{"id":53286,"date":"2025-02-26T16:32:29","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T14:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/?post_type=country&p=53286"},"modified":"2025-08-12T15:46:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T13:46:13","slug":"french-guiana","status":"publish","type":"country","link":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/country\/french-guiana\/","title":{"rendered":"French Guiana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Located in the shoulder of Latin America, French Guiana is an overseas department and region of France, therefore part of the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that French Guiana isn\u2019t an independent country but, from a traveling perspective, it does feel like one, not only due to the geographical separation, but also due to the predominant Guyanese culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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need to know for traveling in French Guiana<\/mark><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Quick facts<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Capital<\/strong>: Cayenne<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Population<\/strong>: 300,000 (186th)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language<\/strong>: French is the official language but a large number of local languages exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Area<\/strong>: 83,800km\u00b2 (115th largest country)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Visa<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

French Guyana is part of France, so same visa rules apply. However, this isn\u2019t part of Schengen, so Europeans will still need their passport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Travel Insurance<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

With its Backpacker plan, IATI Insurance<\/a><\/strong> is the best insurance for any kind of adventurous destination, like French Guiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GET A QUOTE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Best time to visit<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The drier seasons (January to April and August to November) are the most pleasant months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Tours<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned, we\u2019ll soon schedule an expedition into the country.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Money<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The official currency in French Guyana is the Euro (\u20ac)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can pay by card in many places, but in small businesses and taxis, so do bring some spare change with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: <\/strong>Starting at \u20ac100 a day. There aren’t any hostels and prices here are standard French prices, this isn\u2019t a budget
destination for backpackers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Independent travel in French Guyana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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If you look at the map, you\u2019ll see that French Guiana is 98% covered in thick jungle, with no roads to travel through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s only one small road that you can travel across, from the border with Suriname to Brazil. To be fair, there are 1 or 2 more very narrow roads that go into the jungle, bur won\u2019t take you very far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes independent travel in French Guiana practically impossible, since to visit the remotest places, a private plane must be chartered and arranged with respective and specific jungle lodge.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Top experiences in French Guiana<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Cayenne<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Discover what a colonial French city in South America looks like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Markets<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Ethnically colorful, local markets in this country make you forget you are in the EU.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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French-Guyanese food<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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In Cayenne, go for French food with local, Guyanese twists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Salvation islands<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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Today a tourist attraction, Salvation islands used to house the most infamous French prison.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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tips for French Guiana<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Accommodation<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

There aren\u2019t a lot of options, most of them being apartment rental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FIND YOUR HOTEL HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Getting in<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

By air, there is a daily flight to Paris with Air France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can also get in from Suriname and Brazil.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Transportation<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s very little public transportation, the French have invested very very little in public transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shared, collective taxis can be arranged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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ALL MY ARTICLES ON FRENCH GUIANA<\/h3>\n\n\n","protected":false},"featured_media":53273,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53286","country","type-country","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country\/53286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/country"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/againstthecompass.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}