Best & Worst beaches – Guadeloupe

Joyce Belfort

8 years ago

Welcome to paradise, West Indies France! So many beaches, so little time. Here are my top picks based on photogenic, walk/stroll, activities offering and snorkel quality.

Photogenic #1

Plage de Bois Jolan – Atlantic ocean

Pale clay colour, fine grain sand

There’s no bad photo on this beach. I didn’t even need my reflex to take a fab photo. Sunny, cloudy, windy or stormy LOL Yup, I went there quite a few times. Stunning clear water, pretty shallow though. Watch out for sea urchins. There are many of these little/big guys in the sea bush. The water is VERY shallow in the first 50m. Be very careful if you’ll swim / snorkel. Avoid the sea bush for urchin ambush 😉 Just to illustrate…

Plage de Bois Jolan. This is my worst looking photo taken on this beach. It looks so bad, right?

Plage de Bois Jolan. This is a photo taken by the phone.

Romantic Beach Stroll

Plage de la Grande Anse – Caribbean Sea

Light beige, ultra fine grain sand

Fluffiest sand ever! The stripe is around 2km long of super fine sand beach. If you want that slow run shot like the romantic movies, this is THE place. Coconut trees on the one side and clear Caribbean Sea on the other. Winner!

Plage de Grand Anse. WARNING: very soft/fine sand. Watch your balance.

Action+++ Beach

Plage de Malendure – Caribbean Sea

Black, medium/coarse grain sand

Tons of things happening over here. Kayak, SCUBA diving, cruise, whale watching… what is not actually on this beach? The biggest draw in the area is Reserve Cousteau, it’s like The Great Barrier Reef of Australia. O, if you visit early enough, you’ll spot a whole row of sand crabs too. Be here early, before 8H00 to get a reasonable parking space 😉

**The sand is naturally black. It heats up a lot. Watch out for cooked feet!!

Best Snorkeling Experience

Plage de la Petite Anse. My photo is bad. The water is way more transparent than this.

Petite Anse – Caribbean Sea

Light ochre, medium grain sand

AMAZING snorkeling experience. Crystal clear water and just the perfect depth for snorkeling / swimming. Lots of corals and fishes. Stunning! This beach is narrow and it is NOT photogenic above the water. O, do visit early (before 8H00), the parking space is very limited.

All love to Guadeloupe, but there’s never perfection is there?

Worst Overall Experience

Plage de la Caravelle – Atlantic Ocean

Medium ochre colour, medium grain sand

Right next to Club Med, this is a public beach. It is extraordinarily sad. Serious beach erosion occurred. WAY many people (tourist + Club Med guests) and the water is super shallow for at least 100m in. Okay, that’s probably good for kids, but then there are a ton of urchins (no kidding, I spotted 2-3 urchins every SQM). Unless you’re really into sea urchin spotting or special interest in soil erosion, I do not recommend this beach at all.