Les Saintes, Guadeloupe
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Last Updated on November 18, 2019 by Amy
We’re cruising our way through three months in the Caribbean. We’d spent eight days on Basse Terre, the main island of Guadeloupe, and had just two nights in Îles des Saintes, also known as Les Saintes. Looking back, Les Saintes was one of our highlights in the Caribbean, and we wish we’d spent more time here.
My cousin Sarah is with us; she arrived in Antigua and was with us for a total of three weeks, departing in Dominica.
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About the Îles des Saintes
Îles des Saintes is a dependancy island group of Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is an overseas territory of France in the Caribbean. Therefore, Îles des Saintes is a part of France.
Getting to Les Saintes
Jeans for Freedom offers ferry trips from Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe) and Fort-de-France (Martinique) to Les Saintes. CTM Deher offers ferry trips from Trois-Rivieres and Basse Terre (the city), both in southern Basse-Terre (the island).
Bourg des Saintes
Sarah and I headed into the town of Bourg des Saintes to check things out. We were very pleased to find this cute little town. The Saints seem to be a bit more touristy than most of Guadeloupe that we have seen, but with that comes…let’s say…better curb appeal? In some parts of Guadeloupe, what we’ve seen is more along the lines of poverty.
There’s a few grocery shops – a Carrefour Express and two gourmet shops.
Hiking Le Chameau
Thursday our goal was to hike to the top of Le Chameau, a lookout on the highest point in the saints. It was a fantastic hike, mostly on a road, but very steep. Excellent workout, excellent views.
Fort Napoléon des Saintes
With our friend Anna, Sarah and I hiked up to Fort Napoléon des Saintes, to see the view and museum. The museum was 5€ per person and was quite bizarre. We saw antique sewing machines, old Guadeloupe currency, modern art, a model of Christopher Columbus’ Santa Maria, preserved fish, and dioramas of naval battles, to name a small fraction of the variety.
Lunch in Town
We had lunch at Smooth Sea: juices, smoothies, and salads (Sarah is a vegan). Next, we stopped for ice cream at Cesibon. Good ice cream, but the cone didn’t taste as good as it smelled.
Where to Snorkel
Next, we cooled off by taking the dinghy over to the beach at Anse à Cointre for a snorkel. While the coral wasn’t amazing, the water was crystal clear.
Sarah and I pulled out the pool noodles and went for a swim right in the mooring field too. It was actually a bit chilly, and we would occasionally swim a lap around Starry Horizons to warm ourselves up. Then we adjourned to the bow for reading. And what was David doing for all this? Cleaning the cockpit and polishing the stainless. Man, I’m a lucky lady.
