I would like to briefly describe for you the most important information about Guadeloupe and our observations about this island..
Maybe let’s start with the means of transport. Which one is the most convenient?
You can use public transport, although we immediately gave up after reading many blogs before the trips, where we found out, that transport in Guadeloupe is not the best.
Another alternative is a rental car, which is very popular in Guadeloupe. A month before departure, we rented a car (Renault Clio) at www.rentalcars.com from the JumboCar rental company. The cost of rental for 2 days with the included full insurance costed 360 PLN.
Where to book the accommodation?
At first, I was looking for accommodation only at Martinique, but due to an unexpected change, I was forced to find a place for two nights in Guadeloupe. I quickly realized that the trend is quite similar on both islands. Hotels available on the most popular portal booking.com are quite expensive, but the standard is actually lower than in Poland. Another option was portal airbnb.com, where the choice was probably even bigger.
The apartment, which I finally reserved had a very good location, air-conditioning, a swimming pool and a fast WiFi connection. However, it was strange to see the kitchen on the balcony. I saw a few such apartments on Airbnb, so it’s probably some local standard 🙂 This apartment was certainly not the one from our dreams, but we were going to be there only 2 days, so the standard was OK for us. For two nights we paid 420 PLN. Additional information about this apartment you could find on the host’s website here.
After landing in Guadeloupe and renting a car, we quickly connected to WiFi at the airport to contact our host from Airbnb, because our Polish phone cards have lost their connections. After 25 minutes we arrived at the place.
What about food?
Hmmm, here’s a big problem. I imagined Guadeloupe as an island rich in exotic fruits, delicious vegetables or other tasty local products. Unfortunately, it turned out to be different. In stores, there were exotic fruits such as papaya, mango and watermelon, but they were very expensive. The price per kilo was starting from 3-4 €. So maybe there will be fresh seafood? At local supermarkets yes, there were some of them, but they were not super accessible. However, in normal stores or hypermarkets, frozen food predominated. It was not a pleasant surprise.
However, we found some advantages. In Guadeloupe and Martinique there was a delicious bread, especially a baguette. They tasted just like the one from Paris, and cost only about 1 €. It’s great that these French tradition is also present here. Every morning we started the day with a fresh baguette with salted butter and other toppings.
Is Guadaloupe expensive?
In our opinion, in general, yes. Certainly food is more expensive than in Europe, but there were also some cheaper products. The most shocked was the price of a kilogram of cauliflower – 5 € (!). The price of meat was comparable to prices in Western Europe.
Cheap was definitely alcohol, especially rum (prices started from 5 € per liter).
What you should know more?
- Guadeloupe is an island belonging to the overseas territory of France, which means that citizens of the European Union do not need a visa.
- The currency, as in France, is €.
- The official language is also French.
- The main branch of the economy is tourism, followed by the cultivation of sugar cane, bananas and rum production.
- In most places you can pay by card. We used the Revolut card.
- The high season runs from November to April.