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Overview

Seven-Day Three Guianas Explorer
Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana
Duration: 7 days
Travel The Guianas - DMC for The Guianas, Suriname, Guyana & French Guina, South America image
Travel The Guianas - DMC for The Guianas, Suriname, Guyana & French Guina, South America
$3,561
Deposit: $221

About this trip

This seven-day journey moves through Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, three countries shaped by British, Dutch and French colonial histories, yet distinctly Caribbean in character. The itinerary covers Kaieteur Falls in Guyana, Paramaribo's UNESCO-listed wooden city, the former French penal colony at Saint-Laurent and the Guiana Space Centre at Kourou.

All logistics are handled. Your guide manages border crossings, domestic flights and ground transport across three currencies, three languages and varying infrastructure. Accommodation is in comfortable 3-star hotels or best available, with private bathrooms, air conditioning and breakfast included daily. Upgrades to 4- and 5-star properties are available where options exist.

Inluded

  • Six nights' accommodation in 3-star hotels or best available, with private bathrooms, air conditioning and breakfast daily (4- and 5-star upgrades available where options exist)

  • All ground and river transportation in air-conditioned vehicles and motorized pirogues

  • English-speaking guide throughout the program

  • Return flight to Kaieteur Falls

  • Commercial flight from Georgetown to Paramaribo

  • Overland transfers between Suriname and French Guiana, including pirogue river crossings

  • Catamaran excursion to the Salvation Islands

  • All entrance fees, nature park fees, border fees and tour-specific charges

  • Meals as specified in the itinerary (breakfasts daily, select lunches on full-day excursions)

Not Included

  • International flights to Georgetown and from Paramaribo or Cayenne

  • Visas and entry fees where required (guidance provided during booking)

  • Lunches and dinners not specified in the itinerary

  • Alcoholic beverages

  • Travel insurance (recommended)

  • Personal expenses and gratuities

Highlights

  • Kaieteur Falls, a 50-minute flight over roadless rainforest to a 226-meter single-drop waterfall, one of the most powerful on earth

  • Three-country overland routing, with seamless river crossings and border handling between Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana

  • Expert guiding throughout, English-speaking guides with deep regional knowledge, supported by specialist guides at key sites

  • Hassle-free logistics, all permits, fees, domestic flights and ground transport arranged

  • Small group structure, maximum 12 participants per departure

Your day by day program

Your day by day program  image

Guyana - Suriname - French Guyane in South America

Day 1 – Arrival in Georgetown

Your journey begins at Cheddi Jagan International Airport. After clearing customs, you're met by your guide and transferred to your Georgetown hotel—a 40- to 70-minute drive that offers an initial sense of Guyana's coastal landscape and capital city energy.

The remainder of the day is yours. Depending on arrival time and energy, you may choose to walk the streets near your hotel or simply settle in. Your guide will confirm the next day's early departure before leaving you to rest.

Day 2 – Kaieteur Falls and Flight to Suriname

The morning begins early. You're collected from your hotel and transferred to Ogle Airport for a scenic flight over unbroken rainforest to Kaieteur National Park. The 50-minute flight reveals the scale of Guyana's interior—a vast, roadless expanse of green.

At Kaieteur, you have approximately two hours on the ground. The falls drop 226 meters in a single plunge, five times the height of Niagara, into a gorge surrounded by primary forest. The site is remote, undeveloped, and strikingly quiet. Your guide provides context on the geology and ecosystem; the rest is observation.

You return to Georgetown by mid-afternoon for a guided city tour: the Botanical Gardens, St. George's Cathedral (one of the world's tallest wooden structures), and Stabroek Market, a cast-iron landmark at the heart of the city's commercial life.

By late afternoon, you transfer to the international airport for your flight to Paramaribo. Upon arrival in Suriname, you're met and transferred to your hotel in the historic center.

Day 3 – Paramaribo and Peperpot Nature Park

After breakfast, your guide leads a walking tour of Paramaribo's inner city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site distinguished by its concentration of wooden colonial architecture. You'll visit Independence Square, the Palm Garden, and the waterfront, where the architectural mix reflects centuries of Dutch, Creole, and Javanese influence. The walking route includes the Basilica, Mosque, and Synagogue—three houses of worship standing side by side, a spatial expression of Suriname's pluralism.

In the afternoon, you travel to Peperpot Nature Park, a former coffee plantation now returned to secondary forest. The site is known for birdlife—toucans, parrots, herons—and occasional sightings of capuchin monkeys and sloths. The visit concludes with a boat trip on the Suriname River, where pink river dolphins are sometimes seen, though sightings depend on tidal conditions and cannot be guaranteed.

You return to Paramaribo by early evening.

Day 4 – Overland to French Guiana via the Maroni River

Breakfast is served early. By 7:00 AM, you depart Paramaribo for the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Albina, Suriname's easternmost town. At the river border, you cross the Maroni by pirogue—a local covered boat—into Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, French Guiana.

Saint-Laurent was the administrative center of France's penal colony system from 1852 to 1953. You tour the former prison complex, including the transportation barracks and director's residence, with interpretation provided by your guide. The architecture is intact; the history is confronting.

From Saint-Laurent, you continue by road to Cayenne, French Guiana's capital. The afternoon includes a city orientation: the Place des Palmistes, the colonial-era prefecture, and the central market, where Hmong, Creole, and Brazilian vendors reflect the territory's contemporary diversity.

By evening, you reach Kourou, 60 kilometers west of Cayenne, where you'll be based for the next two nights.

Day 5 – Catamaran to the Salvation Islands

You depart Kourou harbor by catamaran at 8:00 AM for a full-day voyage to the Îles du Salut (Salvation Islands), the offshore site of France's most notorious penal colony. The three islands—Île Royale, Île Saint-Joseph, and Île du Diable (Devil's Island)—lie 15 kilometers from the coast.

Devil's Island, where political prisoners including Alfred Dreyfus were held, is closed to visitors, but you'll circumnavigate the island while your guide recounts its history. You then land on Île Royale, the largest island, where the prison director's quarters, hospital, chapel, and cell blocks remain in various states of ruin and restoration. The contrast between the site's grim past and its current natural beauty—coconut palms, agoutis, macaws—is stark.

You continue to Île Saint-Joseph, the most forbidding of the three, where solitary confinement cells occupy the island's interior. Time is allowed for walking the perimeter paths and absorbing the setting.

Lunch is taken on Île Royale before the return crossing to Kourou, typically arriving by mid-afternoon.

Day 6 – Guiana Space Centre and Return to Suriname

This morning's focus is the Centre Spatial Guyanais, Europe's spaceport and the launch site for Ariane rockets. The three-hour guided tour (conducted in French with translation support from your guide) includes the mission control center, rocket assembly buildings, and launch pads. If a launch is scheduled during your visit, preparations may be visible, though launch dates are set independently and cannot be timed to tour schedules.

After the space center visit and lunch in Kourou, you begin the overland return to Suriname: road transfer to Saint-Laurent, pirogue crossing of the Maroni, and onward drive to Paramaribo. Border formalities are handled with your guide's assistance.

You arrive in Paramaribo by early evening and check back into your hotel.

Day 7 – Departure from Paramaribo

Depending on your departure flight time, breakfast may be included at your hotel. Three hours before your scheduled flight, you're transferred to Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport.

Your journey through the Three Guianas concludes here, though onward departures can be arranged from any of the three countries depending on your routing.

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1. Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana

Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana

About your organizer

Travel The Guianas is a Destination Management Company and tour operator based in Paramaribo, Suriname. For over two decades we have been the on-the-ground operator for travelers seeking real access to Suriname, Guyana and French Guiana, the three Guianas. We work across three countries, three languages and three currencies, handling everything in-house, from multi-country guided journeys to single day excursions and cruise ship shore programs.

We reach places most operators cannot, fly-in rainforest lodges 240 kilometers from the nearest road, overnight stays in working Maroon communities and Kaieteur Falls by scenic flight. We are also the leading ground handler for expedition cruise lines calling at Suriname. Book a single day out or a full three country expedition, you deal directly with the people who run the operation.

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