French Guiana

From encounters with authentic cultures, to watching the birth of the leatherback turtles, from life as a convict in a penal colony to travelling by canoe down majestic rivers, from panning for gold to watching toucans fly or following the vapour trail of Ariane, French Guiana has a lot to offer.

French Guiana offers a strange mixture of French style and tropical taste. In the capital city of Cayenne, you'll enjoy a bit of France in a tropical setting, a mix of the cultural heritages, and architecture, to the cafes, and the French-style restaurants, the city has a decidedly French flair, and is a fantastic base to explore the cultural and historical sites, such as Devil's Island.

Devil's Island, off the steamy coast of French Guiana, is famous for being infamous. A French penal colony was located in the Iles de Salut until 1954, Now thick tropical vines wrap around rusty jail bars and trees grow inside the 19th century cells. You can now view exotic wildlife and enjoy the coastlines where you would have once seen the French equivalent to San Francisco's Alcatraz. Nowadays it’s only cruise liners stopping by where once the prison ships landed their cargoes of hardened criminals.

Understand The Geography

French Guiana is an overseas department of France, located on the northern coast of South America. French Guiana is also a region of France. As a part of France, French Guiana is in the European Union, and its currency is the euro.

French Guiana borders the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. (Part of the border with Suriname is disputed.)

Though sharing cultural affinities with the French-speaking territories of the Caribbean, French Guiana is not be considered to be part of that region, since the Caribbean Sea actually lies several hundred miles to the west, beyond the arc of the Lesser Antilles.

French Guiana consists of two main geographical regions: a coastal strip where the majority of the people live, and dense, near-inaccessible rainforest which gradually rises to the modest peaks of the Tumac-Humac mountains along the Brazilian frontier.

Several small islands are found off the coast, the three Iles du Salut Salvation Islands which includes Devil's Island and the isolated Ile de Connetable bird sanctury further along the coast towards Brazil.