The Insiders' Guide to St. Barths: guadeloupe part 2

Guadeloupe July 5-13 2003

Part Two

Third day at hotel had included breakfast and learned by asking that eggs, omlettes and crepes are also available, walked to nearby rental car agency and rented one car for the five of us while our new Parisian friends rented one for them—32E a day, including insurance. Next drove approximately 20 minutes to St Anne made it to the beach at Club Med there. Spent the day on beach with adequate lunch served from Club Med facility on beach, my ten year old and niece snorkeled most of the day while five year old played mostly in sand and some ocean with new friend Nicholas-aged 7. Back to hotel, kids swam for an hour in pool then to dinner at 7:00 for a decent meal at Le Artistes, a 5 minute walk to the marina with prices 40% less than the hotel and very quick service and a menu with more offerings than what was offered on the hotel restaurant menu.

Day 4 with breakfast at hotel and than 1 hour drive to the other side of Guadeloupe called Basse Terre. Toured the national rain forest park with botanical and zoological specimens for the island (kids got to go with climbing gear on a tree-top tour above the rain forest on suspension-path with rope-tied to tree trail to see from above the tropical forest) then made it to what many regard as the best beach in Guadeloupe. Arrived at Deshaies looking for a restaurant on the beach and after a wrong turn to the beach our Parisian escorts from the hotel led us to a beautiful restaurant on the beach—Le Kargol or something similar that was in their guide book. Had a late 3:00pm lunch and then went to the beach with the restaurant offering us use of a shower on site before our ride home to the hotel. The beach was longer than any in st barts, the water very calm, sand off-white in color and more course and less chalky than most st barts beaches. Son and nanny/neice snorkeled for 2 hours and saw many fish and crabs and shells. Drove back to hotel with two very tired kids who have for the moment stopped asking about when we will be in st barts.