The Guyanas October Tour

Monday 19th October – Georgetown, Guyana

• Arrival at your leisure and self-transfer to our centrally located hostel in Georgetown.
• Pre-tour meeting will be held at the lobby of our hotel at 6:00pm to discuss the tour itinerary and to meet your fellow travellers and YPT guide.
• Head out for dinner to the best Indian restaurant in Georgetown. The Indian community is one of the biggest in Georgetown and heavily influenced their cuisine.
• After dinner we’ll move on to a local establishment which has a selection of local rums and a local Banks beer, available as a lager or a milk stout and to get to know your group members.
• Overnight in Georgetown.

Tuesday 20th October – Georgetown – Kaieteur Falls – Georgetown

Morning

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Head to the airport and board our chartered flight at 11:30am departing Georgetown to see one of the natural wonders of the world, the rarely visited Kaieteur Falls.
• One of the highlights of this trip are the amazing views from our propeller plane as we reach the falls – here you can appreciate the sheer size of Kaieteur falls.
• We arrive at Kaieteur Falls at 2:00pm – which is a short 15 minutes’ walk from the airport.

Afternoon

• Lunch before exploring our beautiful surroundings.
• After 2 hours exploring the falls and taking some epic photos. The Kaieteur Falls are on the Potaro River right in the middle of the remote location and dense Guyana rainforest was hiding the world’s largest single drop waterfall.
• After an epic day we’ll catch the 4:00 pm flight back to Georgetown.
• This time we’ll explore the Chinese neighbourhood, another of the big community of Georgetown. For dinner, we’ll head to a local Chinese restaurant followed by much deserved drinks.
• Overnight in Georgetown.

Wednesday 21st October – Georgetown

Morning

• After breakfast we head out on a walking tour to explore Georgetown known as the “Garden City of the Caribbean” – the only capital city in South America to have been a British colony.
• You’ll explore with us the Gothic Revival City Hall, St. George’s Cathedral, and Independence Square.
• Head to the Parliament Building which dates from 1829 – its history runs deep housing two cannons used during the Crimean War.
• Explore the Stabroek Market with its prominent clock tower – this is the largest and busiest area in the city.

Afternoon

• Street food by the market for lunch and continue to Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology which gives a great lowdown on the Amerindian heritage of the country.
• If there’s time we’ll stroll around the Botanical Gardens which is where families head towards the evening to relax and unwind.
• We’ll go for a quick rest back at the hostel before we head out again.
• Dinner in our favourite burger place.
• Overnight in Georgetown.

Thursday 22nd October – Georgetown – Paramaribo, Suriname

Morning

• Early wake up and departure at 4:00am to begin our journey to Paramaribo – capital of Suriname. This is backpacking and adventure at its finest as we drive through pristine countryside as the sunrises over the water.
• Stopping for breakfast along the way.
• Board our 10:30am ferry, followed by a private coach to Paramaribo.

Afternoon

• Along the scenic journey we’ll have lunch.
• On arrival, we’ll check-in to our centrally located hotel for a nice shower before heading out.
• Dinner at a creole restaurant where you’ll have the chance to try its very local dish, which combines three central ingredients: chicken, citrus juice and pomtajer, a local root similar to potato.
• We’ll head out for a night in the town to see how the local rum compares to its western neighbour – it would be rude if we didn’t.
• Overnight in Paramaribo.

Friday 23rd October – Paramaribo

Morning

• Today we’ll be up early for a city tour around Paramaribo before making our way to Fort Zeelandia – which is an important site in Surinamese history and has the best views overlooking the Suriname River.
• Stroll down the iconic UNESCO-listed street lined with beautifully preserved Dutch wooden houses, a unique architectural legacy that sets Paramaribo apart.
• We will do a visit to the Paramaribo flea market where we can see the local people buying and selling a whole manner of things. This is a real look into the contemporary life of this developing country.
• Along the journey, we’ll discover and learn about the religious diversity of the city. We’ll visit beautiful and impressive, Churches, Mosques, Synagogues and Hindu Temples that all coexist in the city.

Afternoon

• Lunch by the Suriname River.
• We will take a boat to explore the riverside, visiting the old New Amsterdam fort and a plantation. There are high chances to see dolphins!
• Dinner in Zus, a restaurant frequented by locals with live music.
• You cannot truly know a place unless you have been to its main nightclub, so we visit Mystique Pool café for a night out drinking with the locals.
• Overnight in Paramaribo.

Saturday 24th October – Paramaribo – Saint Lauren du Maroni, French Guiana – Kourou

Morning

• Early wake up and departure at 5:00am and begin our drive to Kourou, in French Guyana, one of the furthest parts of the EU – French Guiana (they even take Euros!), again taking it to travel extremes by having to board a rickety boat to cross the river.
• We will meet with our local guide for a tour in Saint Lauren du Maroni, where we will visit a former transportation camp, where French prisoners would be sent to work as slaves

Afternoon

• Lunch in a small village on our way to Kourou, where we will grab some baguettes before continuing to the space centre.
• The Space Centre is also the main spaceport of the European Space Agency. Geographically, the spaceport is situated close to the equator and thus easier to launch a spacecraft into an equatorial, geostationary orbit!
• We continue along our journey to Kourou, where we will check in at our hotel.
• Evening walk around Kourou, dinner and the opportunity of tasting some of the local craft beer.
• Overnight in Kourou.

Sunday 25th October – Kourou – Devil’s Island – Cayenne

Morning

• Breakfast at our hotel before we hop on a 1 hour cruise to Devil’s Island for a 3 hour tour of the most infamous penal colony in the world – only 2,000 survived out of 60,000 souls imprisoned there.  This was a French prison in the 19th and 20th centuries with prisoners sent there from France and other French colonies worldwide. Home to Alfred Dreyfus in the late 19th – a chilling place.
• lunch in a local boulangerie.

Afternoon

• Arrival in Cayenne capital of this French territory/colony for our a walking tour of Cayenne, including Place de Palmistes, colonial French Architecture, St Saviour Cathedral, and Fort Ceparou in time for the sunset.
• Our last farewell dinner in a restaurant that serves local animal meat, such as iguanas, coaties and armadillos!  followed by our last night out.
• Overnight in Cayenne.

Monday 26th October – Cayenne

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• End of the tour depart at your own convenience. YPT can arrange additional nights in Cayenne and land transport back to Paramaribo for a fee. We are more than happy to provide advice for ongoing flights.
• For those wanting to continue their adventure with us on our Venezuela tour we’ll arrange private transportation from Cayenne to Paramaribo and overnight accommodation for $250. We’ll then board Copa Airlines departing Paramaribo on October 27th at 5:25pm on flight CM319, transiting through Panama City and continuing on flight CM330 to arrive in Caracas at 2:00am on October 28th. Please note that the flight is not included in the tour cost.