The Civilized Explorer

Guadeloupe's Beaches

In Gosier, the hotel beaches are adjacent to each other; you can walk from beach to beach without ever seeing a hotel lobby or the street. There are several stone jetties built to protect the beaches. Although in close proximity to each other, the beaches are different. Starting at the northern end, the Creole Beach Hotel has no shade on the beach. Most of the sand is on the stone jetty and part of the beach is blocked from the water by a stone retaining wall. There are lawns around the beach that are used for sunbathing.

The beach at the Salako has lots of sand with some palm trees (and shade). Part of the beach leads up to a jetty (a larger area than at the Creole Beach Hotel) and is therefore very wide with water on 2 sides. This is a pleasant beach with a snack bar.

The Arawak beach is our idea of a traditional tropical beach: lots of sand, palm trees, and shade. Jetties on either end protect the beach, a very nice cresent of sand right in front of the hotel.

The Callinago hotel beach is smaller than the Arawak's, but still has good sand and more palm trees.

In Bas du Fort, one beach is shared by the Hotels Marissol and Fleur d'Epee. Protected by jetties, this is also a traditional tropical beach; lots of sand, palm trees, very calm water, vendors, and their associated activity. With the snack bar and hotel bars, this beach is very convenient; we also used this beach on days when rain threatened since we could get to shelter easily.

A clothing seller on a clothing optional beach.

The Club Med end of the beach at Sainte Anne has the best protection from the wind of any of the beaches we visited. You will not believe me as you trek to the end of the beach, however, because it is very windy on the beach between the road and Club Med. Do not be discouraged - we used this beach on days so windy we would have had sand in our ears had we sunbathed anywhere else. Nice sand and trees; plus you can watch some truly bad golf at the Club Med... We photographed this woman who is selling clothes on a nude beach. Well, not nude, exactly -- More like clothing optional.
[NOTE: This beach has been taken over completely by Club Med, and clothing is no longer optional. The other benefits remain, however. Civilized Explorers, 2000]

Our favorite nude beach is Pointe Tarare. It is a 45 minutes drive from Gosier and a 5 minute walk from the end of a dirt road, but it is pristine. The biggest addition we saw on this trip was a beverage stand near the beach that consisted of a woman with an ice chest and a beach umbrella. [NOTE: This was an idea that did not last. Civilized Explorers, 1998] This is a pretty small beach with no shade in the middle of the day, but there are NO VENDORS! We liked that - the beach is very quiet, low key, and beautiful. We have enjoyed snorkeling there in past trips; the water was too churned up to really see anything snorkeling on this trip. We do not know if we just hit some rough seas on our trip or if that was a consequence of last summer's hurricanes. It is still worth the 45 minute drive!

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