Anniversary celebration, foodie and fishing adventures continue…. this time…. in Guyana!
As with many first time visits to a ‘foreign’ country, the anxiety and curiosity levels will be high. If you are wondering why I chose Guyana, well to be honest, Caribbean Airlines was offering a special on trips to certain destinations. Guyana was one of them and it’s somewhere hubby always wanted to visit to go fishing. Another reason was because on my Facebook Page I asked for suggestions and few people suggested this destination sooo we booked our flights, packed our bags and headed out on another adventure!
After roughly an hour flight on board BW601 from Trinidad we were landing at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport in Guyana. There was renovation/construction going on when we arrived so we had to use the temporary arrival and departure areas. We arrived at around 7:20 am and were faced with a longggg line to get through immigration. Nevertheless, we were greeted by a friendly guy and in no time we were clearing customs and getting ready to explore the country.
To get around, we rented a car at the airport but there are taxis available to get you to your hotel.
FUN FACT: Did you know that Guyana is 42x the size of Trinidad in terms of land but has roughly only half the population of Trinidad?!? Mind blowing right!!!
ACCOMMODATION:
When it comes to hotels/accommodation hubby is usually the one to choose. He did amazing with this choice. We stayed at the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel (booked using booking.com) located in Providence, Georgetown. It’s roughly 35 minutes away from the airport and is located alongside the Demerara River.
The cost was $3700TT for 4 nights and that included buffet breakfast each morning. There was the Princess Cinema located on the compound, Fun City (games area for kids), a fun park and a Casino. There was free wifi, hotel parking, pool and restaurant available for guests.
This hotel was beautiful with very friendly staff. Check-in is usually 3pm. The rooms were so clean and some had a view of the pool area and others had a view of the Demerara Harbour Bridge. Our room included a balcony.
Other hotel options for us included Marriott and Pegasus which both were located roughly 55mins from the airport. Both had an ocean view but were more expensive that Ramada and neither had breakfast included. We were so satisfied with Ramada that I will surely recommend it to you is you wish to visit Guyana.
ACTIVITIES:
Guyana is a place nature lovers will certainly enjoy! You will need to spend some time and properbly organize this trips prior to your arrival.
There’s the Kaiteur Falls that you can visit. It requires a plane ride to get there and costs around $270usd per person. There’s also a few one day tours available. One of them was to Aruwai Resort where you can go and enjoy kayaking, fishing, outdoor hiking, riding etc. You need to take a boat ride (an hour long ride) to get to the resort and you stay for the day. Cost of that is about $100usd per person. You can call the resort to make arrangements.
There’s also a 6 day fishing tour and a 9 day horseback riding tour. I don’t have must information on these but you can use google to get more information on them. There are lots of outdoor activities but because of the size of Guyana, getting to the various areas takes long so it’s recommended that you visit the country and spend some time if you truly want to enjoy these nature trips. There are the few one day tours such as the Aruwai resort and Kaiteur falls trip but a minimum number of persons is required for the tour.
Unfortunately we weren’t able to enjoy any of these due to time constraints. Hopefully next time we can have some outdoor adventures. I will admit that we did not do sufficient research prior to the trip. Had we done so, we would have organized in a way to at least enjoy one of the activities I just mentioned.
Other than these activities, there are some landmarks that are popular in Guyana include the lighthouse located near to Marriot, the sea wall. the Harbour Bridge, Essequibo River, Demerara River. You can also visit the zoo, museum and the busy streets of Georgetown.
If you are looking to get some shopping done, there is Giftland Mall which was very nice actually. There is also Caribbean Cinemas located at the mall for you movie watchers and later this year Movie Towne is expected to open.
If you are from Trinidad, a trip to Guyana will make you feel like you are right at home. The food and the people reminded me of my Trini land. The culture is pretty similar to ours in Trinidad as well. There were numerous masjids, temples and churches throughout Georgetown and such a beautiful mix of races.
One thing that kept blowing my mind anytime i was about to pay for something was the large amounts (1TTD = 30GYD (roughly)).
If you are looking for adventure and outdoor exploration, you should visit Guyana. My advice would be, as I mentioned earlier, to properly organize with tour guides for the activities I listed above prior to your arrival. There are not many tourists visiting the country as there aren’t many things to do besides the nature/outdoor activities.
Have you visited Guyana? I would love to hear your experience and your thoughts Feel free to send me a message or leave me a comment. If you haven’t visited…..are you interested in visiting? If yes, I hope that this was informative.
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JENNA G THE HIJABI TT 