--- title: "Grenada travel guide: the south end, the west coast and Carriacou | Wimup" description: "Grenada on Wimup: how the south, the west coast, the rainforest interior and the Grenadines differ, what nutmeg and cocoa still mean here, when the dry season and Spicemas fall, what to eat, and how to get around." url: https://wimup.com/country/grenada type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Grenada, the spice island and the Grenadines behind it Grenada is a **working island** that happens to be beautiful, and the nutmeg on its flag is the clue. The **south** is where the beaches and the hotels are, the **west coast and the interior** are where the estates, the falls and the crater lake are, and two small islands to the north are a separate trip again. ## Quick answer Pick the end of the island before the hotel. The **south** is where almost everyone sleeps: Grand Anse for the beach, Saint George's twenty minutes north. The **west coast** is the day out: the Molinere sculptures, the falls, Gouyave's nutmeg station and Friday fish fry. The **interior** is Grand Etang, the crater lake and the trails. The **east** around Grenville has estates, not beaches. **Carriacou and Petite Martinique** are a second trip by ferry or short flight, still rebuilding after Hurricane Beryl. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Jan–May - **Ideal length:** 7–10 days - **Budget per day:** $120–290 - **Language:** English, with Grenadian Creole English spoken alongside it - **Getting around:** Hire car (drive on the left, local permit required), route minibuses on the main corridors, ferry or a short flight to Carriacou - **1** City guide - **117,207** People Grenada is 344 square kilometres of volcanic island at the southern end of the Windward chain, with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to the north and the Venezuelan coast about 150 kilometres to the south, and it comes with two dependencies: Carriacou and Petite Martinique, the Southern Grenadines, sitting between the two countries. Six parishes divide the main island (Saint Andrew, Saint David, Saint George, Saint John, Saint Mark and Saint Patrick), and the seven stars on the flag stand for those six plus the Grenadines. The middle is mountain: Mount Saint Catherine, a weathered stratovolcano, is the high point at 840 metres, and the Grand Etang Forest Reserve, protected since 1906 and the oldest reserve in the country, holds a crater lake at about 530 metres with the rainforest and the waterfall trails around it. Everything else sits around the edge of that. The southwest is where a trip usually starts. Saint George's is built around a drowned volcanic crater that serves as the inner harbour, with the Carenage curving around the water, Fort George on the knoll above it and the market square a few streets inland. South of the capital, Grand Anse is the long beach the hotels are built on, the Point Salines peninsula holds Maurice Bishop International Airport, and the yachting anchorages run east through Prickly Bay and Mount Hartman. The west coast road runs north from the capital past Molinere Bay, where the world's first underwater sculpture park opened in 2006, to Gouyave, the fishing town that also processes the nutmeg, and on through Victoria to Sauteurs at the top of the island. The east is the working side: Grenville is the second town, the Atlantic is rougher, and the estates behind it grow the cocoa that the tree-to-bar makers turn into some of the best chocolate in the region. Carriacou and Petite Martinique are the fourth part and the slowest, reached by ferry from Saint George's or by the short hop to Lauriston, and Hurricane Beryl crossed them as a Category 4 storm on 1 July 2024 and destroyed most of the housing stock; both were rebuilding through 2025, the roofs are largely back and the islands are green again. Three practical things shape a trip. Traffic keeps left, the roads are narrow, steep and unlit at night, and visitors need a local driving permit rather than their own licence alone. The dry season runs January to May and the wet season June to November, which is also the Atlantic hurricane season; Grenada sits near the southern edge of that belt, which is a matter of odds rather than immunity. And the calendar has two fixed points that move prices: Spicemas, whose two road days fall on the second Monday and Tuesday of August, and the Carriacou Regatta at the start of the same month. ## 1 Grenada city guide 1. [St. George's](https://wimup.com/city/st-georges-grenada.md): North America · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 117,207 - **Area:** 344 km² - **Density:** 340.7 / km² - **Capital:** Saint George's - **Major cities:** Saint George's, Gouyave, Grenville, Victoria, Sauteurs, Hillsborough - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** East Caribbean dollar (XCD), pegged to the US dollar Pegged at EC$2.70 to US$1 and shared with seven other territories. US dollars are widely accepted but change comes back in EC, so confirm which currency a price is in. - **Language:** English is official; Grenadian Creole English is the everyday speech French rule left its mark on the map: Sauteurs, Gouyave, Grand Etang and Molinere are French names. A French-lexicon patois survives among older speakers in the north and on Carriacou. - **Calling code:** +1 473 - **Power:** 230 V, 50 Hz, type G sockets British three-pin plugs on British voltage. North American appliances need an adapter and, unless dual voltage, a converter. Some hotels fit US-style sockets as well. - **Emergency:** Police and fire 911, ambulance 434 - **Visa:** Visa-free for most Western passports, up to 90 days UK, US, Canadian, EU and most Commonwealth citizens need no tourist visa. Immigration wants a passport, an onward ticket and an address, and may ask for funds. Check validity rules first. - **Getting around:** Drive on the left; route minibuses and unmetered taxis Numbered minibuses run from Saint George's to Grand Anse, Grenville, Gouyave and Sauteurs. They leave when full and stop early in the evening. Taxis are unmetered, so agree the fare first. - **Driving permit:** A temporary Grenadian permit is required A foreign licence alone is not enough. Hire companies and the police issue a local permit on sight of your national licence. Budget the fee and the paperwork into day one. - **Tipping:** Check the bill first Many restaurants add a service charge, and then nothing more is expected. Where none is added, round up or leave a modest percentage. Small notes suit guides, drivers and boatmen. - **Time zone:** Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-4, no daylight saving - **Airports:** Maurice Bishop International (GND) at Point Salines; Lauriston (CRU) on Carriacou Flights land at Point Salines, about twenty minutes from the Grand Anse hotels. Carriacou is reached by ferry from Saint George's or by a short flight into Lauriston, beside Hillsborough. - **Seasons:** Dry January to May, wet June to November February to April is the driest and clearest stretch. Hurricane season runs June to November, riskiest from August to October, which is also the wettest and cheapest time. - **Terrain:** Mountainous, rising to Mount Saint Catherine at 840 m The interior is forest reserve and ridge, and the roads follow the coast or the valleys because there is rarely anywhere else to put them. Journey times run well ahead of the distances on the map. - **Government:** Independent since 7 February 1974 A parliamentary democracy and Commonwealth realm, with a governor-general for the monarch. Independence Day on 7 February is the national holiday. Grenada is a member of CARICOM. - **After Hurricane Beryl:** Carriacou and Petite Martinique are rebuilding Beryl hit both islands as a Category 4 storm on 1 July 2024 and destroyed most homes. Roofs, services and businesses came back through 2025. Expect building work and confirm your room directly. - **Spice:** Nutmeg, mace, cocoa, cinnamon and cloves A working agricultural economy. The Gouyave nutmeg station takes visitors, the cocoa estates behind Grenville and Sauteurs run tours, and Saint George's market is where locals buy spice. ## When to visit - **Jan** (peak): Dry, breezy and the height of the winter season. Hotels on the south coast are booked well ahead and the water on the west coast is at its calmest. - **Feb** (best): One of the driest and clearest months. Independence Day on the 7th brings parades and a week of national events around it. - **Mar** (best): Dry, bright and past the worst of the winter crowds. The best month for the interior: the trails are firm and the falls still have water in them. - **Apr** (best): Hot and dry, quieter after Easter. The Carriacou Maroon and String Band Music Festival falls at the end of the month and is the reason to be on the smaller island. - **May** (good): The dry season closes out. Warm, greener by the end, noticeably cheaper, and the last reliable month before the rain settles in. - **Jun** (good): The wet season and the hurricane season both open, though June showers are usually short and heavy rather than all day. Fisherman's Birthday at Gouyave on the 29th. - **Jul**: Wet and humid, with the storm season getting serious. Spicemas preliminaries build through the month and the calypso and soca competitions start. - **Aug** (peak): The busiest month of the local year. The Carriacou Regatta opens it and Spicemas closes it, with J'ouvert, Jab Jab and the two road days on the second Monday and Tuesday. - **Sep**: The quietest and cheapest month, and the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Some hotels and restaurants close for part of it. - **Oct**: Still wet, and the storm risk only eases towards the end. Good value, green everywhere, and the cocoa and nutmeg estates are working. - **Nov** (good): The rain tails off and the season turns. Prices stay low in the first half and the island is green from six months of water. - **Dec** (peak): The dry season opens and the winter season with it. The yachts arrive in the southern bays, and the south coast books up from the middle of the month. ## Fun fact Hurricane Ivan crossed Grenada on 7 September 2004, damaged about 90 per cent of its buildings and took out an estimated 80 per cent of the nutmeg trees. Production fell from more than 4,870 tonnes in 2003 to about 440 by 2006. Only Indonesia produces more nutmeg today. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Grenada is a beach holiday with a spice theme. **Reality:** The spice is the economy, not the theme. Nutmeg and mace are the signature agricultural exports, the processing station at Gouyave is a working plant that takes visitors, and the cocoa behind Grenville becomes bars on the island. The beach is real and so is the farm. - **Myth:** It is below the hurricane belt, so it is safe. **Reality:** It sits near the southern edge of the belt, where the odds are lower but not zero. Ivan crossed in 2004 and damaged about 90 per cent of buildings. Beryl hit Carriacou and Petite Martinique as a Category 4 storm in July 2024 and destroyed most of the housing. Insure, and book September flexibly. - **Myth:** Grenada and the Grenadines are one thing. **Reality:** The chain is split between two countries. Carriacou and Petite Martinique, the Southern Grenadines, belong to Grenada. Bequia, Mustique, Union Island and the rest belong to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The boundary matters for ferries, flights and immigration. - **Myth:** The island is small, so a day is enough. **Reality:** It is small and slow. The middle is mountain, the roads follow the coast or the valleys, and a loop on the map is often an out-and-back. Plan in half-days: the west coast and the falls are one, Grand Etang and the east another. Carriacou is a separate trip with a boat in it. - **Myth:** The 1983 events are ancient history nobody discusses. **Reality:** They are within living memory and openly discussed. Maurice Bishop led the 1979 revolution that removed Eric Gairy and was killed by factions of his own party in October 1983, days before the United States invaded. The international airport carries his name. Listen first, and keep your verdict. - Greet before you ask. Good morning or good afternoon comes first in a shop, a bus or at a stall, and skipping it reads as rude. - Cover up off the beach. Swimwear in a shop, a bank or a restaurant is taken as bad manners, and a shirt and shoes are the minimum in town. - Ask before photographing people, especially at the market and on the fishing beaches. A camera pointed at someone working is not a neutral act. - Sunday is church and family. Plan a slow morning, a beach or a long lunch. - Agree the price before the service, whether that is a taxi, a boat, a guide or a beach chair. It is normal practice and gives no offence. - The revolution and 1983 come up in conversation, and Grenadians hold a range of views on them. Ask, listen, and leave your verdict at home. - On Carriacou, Beryl is recent. Residents will talk about the storm and the rebuild openly, and treating the damage as a photo opportunity lands badly. ## Famous Grenadian faces - **Kirani James**: Sprinter from Gouyave, 400 metres gold at London in 2012, Grenada's only Olympic champion. - **Anderson Peters**: Javelin thrower, world champion in 2019 and 2022, Olympic bronze at Paris in 2024. - **Lindon Victor**: Decathlete, Commonwealth champion and Olympic bronze medallist at Paris in 2024. - **Junior Murray**: Wicketkeeper, and the first Grenadian to play Test cricket for the West Indies. - **Maurice Bishop**: Led the 1979 revolution and was prime minister until he was killed in October 1983. - **Sir Eric Gairy**: First prime minister of independent Grenada, from 1974 until the 1979 coup. - **T. A. Marryshow**: Journalist and politician, remembered as the father of the West Indies Federation. - **Dame Cécile La Grenade**: Governor-General since 2013, the first woman in the office, and a food scientist. - **Dickon Mitchell**: Lawyer, prime minister since June 2022, the youngest to hold the office. - **Mighty Sparrow**: Calypso King of the World, born in Grand Roy in 1935 and made famous in Trinidad. - **Mr. Killa**: Soca artist from Gouyave, the first non-Trinidadian to win Power Soca Monarch, in 2019. - **Merle Collins**: Poet and novelist, the closest thing the revolution has to a literary record. ## Must-try Grenadian food - **Oil down**: The national dish: breadfruit, salt meat, dumplings and callaloo stewed in coconut milk. - **Callaloo soup**: Dasheen leaves, coconut milk, okra and salt meat or crab, cooked to a thick green soup. - **Lambi**: Conch, slow-stewed in creole seasoning or curried. Tough if hurried, excellent if not. - **Crab back**: Land crab picked, seasoned and baked back in its own shell. Fiddly and rich. - **Saltfish and bake**: Fried dough split and filled with seasoned salt cod. Breakfast on the way to work. - **Roti**: Curried chicken, goat or vegetables in a soft flatbread. An Indo-Caribbean counter lunch. - **Breadfruit**: Roasted over coals or boiled beside the fish. A staple, and the backbone of oil down. - **Pepper sauce**: Scotch bonnet, mustard and vinegar on every table. Start with less than you think. - **Nutmeg ice cream**: Fresh-grated nutmeg in ice cream, the obvious use of the national crop and still the best. - **Nutmeg syrup and jam**: The fleshy pericarp around the nut, boiled into syrup, jam or a candied sweet. - **Tree-to-bar chocolate**: Cocoa grown, fermented and made into bars on the island. The souvenir worth the luggage. - **Cocoa tea**: Local cocoa grated from a stick, boiled with spice and milk. A thick, sweet breakfast. - **Rivers rum**: Overproof rum from River Antoine, founded in 1785 and still driven by a water wheel. - **Clarke's Court and Westerhall**: The two larger distilleries behind most of the island's punch. Both take visitors. ## FAQs ### Where should I base myself in Grenada? The south, for almost every first trip. Grand Anse and the bays around it hold most of the hotels, the beach, the restaurants and the dive operators, with the airport twenty minutes one way and Saint George's twenty minutes the other. The west coast and the interior are day trips from there, each under an hour's drive. The east coast around Grenville is where the island works and has little visitor accommodation. Carriacou is the exception: a second base that needs a ferry or a flight and at least two nights. ### When is the best time to visit Grenada? January to May is the dry season, and February to April is the clearest part of it. December and January are the busiest and priciest. The wet season and the hurricane season both run June to November, heaviest from August into October, when the island is quietest and cheapest. Spicemas moves demand on its own: its road days fall on the second Monday and Tuesday of August, with the Carriacou Regatta at the start of the same month. The crowd is local, and room prices follow it. ### Do I need a car in Grenada? Not for a beach week in the south. Minibuses run the main corridors cheaply, taxis cover the rest, and dive shops and tour operators collect from the hotels. A car buys the interior, the north and a waterfall before the tour buses. Traffic keeps left, the roads are narrow, steep and unlit after dark, and visitors need a temporary Grenadian driving permit on top of their home licence. A hired driver for one full day covers the west coast, Grand Etang and a cocoa estate in a single loop. ### Can I visit Carriacou after Hurricane Beryl? Yes, and the visit helps. Beryl crossed Carriacou and Petite Martinique as a Category 4 storm on 1 July 2024 and destroyed the great majority of the housing. Through 2025 the roofs went back on, power, water and telecommunications returned, businesses reopened and the islands turned green again. The ferry and the flights to Lauriston are running. The accommodation stock is smaller and the rebuild still shows, so book ahead and confirm with your guesthouse directly. ### What is the diving like, and is the underwater sculpture park worth it? Yes. Grenada is one of the better dive destinations in the Eastern Caribbean, with two sites nowhere else has. The Bianca C, a 180-metre Italian liner that caught fire and sank off the south coast in 1961, is the largest wreck dive in the Caribbean and a deep one for experienced divers. The Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park opened in 2006 as the world's first, sunk in shallow water on a damaged reef so the sculptures would seed new coral. It works for snorkellers as well as divers, and a boat from the Carenage or Grand Anse reaches it in minutes. ## Related countries - [United States](https://wimup.com/country/united-states.md) - [Canada](https://wimup.com/country/canada.md) - [All of North America](https://wimup.com/north-america) Part of [North America](https://wimup.com/north-america.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.puregrenada.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Currency](https://www.eccb-centralbank.org/currency?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Visa](https://www.gov.gd/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.