In this overdue second part of Suriname, aside from Paramaribo, I will go into the details of where we had the most “screw-ups” on our little trip. My two companions and I are rather experienced travellers. We’re not extreme ” Every passport stamp” type, but we have all been to roughly 60-80 countries each. Still, there were a few things in Suriname that we could have prepared better for. So, I will tell you the other things to do and share some of my mistakes with you.
The main things to see in Suriname outside of Paramaribo
Nieuw Nickerie and Bigi Pan: Nieuw Nickerie is the second largest city in Suriname. Bigi Pan is a large tidal swamp and wetland next to Nieuw Nickerie. It is an essential and ecologically diverse area that is home to a wide variety of plant and animal species. The area attracts popularity among eco-tourists. You can explore Bigi Pan by taking boat tours and learning about the unique ecosystem.
Galibi Nature Reserve: If you visit between February and August, you might be able to witness sea turtles nesting on the beaches of Galibi. The reserve is also home to the indigenous Galibi communities.
Brownsberg Nature Park: Go on a hiking adventure in Brownsberg Nature Park, a protected area known for its lush rainforests, waterfalls, and diverse wildlife. The park offers various trails suitable for different fitness levels.
Central Suriname Nature Reserve: This UNESCO-listed reserve is one of the world’s most extensive protected tropical forests. It’s a great destination for ecotourism, birdwatching, and exploring the pristine wilderness.
Colakreek: A nice place to hang out if you need to spend a day near the airport. It is a blackwater creek between Paramaribo and the airport. The name refers to the colour of the water, which resembles that of Coca-Cola.
There are different excursions offered to Albinia, Bigi Pan, and Brownweg. The tours are pretty expensive for what they are for budget travellers. While I understand that the country is in a HUGE recession, it’s taken a toll on the tourism industry. This leads me to my next point.
Sometimes, it is best to pay for the excursions.
I have been somewhat spoiled in my other South American travels, where you could sign up for some activity like the day before. Most of it was affordable to go alone or just with a few people.
But in Suriname, doing many of these excursions alone is not easy. You can have to call around and often find the guesthouses yourself. It takes contacting different social media pages, asking, and sometimes getting the run-around. It will still be expensive if it is just you and a couple of people. If you want to save money, you can find some people at your guesthouse and go in on some activities with them. In addition, you can also look at Couchsurfing as well. But you can book the tours if money is not a significant problem. The guides really can use the money. It’s not the place to bust out your bargaining skills, and doing this in a place like this is tacky.
How do I find these excursions in Suriname?
You can find them advertised all over Paramaribo. Wherever you stay will offer them. The Twenty4 Guest House and Zus&Zo seem to offer the most economical ones. You can find some more upscale ones on the internet, but most of the information is in Dutch.
Just because a place isn’t well off doesn’t mean it is excellent for budget travellers.
This is especially true for very sparsely populated countries. Suriname is very remote and full of lush rainforest. As I said previously, the infrastructure is not the best. You can’t just get around as quickly, so this is why a lot of the excursions are relatively expensive. The lack of people means you can’t just find another bus or car of people going in minutes like you can in Southeast Asia or somewhere in Central America.
Suriname has gone through many economic crises in the last year, so the lack of capital can’t give the locals much room to budge when it comes to competition with tourism. There aren’t many tourists, but the tourism industry is limited, so it doesn’t matter.
Also, like in a lot of places, cash is king. You have to pay for a lot of things upfront with cash. The availability of places that have ATMs is also limited. In the case of Suriname, many of them won’t accept a Visa bank card, so there is a lot of time wasted finding an ATM. Honestly, places like this already have a bunch of cash with you. I hate doing that, but it is easier and more economical in some areas in the long run.
Flying standby to a remote destination is not always a great idea.
We flew standby with my friend who works for KLM. It was the late winter/spring break holiday for Dutch kids, so the flights were rather full. We had to show up at the airport three days in a row to wait to see if we had standby seats. Spoiler: We didn’t ! We had to scrap that and find a way to be rerouted through Miami, which wasn’t the cheapest, and we were pissed off about how much money we ate by doing that and the three days of going back and forth to that airport in the middle of nowhere.
I am not sure how overbooked the flight was and how competent the ground staff at Paramaribo airport was, but it didn’t matter. We didn’t get a seat and could do nothing about it. Fly standby anywhere else! Just if you go to somewhere where there is one flight to Europe each day, you want to make sure you have a definite seat on the return flight.
But if you have a cancelled or early flight to the airport, I highly recommend staying at Sonja’s guesthouse. A really lovely family runs it and was helpful with our standby issues.
Dang! That sucks.
That said, I still enjoyed my trip to Suriname. I would happily go again with the right circumstances and opportunity. It is a very unknown and unique pocket with a complicated history. It is one of the places that you have to plan a bit more. You can’t just wing unless you have an infinite time or a bigger budget than I had.
I took a lot of lessons from this trip, and it has made me rethink some of the ways I deal with my budget travel. I’m still learning and making mistakes. Speaking of, You can read about when I got stuck in Guatemala because I didn’t think Covid would be a big deal.
Interesting post about an unusual place!