Guadeloupe is pretty nice shaped like a butterfly Basse Terre
has the cutest town very french best beaches on the flatter
bigger island food very good as you might imagine my fav hotel
pricepoint when there last...

Habitation Grande Anse is a Hotel–Residence*** hidden away on a hillside and surrounded by lush vegetation, just 300 meters away from the spectacular beach
www.easytobook.com/en/guadeloupe/basse-terre/deshaies/habitation-grande-anse-hotel-res

www.gouadeloupetourist.com

www.virtualtourist.com good local postings

Have fun!

Thank you for that information. Is Deshaies a town? Are you able to point me to the main towns that one might like to stay in?

Basse Terre is green mountains, rain forest, volcanos, waterfalls and black sand beaches with little villages. Most of the bigger towns are on Grand Terre, which is flatter, with white sand beaches. The good diving is all on the Basse Terre side, if that matters to you. The two prettiest towns (I think) on the Grand Terre side are St. Anne (great beach and a string of beach bars) and St. Francois, a bigger village with a nice marina, decent beach, and a lot of little restaurants (mainly walking distance around the marina). Overall, Guadeloupe is one of our favorite islands because of the great combination of Caribbean charm and French influence -- all of the grocery stores have machines popping out fresh baguettes, and fabulous wine and cheese selections (and other necessities) that are flown in from France daily. I agree with you about not wanting to drive at night, but don't worry at all about day trips -- the roads are better than any island in the Caribbean except maybe Puerto Rico.

Deshaies is a fishing village, alot of the places to stay are slightly outside Deshaies, the village itself has a few restaurants along the main street together with a bakery and supermarket.

Following upon your help we are now set to go to Guadeloupe on the 2nd Feb. We have booked the Habitation Grande Anse- thank you Quo Vadis!
Whilst I am not afraid of driving at night(my previous comments were to do with being able to drink at dinner not fear!) I am tending towards asking the hotel to arrange a transfer and then hiring a car later on. We are due to land(from Paris) at 15.35. Does anyone have any views on this? Are there Car Hire places easily accessible to the Habitation?
Finally can anyone recommend a guidebook- we speak French.
Thanks

Personally I would hire the car at the airport and drive to Grand Anse, this is what we usually do, it's not that far and the roads are very good and well signposted. If you have driven in France you will find driving in Guadeloupe easy. Grand Anse is a lovely beach and the area is gorgeous. I found this website very useful when planning our holiday:

http://www.antilles-info-tourisme.com/guadeloupe/p2-in-gb.htm

You can also take trips to nearby islands eg Les Saintes or Marie Galante, which we didn't do and regret.

http://www.express-des-iles.com/

hey qwo, odin, tejana, and anyone else -- thx as always for the info. I'm interested in this place as it sounds like it offers almost everything I'm looking for.

I'm hoping to

1. snorkel (and possibly dive)
2. easily bike to good restaurants and markets
3. access challenging biking excursions for my companion
4. rent a quaint bungalow/apt/condo vs a hotel (but if food is good on the island, smaller hotel is fine)
5. eat fresh fish and seafood everyday

Does this sound like the right island? How far apart are Grande Terre and Basse Terre -- is renting a car for the week necessary if we rent bikes? Which side is Deshaies village on?

thx for the links, everyone -- not a glut of info on this little island. The other option is Curacao which has more award availability. Frances, plz do post when you return and have a wonderful trip. : )

Guadeloupe is known for biking (including a pro tour stop). "Challenging" courses should be easy to find on the Basse Terre side - big mountain!. When you look at the island from above, Grand Terre is the right side of the butterfly, Basse Terre side is the left. You fly into Pointe a Pitre, which is right in the middle, so you can get to most places on either "wing" within about an hour or so (the Basse Terre side is very mountainous, so travel time is probably a bit longer). Sounds like you would love the Basse Terre side -- smaller villages and a little more "island-like." Deshaies is in the northwest corner of Basse Terre. Try Google Maps.

Island doesn't sound quite as little as I imagined.... Thx, will definitely check out Basse Terre accommodations -- any specific suggestions would be much appreciated.

Yes, friend will be happy bout the biking culture here -- are the towns in Basse Terre flat enough where a sedentary non-triathelete (that would be me....) could casually bike around too? Happy to hear diving and cute villages are on Basse Terre side - is snorkeling within shore access or must charter a boat?

Is it unreasonable to imagine we could rent bikes in lieu of a car for the week?

Not the report I was intending to post-on the way to the airport last week for the first leg of our journey to Guadeloupe,I heard that my Dad had been admitted to hospital. We never made it to Guadeloupe so I'm afraid I can't add anything to the information already available here.
What I can say is that in the time since booking- so about three months, I didn't come across a single person who had ever been to Guadeloupe. I think this is extraordinary and I've never been anywhere before(not that I went here either, but you know what I mean)where I haven't been able to pick someone's brains about it.
I can only put this down to the fact that you can't fly there direct from the U.K. and that you appear to need to speak French to make the most of the trip.
So anyone who makes it there- I'd love to hear what you think of it!
Frances

Most people in the UK would go for a direct flight, all inclusive and a place where English is spoken so unlikely to go to Guadeloupe. In the same way that the French do not usually take holidays in Barbados, Tobago/Grenada, Antigua or St Lucia, since they prefer direct flights from France, good food (definitely no AI) and islands where French is spoken.

We are US based and we have been to Guadeloupe twice but I don't know many others who have been, It helps but is nit crucial to speak French, my high school french sufficed. I find its lack of popularity one of its greatest charms.

We're going back to Guadaloupe in November for the first time in years, and can't wait. Unfortunately, what used to be an easy flight is now extremely difficult because American Airlines (the only airline that flies there from the States) has eliminated a lot of connecting flights. We'll make it work, though! We'll be sailing around the island (and out islands) for a week, so now I just need to decide where to stay for a day or two before we start sailing. If on the Grande Terre side, I'm thinking about St. Anne (always loved that little town and beach), but I'm also thinking about maybe the Deshaies area, since we've never been in that corner. And yes, french is really helpful -- we did a LOT of pointing and pantomiming the first time we were there, but we made it through.

bookmarking ... again

hey sunfish - thanks for bringing this back on my radar. Since my last post we have made reservations for 2 nights at Le Jardin Tropical at Malendure Bay, Bouillante (the little B&B attached to the restaurant Le Rocher de Malendure), at the recommendation of a poster on the TripAdvisor board for Guadeloupe that I was in contact with. It seems like the perfect little place to spend a couple of days before sailing -- a good central location for exploring Basse Terre, and very close to Pigeon Island for easy access to diving. (If anyone on this board has personal experience with the place, speak up!). American Airlines is driving me completely crazy with all of the schedule changes they have made, and now -- because of their cutback in flights - they have made it completely impossible to get to or from the island without an overnight layover. Incredibly annoying, but since they are the only game in town I'm just glad that they haven't (yet) cancelled service to the island alltogether.