Les Saintes, Terre-de-Bas

Wild and frozen in time

Much less visited than its sister island, Terre-de-Bas is the second inhabited island by size in the Les Saintes archipelago with about 2000 inhabitants, mostly concentrated on 2 villages: bourg of Grande-Anse and bourg of Petite-Anse. Terre-de-Bas, with its mountains peaks and cliff drop looks keeps an overall wild and natural theme that seems to have frozen in time. The main activities in the island are fishing and local handcraft like the famous Salako, a manmade hat from the island that looks like the hats you can find in Vietnam.

Les colors of Mother Nature

If you love Nature, you will fall in love with Terre-de-Bas! Whether you like to spend time on the beach or rather take a deep in the ocean and snorkel or deep dive, you will find you elements there. For the hikers and people who likes to explore the ground, you will be able to hike many paths into the wild nature of the island. There are for main hiking paths in the island ([the Cliff hike] Trace des Falaises, [hike about the pond] Trace du dessus de l’Etang, [hike at the pond shore] Trace du pied de l’Etang and [the Hill hike] Trace du Morne). All the hiking paths meet at the center of the island where you will be able to have a broad view of the region and get familiar with the area with the large map display at the “Citerne” location. From the top, a unique sightseeing spot overlooking Guadeloupe with a clear view of the islands of Marie Galante, Desirade and Dominica! As you will go through those hiking paths, you will be able to appreciate the wide array of bright colors that Mother Nature displays, from the warm colors of the savanna to the deep intense green of the rain forest balanced with the nuances of blue between the sky and the ocean! Whether you are an avid hiker or it is your first time, you will find the hiking path that will meet your needs. Novice will be able to engage on the 45 minutes hiking path while the expert can walk onto the cliff hiking path for a 3 hour of pure fun!

Neither to say, you will need good comfortable shoes to adventure on those paths along with enough water and a good sunscreen protection.

Grande Anse beach is the famous spot in the island with a ¾ mile of white pristine sand and coconut trees but you will not meet a lot of people there; swimming is not recommended at this location as the beach is facing the ocean with very strong waves but still is a great location to relax on the sand, get a nice tan while listening to the waves breaking up on the shore. Only 10 minutes from the ferry dock, this location is easily reachable.

Unique spot of deep diving!

Grande Anse beach is the famous spot in the island with a ¾ mile of white pristine sand and coconut trees but you will not meet a lot of people there; swimming is not recommended at this location as the beach is facing the ocean with very strong waves but still is a great location to relax on the sand, get a nice tan while listening to the waves breaking up on the shore. Only 10 minutes from the ferry dock, this location is easily reachable.

For the avid divers, Grande bay beach is the way to go! It is a small beach with black sand carved into a lush vegetation. Make sure to get your equipment ready and use fins to be able to keep up with all you will have to see underwater as it has a very rich fauna and flora.

If you are looking for swimming location with quiet waters, you will go for this small black sand beach near by the fisherman wharf. This beach is exposed on the Caribbean Sea side and is an ideal location for a great swim with quiet waters.

The best fishersmen in Guadeloupe

The fisherman in Terre-de-Bas are known to be the best in their category in the archipelago of Guadeloupe! You will need to be there when they come back from the sea after a long day at large!