◆ Country guide · The Guianas

Guyana, the coast and the interior

879K

People

215K

Square km

85%

Forest

Live destination map

Top 10 guideComing soon

The only English-speaking country in South America, and one where almost everybody lives on a strip of drained coast that the Atlantic sits above at high tide. Everything it is known for is inland, and inland means a light aircraft or a very long road.

Guyana at a glance

Best months

Feb · Mar · Oct

Ideal length

8–12 days

Budget / day

$90–200

Language

English

Getting around

Domestic flights

When to visit Guyana

Two dry seasons and two wet ones, and the interior decides which you want.

Full month guide →

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Best: February to April, when the savannah is dry and the tracks are open Peak: December, when the diaspora comes home and Georgetown fills up Good: September to November, the short dry season and the cheaper one Wettest: mid-May to August, when Kaieteur is at its best and the Rupununi is not

Quick answer · where to go in Guyana

Fly into Cheddi Jagan International and decide how far inland to go. Georgetown is worth a day and a half: the wooden cathedral, Stabroek Market, the Botanical Gardens and the sea wall at dusk. Kaieteur Falls is a morning flight from Ogle, with a couple of hours at the rim and nobody else there. Iwokrama has a canopy walkway 30 metres up, and the Rupununi beyond holds the wildlife and the village-owned lodges. Coast and Kaieteur is a long weekend. Add the Rupununi and it is ten days.

1 Guyana city guide

The country layer comes first here. City guides follow it.

Georgetown

Guyana · 10 picks

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

Around 85 percent of Guyana is still standing forest, and the Guyana Forestry Commission has reported annual deforestation as low as 0.048 percent, among the lowest rates anywhere. That record lets Guyana sell its forest carbon and keep the trees.

Stereotypes, sorted out

The clichés you have heard, what is actually true, and how to behave once you land.

"Guyana is in the Caribbean."

The realityIt is on the South American mainland, bordering Venezuela, Brazil and Suriname. The confusion is cultural. Guyana belongs to CARICOM, plays its cricket with the West Indies and eats, speaks and sounds Caribbean, but you can drive from Georgetown to Brazil without crossing water.

"That is French Guiana, isn't it. Or Guinea."

The realityThree separate places. Guyana is the English-speaking one, independent from Britain since 1966. Suriname next door is Dutch-speaking. French Guiana beyond that is still legally France, uses the euro and launches European rockets. Guinea is in West Africa.

"Jonestown is what the country is known for."

The realityAn American cult leased land in the north west in the 1970s and 909 people died there in November 1978, almost all of them Americans who had been flown in. The site is overgrown forest with nothing to see, it is hard to reach on purpose, and it has no bearing on Guyanese life then or since.

"It is all rainforest."

The realityMost of the territory is, and almost nobody lives in it. Roughly nine in ten Guyanese live on the coastal strip, which is flat rice and sugar land drained by Dutch canals and held against the Atlantic by a sea wall. The forest starts where the road stops.

"It is the poor country next to Venezuela."

The realityThat arithmetic changed fast. Offshore oil production started in 2019 and the economy has grown at rates among the highest recorded anywhere since. What has not changed at the same speed is the travel infrastructure: Georgetown hotel prices moved first, interior logistics have not.

It is an islandEverybody comes for the birdsThe food is CaribbeanEnglish, so easy to followKaieteur is a trekThe interior is empty land

How to get it right

The interior lodges are village businesses, not resorts. Take the guide the village provides, ask before photographing anyone, and accept that the schedule belongs to the river and the weather.
Three religious calendars are national holidays here. Christmas, Diwali, Eid and Phagwah all close things down, and Georgetown stops for them.
Carry cash in Guyanese dollars once you leave the capital. There are no cash machines inland and cards are close to useless there.
Tipping is welcome and optional. Nobody tips at a snackette; ten percent at a good restaurant and a proper tip for interior guides and boat crews are the right instincts.
Do not swim in coastal rivers on impulse. Caiman are real and the currents are strong. The brown water is river silt and nothing worse.
Call it Creolese, not broken English. It has its own grammar, people are proud of it, and trying a phrase lands better than assuming everyone will switch for you.

Famous Guyanese faces

The names behind Guyanese cricket, writing, art and politics. Pick a field.

Clive Lloyd

Georgetown-born captain who led the West Indies to the 1975 and 1979 World Cups.

E. R. Braithwaite

Wrote To Sir, With Love from his years teaching in London's East End.

Eddy Grant

Wrote Electric Avenue and Gimme Hope Jo'anna, and built the ringbang sound.

Letitia Wright

Shuri in the Black Panther films and a BAFTA Rising Star. Born in Georgetown.

CCH Pounder

Emmy-nominated for The Shield, and Mo'at in the Avatar films. Born in Georgetown.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul

One of two West Indians past 11,000 Test runs, with a crab-like stance nobody copied.

Lance Gibbs

The first spin bowler to take 300 Test wickets. Born in Georgetown.

Rohan Kanhai

Batsman of the 1960s West Indies, famous for a hook that left him on the floor.

Andrew Lewis

Took the WBA welterweight title in 2001, boxing out of Georgetown under the name Six Head.

Wilson Harris

Land surveyor turned novelist. Palace of the Peacock is the foundational Guyanese novel.

Martin Carter

The defining poet, whose Poems of Resistance came out of detention in 1953.

Grace Nichols

Poet whose i is a long memoried woman won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1983.

Frank Bowling

Painter from Bartica, the first Black artist elected to the Royal Academy.

Aubrey Williams

Painter who carried his years among the Warao into post-war British abstraction.

Cheddi Jagan

Dentist and Marxist, first head of government under self-rule, President from 1992.

Walter Rodney

Historian of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, killed by a bomb in Georgetown in 1980.

Must-try Guyanese food

Cassareep, coconut milk and a roti shop on every corner. Pick a category.

Cassava bread

Amerindian flatbread of bitter cassava, squeezed in a woven matapee and griddle-baked.

Egg ball

A boiled egg wrapped in seasoned cassava and deep-fried. The snackette standard.

Sorrel

Hibiscus steeped with ginger and clove, served cold at Christmas, often with rum.

Pepperpot

National dish: meat stewed for hours in cassareep, a black cassava reduction. Christmas.

Cook-up rice

Rice and peas simmered in coconut milk with salt beef or pig tail. The Saturday one-pot.

Metemgee

Cassava, eddo, plantain and dumplings boiled in seasoned coconut milk, with fried fish.

Garlic pork

Pork cured for days in vinegar, garlic and thyme, then fried. Madeiran, and for Christmas.

Guyanese chow mein

Noodles stir-fried with vegetables and chicken, at every birthday and wedding table.

Chicken curry and dhal puri

Curry with roti layered with split peas. Duck curry is the version people drive for.

Channa and paratha roti

Chickpeas in a dry curry, folded into flaky roti clapped loose at the griddle.

Pholourie

Split-pea fritters eaten hot with tamarind or mango sour, at every fair and stall.

Bake and saltfish

Fried dough filled with salt cod cooked down with onion, tomato and pepper. Breakfast.

Black pudding and souse

Rice-stuffed blood sausage with a fierce sour, beside pickled pork souse. Saturday food.

Salara

Sweet bread rolled around red grated coconut and sliced like a swiss roll.

Black cake

Dried fruit soaked for months in rum and cherry brandy, baked dark. The Christmas cake.

Mauby

Bark boiled with spice, sweetened and drunk cold. Bitter finish, and an acquired taste.

Demerara rum

Distilled at Diamond on the Demerara, on the last working wooden stills anywhere.

Know before you go

The essentials for planning a Guyana trip.

Density

4.1 / km²

Among the lowest on earth. Roughly nine in ten Guyanese live on the coastal strip, a small fraction of the land. Behind it lie forest, savannah and river, reached by air or water.

Currency

Guyanese dollar (GYD, written G$)

Mostly cash. Cards work at international hotels and larger Georgetown restaurants, and the interior has no cash machines. Change enough in Georgetown for any interior leg, in small notes.

Language

English

The only country in South America with English as its official language. Most people speak Guyanese Creole day to day, and Makushi, Wapishana, Akawaio and Arawak survive inland.

Emergency

911 police, 912 fire, 913 ambulance

Ambulances cover Georgetown and its surroundings. Elsewhere, and in the interior, evacuation means a charter flight, so carry insurance that names medical evacuation. Lodges ask.

Visa

Visa-free for many nationalities, e-visa for the rest

US, UK, EU, Canadian and CARICOM citizens are among those visa-free, usually stamped for 30 days and extendable in Georgetown. Others apply online before travel. Check official guidance.

Getting around

Domestic flights, minibuses and river boats

Minibuses run the coast road fast and cheap. Inland, flights from Ogle serve the airstrips, speedboats cross the big rivers, and the road south takes a 4WD or overnight minibus. Allow extra time.

Getting to Kaieteur

Day flight from Ogle, weather permitting

Small planes fly into the park most mornings in season, walk groups to the viewpoints and fly out. Weather cancels them often, so never book it the day before an international flight.

Health

Malaria risk is inland, not on the coast

Malaria is a real risk in the interior mining and forest regions. Guyana wants a yellow fever certificate from travellers arriving from risk countries, and the jab counts only after ten days.

Tipping

Welcome, not expected

No strong tipping culture, and nobody tips at a snackette. Ten percent at a good Georgetown table is appreciated, and interior guides and boat crews deserve a proper tip.

Cricket

Providence Stadium, on the east bank

Guyana plays for the West Indies, and the Amazon Warriors carry it in the Caribbean Premier League. A night at Providence is the cheapest, loudest evening near Georgetown.

Overland to Brazil

Lethem to Bonfim, over the Takutu bridge

The Linden to Lethem road crosses into Roraima, Brazil, at a legal crossing with immigration on both sides. Traffic switches sides at the bridge. In the rains, the road is the constraint.

Guyana travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Guyana?+

Many nationalities do not, including citizens of the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada and CARICOM member states, who are commonly stamped in for 30 days and can extend at the immigration office in Georgetown. Everyone else applies through Guyana's online e-visa system before travelling, and every visitor needs a passport with several months left on it. The exempt list changes, so check your own nationality against official Guyanese guidance.

How do you get to Kaieteur Falls?+

By air. Operators fly small aircraft from Ogle, on the coast just east of Georgetown, onto the airstrip inside Kaieteur National Park, walk the group to three viewpoints and fly out the same day. Flights depend on cloud and are cancelled often enough that you should leave a spare day and never book Kaieteur for the morning before an international departure. Going overland, through Mahdia and up the Potaro, is possible and takes days in each direction.

When is the best time to visit Guyana?+

February to April is the long dry season and the strongest window, when the Rupununi tracks are passable and wildlife concentrates at the water. September to November is the shorter dry season, quieter and cheaper. The long rains run from about mid-May to mid-August, when Kaieteur carries the most water and the interior is hardest to move around in. That is a real trade-off, and not a bad month.

What language do they speak in Guyana?+

English, which makes Guyana the only English-speaking country in South America. In ordinary life most people speak Guyanese Creole, an English-based creole with its own grammar that takes a day or two to tune into. Amerindian languages including Makushi, Wapishana, Akawaio and Arawak are spoken in the interior, and Hindi and Urdu survive in religious use.

Is Guyana safe to travel in?+

Georgetown has street crime, and most Western foreign ministries publish advice naming particular parts of the city and particular hours. Read it before you book, take the usual capital-city precautions and use taxis at night. The interior is a different question: the lodges are village-run, visitors go out with local guides, and the risks are logistical and medical. That is what the evacuation clause in your insurance is for.

Can you travel overland between Guyana and Brazil?+

Yes. The Linden to Lethem road runs the length of the country, unsealed for most of it, and crosses into Brazil at Lethem over the Takutu River bridge to Bonfim, with immigration posts on both sides. Minibuses and 4WDs run it, often overnight, and it is a long rough drive that gets considerably harder in the rains. There is no through rail and no scheduled river route.

Guyana by theme

Themed Top 10s that pass through Guyana.

All themes →

№01→

Hidden gems of South America

№02→

Waterfalls

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