The vibrant city of Pointe-a-Pitre is home to Guadeloupe cruise port, where many cruise ships dock on their Caribbean itineraries. Whether you want to explore the city, or get out into its surroundings, here are my top tips for docking in this incredible destination.
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Updated 2024.
What’s in Guadeloupe cruise terminal?
The main Guadeloupe cruise terminal is right in the centre of Pointe-a-Pitre, and there is a big terminal building with air conditioning and wifi, plus a couple of duty free stores. Outside, there are plenty of market stalls selling souvenirs like spices and Madras fabric (the traditional checked fabric of Guadeloupe and other Caribbean islands like Martinique and Dominica).
If you want to catch a taxi from Guadeloupe cruise port, there will be plenty of drivers waiting both inside and outside the main gates. (But if you only want to get to the city, there’s no need- everything you need to see is mere minutes away on foot.) Some taxi drivers will accept US dollars, but it’s definitely better to use Euros.
Skip ahead to the best beaches near Guadeloupe cruise port.
What to do in Guadeloupe cruise port: explore the city
Pointe-à-Pitre itself is a beautiful, brightly coloured riot of colour, filled with sumptuous smells and sounds to match. As an overseas territory of France, the culture in Guadeloupe is a mixture of French and Caribbean, and when I began tentatively winding my way up and down the quiet streets of the city on my first morning here, I was overjoyed that it hugely reminded me in many ways of New Orleans.
And, oh Lordy, do I love New Orleans.
Built on top of what was once a patch of very swampy land, Pointe-a-Pitre’s history has been fraught with disasters. They’ve been through earthquakes, hurricanes and fires- plus a few cholera epidemics for good measure- but these copious amounts of calamities haven’t affected the beating heart of the city, and Guadeloupe cruise port is one of the best Caribbean ports of call for immersing yourself in local culture.
And although parts of the city consist of ramshackle wooden houses and shuttered windows, amongst all this are great big concrete skyscrapers that look like 1970s social housing with a colourful Caribbean twist. These tropical blocks of concrete are common across French islands; brightly-coloured cousins for their French counterparts in Europe. I’ve spotted these brutal pieces of architecture in the neighbouring island of Martinique as well as La Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
Appreciate the street art
Roaming the streets on the hunt for some brilliant Caribbean street art was one of my favourite things to do whilst docked in Guadeloupe cruise port.
The street art splashed across the streets of Pointe-a-Pitre is absolutely amazing. I know some people are against the idea of painting buildings- particularly when so many buildings in the centre of Pointe-à-Pitre have been standing since the turn of the 19th century.
But personally I think that the artwork on display here does nothing but enhance the aesthetic of the whole place. The city’s streets are lined with French colonial houses with wrought iron gates and balconies, vines wrestling for freedom from within cracks in the crumbling walls, and every now and then all of a sudden a huge brightly coloured and highly detailed mural of a face, a creature, or some other fantastical scene.
Eat crepes, because you’re in France after all
The novelty of tucking into a plate of Nutella crepes in the middle of the Caribbean never wore off, nor did it even wear mildly thin.
Finishing up whatever you’ve been doing on the island that day in a creperie is absolute TREAT. (In fact, even if we had merely an hour in which to escape the ship for a breath of fresh air- we would head out of the cruise port in Pointe-a-Pitre simply in order to eat crepes, and then turn around and head right back to the ship again.)
There are plenty of creperies in Pointe-a-Pitre, although Crêpemen’bon is a firm favourite.
If crêpes aren’t your thing, tuck into a pastry instead
There are so many bakeries in Pointe-a-Pitre which sell some seriously mouth-watering treats, taking inspiration from French classics but sometimes putting a Caribbean twist on their baked goods, whether sweet or savoury. As well as croissants, baguettes and madeleines, expect to find pastry tarts filled with rum-soaked tropical fruits, or flaky pies with crab claws like bizarre candles in the centre.
I returned many times to La Boulangerie Boul’Miche which is less than ten minutes walk from Guadeloupe cruise port.
Follow your nose to Pointe-a-Pitre’s spice market
Oh my goodness me, the smells emanating from this place, you guys!!! A whole block away from the market, I could already smell those Creole spices wafting towards me. It was as if I was in some kind of Tom and Jerry-style cartoon.
I basically FLOATED towards the spices.
The Saint-Antoine market, as it’s officially known, is a listed historical monument built in the 19th century, underneath the roof of which are rows of stalls run by ‘doudous.’ (Brilliant word, right?) Doudous are women in traditional brightly coloured plaid dresses and headscarves, selling rainbow-heaps of spices to match. Vanilla, curry, ginger, cinnamon, saffron…the list is endless and I could have sat there all day long just simply inhaling. If you’re lucky you might also run into a group of musicians performing the Guadeloupe’s traditional Gwo Ka music, so you can follow your ears as well as your nose.
Related: The Paradise Garden in the Caribbean- Jardin de Balata, Martinique
Visit one of Pointe-a-Pitre’s museums
Like almost every island within the Caribbean, slavery is a gigantic part of the history of Guadeloupe. Amazingly, back in the late 1700s when the sugar cane industry was still highly lucrative, the French governor of Guadeloupe emancipated the island’s slaves.
But then Napoleon effectively un-emancipated them all again in 1802. Pretty out of order if you ask me.
A massive uprising occurred, and eventually indentured servants were brought over from India to work the fields instead, in a similar fashion to countries like Mauritius. (FYI, in case you weren’t sure: indentured servitude is still pretty bad, and is still free and often forced labour. The key difference between this and slavery is that indentured servants work for no pay for a fixed amount of time, often in exchange for food, shelter, and travel to whichever far-off land they’d be working in. I’m using the present tense because let’s face it people, slavery of all sorts is still prevalent across the entire world today.)
The Musée Schoelcher is only five minutes walk from Guadeloupe cruise port and has only recently reopened after a long period of refurbishment. The museum is dedicated to the abolishionist Victor Schoelcher who was instrumental in the French government’s eventual abolition of slavery.
The Mémorial ACTe– Guadeloupe’s museum of slavery- is located on the site of an old sugar factory- and is part of a UNESCO initiative to preserve the memory of those who were enslaved, and to stop these atrocities from happening again. A few months after I visited Guadeloupe and the nearby French island of Martinique, I found myself in a museum in the city of Bordeaux– reading about these very same islands. Bordeaux profited massively from the slave trade and the plantations of those French Caribbean settlements.
I’m not gonna lie pals, the fact that the history of these two places on opposite sides of a gigantic ocean is so intertwined makes for a very humbling if nonetheless intriguing lesson. The world is a very small place.
The best excursions from Guadeloupe cruise port
There’s no denying that you’ll be met with awe-inspiring beauty on any island that you head to within the Caribbean. It’s just one of those places. And the nature of Guadeloupe is obviously no exception. If you’re arriving in Guadeloupe cruise port there are a tonne of amazing excursions to places not far from Pointe-a-Pitre, and if you’re staying on the island then you’ll be able to explore even more.
La Grande Soufrière is the tallest mountain peak in the Lesser Antilles, and not only that but it’s still a 100% fully active volcano, located within Guadeloupe’s national park. The park is also filled with hot springs and mud baths which you can find all the way to the top of the volcano.
Just in case you’re a Brit who’s a fan of Death in Paradise (I’m not ashamed to admit that I very much am), the series is filmed in the town of Deshaies which is just under an hour away from Pointe-à-Pitre by road.
Book a guided tour of Death in Paradise filming locations.
You could also head out on a boat to see more of the island and its surroundings from the sea. This is a private boat trip which stops at the site of an old wreck for snorkelling, and includes pick up and drop off from Pointe-a-Pitre, as well as a barbecue lunch on a mangrove islet.
The best beaches near Pointe-a-Pitre cruise port
Pals, it goes without saying that the beaches of Guadeloupe are absolutely incredible- although to get to the closest one to the cruise port you’ll need to either jump into a taxi or hop on a local bus.
The commune of Le Gosier , where La Datcha beach is located, is a short taxi ride from Guadeloupe cruise port, and this is the best bet if you’re shorter on time. It’s a really pretty little spot, which has plenty of restaurants, beach bars and cafes to choose from. You can also either catch the little ferry boat, or hire a kayak, to get you over to Îlet du Gosier, which is just off shore.
Read my detailed guide to reaching Îlet du Gosier here.
Even prettier- although slightly further away- is St Anne and the stunning Plage de la Caravelle. You’ll also need a taxi to reach it, plus a bit more time to spare, but the Plage de la Caravelle is often named as one of Guadeloupe’s prettiest beaches and it’s easy to see why.
Using public transport in Guadeloupe
If you’re on a tight budget, or want to do a bit of adventuring on your own, i.e. not with a tour, the public buses in Guadeloupe are really easy to use and follow a fairly clockwork schedule (which is a rarity in the Caribbean, folks.)
From above, the island looks like a butterfly with two big beautiful wings- the left one is Basse-Terre and the right is Grande-Terre. In Pointe-a-Pitre there are two main bus stations, which each serve a different side of the island. Bergevin bus station is a short walk from Guadeloupe cruise port, and serves Basse-Terre.
The second bus station is in the La Darse district, and is slightly less obvious to visitors because there’s no terminal building. The station is a slightly longer walk from Guadeloupe cruise terminal, but the buses are generally just as reliable. The best way to search for bus times is to use an app like Moovit.
Pointe-à-Pitre, and Guadeloupe as a whole, felt so much like a hidden gem that I almost don’t want to tell people about it. The amazing French Caribbean culture, combined with beautiful towns and areas of natural beauty which are very much possible to explore under your own steam or with the help of locals who are eager to show you around, meant that every day I spent here felt like a really genuine experience. Not some kind of ‘product’ packaged and sold to tourists like in some towns and cities in Europe.
This island is EXQUISITE.
Logistical Statisticals
- As it’s a French island, flights between Guadeloupe and Paris are actually pretty full on affordable, as far as flights to the Caribbean go. (It’s sometimes a lot cheaper to search for individual flights on skyscanner via a major international airport like Paris Charles de Gaulle, instead of booking direct London to Guadeloupe)
- Similarly- if you’re from an EU country, you will not be needing a visa to travel here.
- Currency is the Euro, and the main language is French. Ooh la la.
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