willsjr

My daughter has accepted a post with the French Embassy to teach English as a second language in Guadeloupe from October until May. As we have begun to research, we are discovering how expensive the airfare is!(We live in Little Rock, AR) There are flights to Point-a-Pitre from Miami, I know. i am wondering if there might be other reasonable ways to get there--ferries from other more accessible islands? At this point, she doesn't even know where in Guadeloupe she will be, but she was told to go ahead and make reservations as soon as she found a good flight.We would welcome any general information about Guadeloupe as well.

caribtraveler

Unfortunately there are no Guadeloupe experts on this board. A few people have done the cruise stop-over thing but that's about it. We went over a decade ago so too long ago to give you any good advice. I can tell you that it's a big island so she'll want to stay near where she's teaching. If she's teaching in Basse-Terre, she should not stay in Grande-Terre and vice-versa.
I've been looking at flights for next year and they're not cheap. One suggestion is to fly to San Juan instead of Miami and take a flight from there. Buy the tickets separately. It can come out cheaper.
I know you can catch a ferry from Dominica but not sure that it's really that much cheaper to fly to Dominica.
That's a great opportunity for your daughter. Good luck to her.

willsjr

Thanks for your response. I have been looking at flights to San Juan,and I think I have enough frequent flier miles to cover that---which helps a lot.Now if i can just accumulate enough miles to go visit her!
Is there any particular airline I should or should not consider for the little puddlejumper flight from San Juan to Pointe-a Pitre?

Odin

Caribbean Ferries operate from St Martin to Guadeloupe and Express des Iles from Dominica & St Lucia to Guadeloupe. We spent couple weeks in Guadeloupe and Martinique 2 years ago and took Express des Iles, cost about EUR50 one way.

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


Tourist accommodation is mostly bungalows with self-catering, there are some international standard hotels in Grand Terre but we preferred to stay in Basse Terre for the nature (it's green and mountainous with some sandy beaches, has a national park).

It's quite easy to drive around, being a department of France things are well organized, plenty of supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants. Standard of living <i>appears</i> to be better than I've seen in alot of Caribbean islands.

A_Traveller

I doubt you'd really want your daughter to take a fery (if it still runs) from St. Martin to Guadalupe. It's a long distance (about 175 miles) and it crosses quite a bit of &quot;blue water&quot; meaning the trip will take about 18 hours and be very &quot;bumpy&quot;.

Her best bet is to fly from either Miami or San Juan. From San Juan you can take either American Eagle (www.aa.com) or LIAT (www.liatairlines.com). By the way, it's not a &quot;little puddle jumper&quot; but rather a twin engine turo-prop plane which holds about 64 passengers.

Odin

Sorry the link to Caribbean Ferries was incorrect:

http://www.caribbean-ferries.com/car...esentation.asp

It might not run anymore as the timetable is not up to date, but when it did, it departed St Martin at 1530 and arrived Basse Terre at 1930.

willsjr

Thanks so much for the information. She has, at long last, received her assignment. She will be teaching in Sainte Rose, described as a colorful fishing village. At this point, she has her round trip ticket to San Juan. I was wondering about chartering a flight from there to Guadeloupe.(There are 17 from the US, 40 or so from other countries.)Understand that I know NOTHING about this. I assume that would be a puddlejumper, and also not necessarily cheaper---probably not a good idea. I think she will most likely fly American. Guadeloupe seems to be the last stop on Liat--takes 6 hours to get there from San Juan!
Any info on Sainte Rose? Next, I plan to work on our visit to see her!

MIM04

Flying American from San Juan would be the best bet.

Here is a link that might be helpful with some general info.

http://www.frenchcaribbean.com/Guade...tingThere.html

http://www.frenchcaribbean.com/Guade...es/GPMaps.html

Also here is a map.

If you get a chance when you visit go to Les Saintes, and amazing place! So small and charming.

I am sure it will be a fantastic experience for her!

Odin

Sainte Rose is a very nice village, we stopped there on the way to our destination of Deshaies for the ATM machine. We also passed through Sainte Rose quite a few times during our stay for the supermarket and bakery. It's on the road from Pointe a Pitre.

lindasp62

willsjr; Not sure if you are still around, but I am curious as to the teaching post your daughter got in Guadeloupe. I used to work on guadeloupe in a resort, and am now and ESL teacher in the USA. I would like to return to Guadeloupe to do ESL tutoring, so I am curious as to some particulars on how your daughter found her post. I would appreicate any information! Thanks!

kerikeri

i'm very surprised the french embassy did not cover the costs of the flights if they are employing her?

Maggi

Lindasp62, I was looking around for my niece on this very subject and here are a few websites I found by typing &quot;ESL international jobs&quot; into Google:
http://www.tefljobplacement.com/
http://www.footprintsrecruiting.com/registration.php

waring

A bit of a tangent, however she should brush up on her creole before she goes.

While they teach French in school in Guadeloupe the day to day working language is creole, which is a delightful mix of French, English, Spanish, Dutch and Hindi, combined with African grammar and specks of Caribbean Indian.

www.assimil.com are the only people I know of who do a home learning course. It is French-Creole-French though.

Sa ka mach&eacute;?
Awa, sa ka woul&eacute;!

kinners

Delta has a direct flight out of Atlanta to PTP.