Visa and entry requirements Guadeloupe:
Passport not required
No visa is required

Information from the Foreign Office about your trip to Guadeloupe:
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/frankreichsicherheit/209524

Guadeloupe is an overseas department in the Caribbean and a region of France with approximately 400,000 inhabitants. The archipelago geographically belongs to the Lesser Antilles and consists of six inhabited and 50 other uninhabited islands.

The territory of Guadeloupe, shaped like a large butterfly when viewed from above, is located in the south of the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Montserrat and north of the island state of Dominica.

The official language in Guadeloupe is French and around 95% of the population belong to the Catholic Church. The euro is used everywhere as a means of payment.

The most inhabited cities in the archipelago include Basse-Terre, Pointe-a-Pitre, Saint Francois, Saint Anne, Deshaies, Sainte Rose and Le Gosier.

The two largest main islands of Guadeloupe are Basse-Terre and Grand-Terre, which are connected by two bridges. The other inhabited islands include Marie-Galante, la Desirade and two islands in the Iles des Saintes archipelago.

The island of Basse-Terre is of volcanic origin, while Grand-Terre is mostly flat. The highest point in the entire territory of Guadeloupe is the 1,467 meter high volcano La Soufriere on Basse-Terre.

The archipelago has a tropical climate all year round, which can sometimes lead to tropical cyclones in the summer months.

Guadeloupe's most important economic sectors include agriculture, light industry, services and tourism.

The country's two most important agricultural products are sugar cane and bananas, which, along with rum, are also Guadeloupe's main export products. Banana exports account for a good half of the archipelago's annual export earnings. In addition, other various tropical fruits, eggplants and flowers are grown.

Tourism is also an important part of the local economy. Due to its fascinating underwater world, the archipelago is particularly popular with diving enthusiasts. The majority of all foreign visitors come to the archipelago on cruise ships.

Among the most visited tourist attractions in Guadeloupe are the National Park of Guadeloupe, the Botanical Garden of Mamelles, the Raisins-Clairs beach on Basse-Terre, the Cathedral of St Pierre Saint Paul, the active volcano La Soufriere, the black sand beach of Grande Anse, the Carbet waterfalls, the Grande-Terre mangrove forest, the Cascade aux Ecrevisses, the Bay of Saint-Francois, the ACTe memorial, the Place de la Victoire, the Premier Jour monument, the Pointe des Chateaux viewpoint, the small islands of the Iles des Saintes, the rum museum in Sainte-Rose as well as other impressive waterfalls and idyllic sandy beaches.

The capital of the Caribbean island group of Guadeloupe is Basse-Terre with around 25,000 inhabitants, at the foot of the active volcano Soufriere. However, the city of Pointe-a-Pitre with around 100,000 inhabitants is by far the largest city in Guadeloupe.

Basse-Terre is home to several historic buildings, such as the colonial town hall, the Notre Dame de Guadeloupe cathedral, the Notre Dame du Mont Carmel church, the Palais d'Orleans or Fort Delgres.

In July 2015 I visited Guadeloupe for the only time so far. With the ferry from Dominica, I reached the town of Pointe-a-Pitre after a journey of around three hours.

I spent the night there in a cozy hostel, which was extremely difficult to find even for the local taxi driver and took around two hours to get there due to my poor French language skills.

To me, the town of Pointe-a-Pitre actually looked more like a typical gray French industrial town. There was also what felt like a constant traffic jam on the island's highway on the way to the accommodation, which was quite unusual for the Caribbean and was quite annoying at some point .

So all in all, Guadeloupe wasn't a typical and cozy Caribbean island for me, I had of course imagined it to be somewhat different.

I therefore recommend that every traveler should drive near the water on the smaller roads through the numerous cozy villages and avoid the town of Ponte-a-Pitre.

I can, however, highly recommend a boat trip to the beautiful little island of Terre-de-Haut.

Otherwise, my stay in Guadeloupe was probably rather disappointing and nothing special by Caribbean standards. Therefore, for me, the archipelago is clearly one of the worse Caribbean islands. Maybe I was just in the wrong place, which is of course a bit difficult to judge after just one visit.

On my long nine-week trip through all the Caribbean countries, I then took the ferry to Martinique.