Pointe-a-Pitre

Travel Guide Caribbean Guadeloupe Pointe-a-Pitre

Introduction

Pointe-a-Pitre is the largest city on the island of Guadeloupe and although it is the economical centre of the island, the administrative capital remains Basse-Terre.

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Neighbourhoods

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Sights and Activities

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Events and Festivals

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Weather

Pointe-a-Pitre has a hot and humid tropical climate with average daytime temperatures throughout the year of 30 °C and average nights around 23 °C. Most rain falls between June and October with a change of hurricanes from August onwards. Therefore, the drier (and slightly cooler) December to April period is the best time to visit weather wise. Unfortunately prices rise sharply during this period and the months of November and May still have good weather. So budget wise these latter months may be a good option as well.

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Getting There

By Plane

Air Caraibes has direct flights to Cayenne in French Guiana and to Paris in France. Other destinations include Stockholm, Copenhagen, Havana and Panama City. Air Antilles serves Saint Lucia and several French islands.
There are domestic services to La Désirade, Terre-de-Haut and Marie-Galante with a number of airlines, including Air Caraibes and Air Guadeloupe.

By Train

By Car

By Bus

Most major towns and cities are connected by road from Point-a-Pitre and many other places on both Grande Terre as well as Basse Terre.

By Boat

Guadeloupe - Dominica vv

L'Express des Iles operates almost daily services between the islands of Dominica and Guadeloupe. They leave Roseau, the capital of Dominica on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 3:00pm (Saturday 1:00pm) and take about 2.5 hours. In the opposite direction, they leave Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe at Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays at 8:00am (Sundays 10:00am) and take under 2 hours.

Guadeloupe - Martinique vv

L'Express des Iles has regular services between Pointe-a-Pitre and Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. They leave almost daily around 8:00am and arrive around 11:45am. The ferries first go to Dominica, travelling onwards to Martinique.

Guadeloupe - Saint Lucia vv

L'Express des Iles has at least 3-4 weekly services to Castries. It's the same ferry which goes to Dominica and Martinique, thus leaving around 8:00am from Pointe-a-Pitre. It arrives in Castries around 3:00pm.

Domestic

L'Express des Iles has daily services between the main island of Guadeloupe and several other islands. To the Iles des les Saintes, there are daily connections leaving Pointe-a-Pitre (Grande-Terre) for Terre de Haut at 8:00am. In the opposite direction they leave Terre de Haut at 4:00pm. There are two crossings daily (one in the morning and one in the late afternoon) as well between Terre de Haut and Trois Rivières (Basse-Terre) and between Terre de Bas and Trois Rivières. From Terre de Haut you can take another local ferry to Terre de Bas as well.

Other connections include the ferry from Point-a-Pitre to Grand Bourg on the island of Marie Galante, which travels 3 times on weekdays, one of which is via Saint Louis. During weekends, especially on Sundays, there are less services.

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