Overland through French Guyana, Dutch Guyana (Suriname) and British Guyana


The three Guyanas were less exotic or difficult than I thought.



The shared taxi from the "Central Hotel" in Cayenne to the Surinamese border leaves at 8am for €35, switching vehicles once, taking ca. 3,5hrs on perfectly tarred roads. A normal taxi would cost € 350 - 450. If I'd do it again, I'd try to get a one-way car hire at the airport which seems possible. There is an interesting looking hotel halfway, called "Hotel du Fleuve", 30 mins after Kourou.


Suriname is the only country in south America requiring a prior visa, however some tourists enter illegally on the so-called "back-track" in St. Laurent du Moroni. To enter Suriname the easiest way is by motorized canoo for € 5. There is also a regular car ferry several times a day. The border post in St. Laurent du Moroni is open during normal business hours. Easy.



The taxi from that border to Paramaribo is € 90 for ca 2,5hrs on a good dirt road. The best hotel in Paramaribo is the "Royal Torarica". The taxi from there to the border town of Nieuw Nickerie is € 150, taking 3hrs on a scenic tarred road. The best hotel there is the "Regency".


The legal way to enter Guyana is by car ferry, which leaves another 30mins down the road at 11am. There is again an illegal way to enter on motorized canoos, which they call "back track" for € 70 (alone), leaving from the edge of town. The ride takes ca. 45mins on pretty open water and may be a bit dangerous - for several reasons. I would have taken that canoo at 5h30 am to get my 10h30 flight from Georgetown, but some wonderfully dodgy characters said the first boat would not be ready before 8am.



I figured out I could just as well take the official ferry - with an official entry stamp. That probably saved me a lot of hassle at the very bureaucratic airport controls when leaving Guyana.


The shared taxi to Georgetown took 2,5hrs and € 10 on a good tarred road. The best hotel there is the "Pegasus", although quite worn out. The airport is a bloody 45mins outside town. Very few flights, so when i missed mine, I had to go back to town to leave next morning to Trinidad (3 flights there per day, 2 others to Barbados).

I just did it a month ago on a motorcycle. I thought they were quite exotic places to visit, unlike anything else in South America. The unspoiled rainforests and savanna in southern Guyana were simply spectacular. There are some bureaucratic hurdles to overcome when you have your own vehicle, but its pretty straight forward.


French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana | South on Two Wheels
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Very nice trip report, crashmaster.

Thanks amigo, I had a great time on that segment, well worth doing IMO.

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I agree.

The only pain is organising the Suriname visa (which I did in advance).

Other than that: good roads. Very safe to reasonably safe (Georgetown). Well developed and civilized in the cities. And of course exotic landscapes.

For the most part, the roads are decent enough, but be aware that road conditions can change drastically from day to day, depending on the rains.

The dirt road in Guyana from Linden to the Brazil border at Lethem was in spectacularly poor shape with meter deep holes filled with water and some water crossings (more like huge deep puddles across the road) that almost drowned my bike.

In addition, to get into French Guiana from the south, BR-156 in Amapa, Brazil had a dozen or so roughly knee deep mud pits ranging from 50 to 300 meters in length. Some of these muddy section were on a pretty steep incline.

There were two washed out bridges on the route from Albina to Paramaribo that involved lengthy detours through lots of mud and clay as well.

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Hahahah....better you than me!

Mark

Ha! But you rode BR-156 in much more interesting condition than I did.

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lighten up guys... :-)

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- On the road since 2003 in a vintage Land Cruiser