Visit Guadeloupe: the two wings and the islands

Flat and limestone, Grande-Terre holds the postcard beaches: Sainte-Anne, Bois Jolan, La Caravelle, sheltered by the coral reef, and the Pointe des Chateaux at the eastern tip, battered by the Atlantic, with its 30-minute walk to the panoramic cross. The north, around the Porte d'Enfer and the Pointe de la Grande Vigie, is wilder. This is also where Pointe-a-Pitre, the airport and most of the lodging are; two to three days are enough to cover it.

Volcanic and covered in rainforest, Basse-Terre holds the national park and the Soufriere volcano (1,467 m, a 2-hour climb). The leeward coast, from Malendure to Deshaies, has the best diving and beaches of black or golden sand; the Route de la Traversee cuts through the forest in an hour. Allow at least three days and proper shoes; rain is frequent, especially on the heights. Guadeloupe is a department of France, and the IGN hiking maps are the same as on the mainland.

A 20-minute ferry from Trois-Rivieres, the Saintes archipelago has two inhabited islands. Terre-de-Haut, with its listed bay, Fort Napoleon and Pompierre beach, is explored on foot or by scooter hired on the spot: no cars. A day covers the essentials, but two nights on the island, once the day trippers have left, change the experience. Quieter Terre-de-Bas is reached by a second ferry.

The largest satellite island, nicknamed the big pancake for its round flat shape, still runs on sugar cane: three working distilleries, old windmills, ox carts during the February-to-June harvest. The beaches of La Feuillere and Petite Anse are among the finest in the archipelago. An hour by ferry from Pointe-a-Pitre, a car or a bike once there, two days to take it in.

La Desirade, a long limestone table off the Pointe des Chateaux, is the driest and least visited island: one road, iguanas, a geological reserve. Petite-Terre, two uninhabited islets protected as a nature reserve, is visited only on a guided day trip from Saint-Francois: a shallow lagoon, lemon sharks and hundreds of iguanas. Boats leave around 8am and return mid-afternoon; book the day before in high season.