre (Bouillante, Pointe Noire, Vieux Habitants...) to be as close as possible to the diving and hiking sites in particular. For sailing or wing sports such as kitesurfing, wingfoiling 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 practicable because the dominant swell generally comes from the East, but depending on your level, Sainte-Anne with an East - South East swell or Port-Louis with a North swell also have very good spots.
Visit all of Guadeloupe
Finally, if you want to discover as much as possible, visit as a couple or family, do various sports and leisure activities, cultural activities or outings such as boat trips, and the sea view is not a must 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! In addition, with friendly hosts who know the island well, you will be in good hands. And that's what our visitors say.
And what about the weather?
I often hear our visitors say "Thursday we're going to do the 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 nice, it is not necessarily so at altitude where there can be strong winds and rain, and zero visibility. Really not great, especially when you are climbing with children on your shoulders and a mother-in-law in flip-flops! To climb the Soufrière you really have to choose the right day. I tell you more in my article Soufrière Guadeloupe weather.
Generally speaking, you have to plan your activities in Guadeloupe taking into account the weather forecast. 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 sites they use are a great help for them to know where to go, and for you perhaps to know 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 beautiful weather.
So if you have planned to divide your vacation rentals 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 have planned because of the weather. For example, the beaches of Deshaies are not very practicable for swimming in a north swell because of the rollers, but magnificent in an east 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 usable beach in Port Louis... or in Basse Terre!
By choosing a central accommodation like JADEN KREYOL for your entire stay, you will not have to travel long distances to get around everywhere, in Grande Terre or Basse Terre, by choosing your trips according to the weather conditions from day to day.
And finally, my advice for checking the weather: 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 see the direction of the wind and the 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. After that there is also a saying among sailors that says "He who listens too much to the weather stays in the bar". A word to the wise... 😉
Et la météo dans tout ça ?
De manière générale, il faut faire son programme d'activités en Guadeloupe en tenant compte des prévisions météo. Plus précisément en fonction du risque de pluie bien sûr, mais aussi de la direction de la houle et de la force et direction du vent pour l'état de la mer. Les surfers savent très bien comment lire les prévisions météo côtière pour savoir où il y aura des vagues. Les sites météo qu'ils utilisent sont d'une grande aide pour eux pour savoir ou aller, et pour vous peut-être pour savoir où ne pas aller à la plage avec vos enfants. Car sur une île, quand la mer n'est pas belle à droite, on peut aller à gauche, et quand il pleut en bas on peut bien souvent aller en haut de l'île pour trouver un temps magnifique.
Alors si vous avez prévu de répartir vos locations de vacances entre une semaine à Saint François et une semaine à Bouillante par exemple, vous risquez de vous retrouver pendant votre semaine à ne pas pouvoir faire la moitié de ce que vous aurez prévu à cause du temps. Par exemple, les plages de Deshaies sont peu praticables à la baignade par houle de Nord à cause des rouleaux, mais magnifiques par houle d'Est. Alors si pendant votre semaine en Basse Terre la houle vient du Nord, mauvaise pioche ! Ou encore, si pendant votre semaine à Saint François il y a des échouages massifs d'algues sargasses (eh oui, ça arrive de façon sporadique et prévisible que peu de temps à l'avance) vous devrez faire des kilomètres pour aller sur une plage praticable à Port Louis... ou en Basse Terre !
En choisissant un logement central comme JADEN KREYOL pour tout votre séjour, vous n'aurez pas à faire de grandes distances pour vous déplacer partout, en Grande Terre ou en Basse Terre, en choisissant vos déplacements en fonction des conditions météo au jour le jour.
Et pour finir, mon conseil pour consulter la météo: il y a bien sûr pléthore de sites internet. Pour ma part je recommande tout simplement de regarder la météo le soir sur la chaine de télévision locale Guadeloupe 1ère. Le bulletin est à 19h25, juste avant les infos locales. Il y est facile de visualiser la direction du vent et de la houle pour décider de où vous irez le lendemain. Aussi, de ma modeste expérience de marin je sais que les prévisions au-delà de trois jours ne sont pas souvent fiables. Après il y a aussi un diction chez les marins qui dit "Qui écoute trop la météo reste au bistro". A bon entendeur... 😉
Guadeloupe last minute
Vous partez dans moins d'un mois ? Il y a des offres à tarif préférentiel dont vous pouvez profiter, tant pour l'avion que pour le logement. JADEN KREYOL vous propose un tarif last minute pour une réservation à J-30 et encore meilleur à J-14. Jetez un oeil sur notre site et réservez en ligne. Le prix et a réduction seront affichés en temps réel en renseignant vos dates et le nombre de personnes. Profitez-en pour venir passer un bout de décembre au soleil !
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