surfrider

Any tips (other than learn French)

Any reason not to go?

Crime?

Anti-American vibe?

Thanks!

xkenx

Go; it's fine. However we felt that Martinique was more interesting for a French island.

RobertoB

I recently revisited my Martinique bookmarks and came across this site.

http://www.cieux.com/toc.html

If you decide to go this site should prove very helpful since it covers the French West Indies. Far exceeds anything that you'll find in guidebooks.

Spainfan

Just returned from 3 days Guadeloupe, 4 days Les Saintes. Great beaches on Guadeloupe...Stayed at Meridien...Felt very safe, walked around town, very low key. Isle de Saintes was sensational..low key, mod prices, no care. If you need tokeep busy it is not the place to go.

KruzinKevN

Guadeloupe is a very interesting and different place! Not the typical Americanized island! Yes, some French is very useful, we found we had nowhere near enough! Did not find any anti-American sentiment, more like apathy. Don't miss Le Saints as it was the highlight. And DO rent a car as the taxi drivers will very nicely agree to take you anywhere and once in the car not seem to understand you and run up a high fare on the meter! We even had one agree to a fare but then we never did get to where we wanted to go! Allow several days to explore as this is a fairly large island compared to most. Most of the hotels and restaurants are around the marina. The beaches are a wide variety of different sands from black to white and everything in between and topless is norm without the American leering as the French take little notice. Also, as they are French, they won't bring the check at a restaurant until you ask. Also, make sure you know your PIN for your charge card as it seems to be the only way to get some more Euros. Just a few things we learned on this island trip. Hope it helps!

MIM04

Guadeloupe is a fabulous place. There is really no reason not to go. You should have a great trip. Make sure you spend sometime on les saintes.

wrk4vaka

Very dissapointed in the restaurants for being a french island.We had to go out of our way to find a really good one,at least in the area we stayed in. We stayed at Canella Beach Resort on the east end of Grande Terre and drove all the way to the west end of Basse Terre to get to the Cafe Iguana.It was so good we went there two nights but again if it wern`t for my limited knowlege of French we couldn`t have even made reservations.Once there some of the staff spoke English and you finally felt that you were in a caribbean paradise.

KruzinKevN

We do understand about the restaurants, especially in that area around Canella. It wasn't until a few days into our stay that we found all the restauants around the marina near Gosier and then we went there several nights! It seemed like a different world than the older resort area that seemed like it had seen better days!