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◆ Country guide · The Guianas

Suriname, a wooden capital and a river into the forest

The only Dutch-speaking country in the Americas, and one of the least crowded places on the continent. Suriname is a wooden UNESCO capital on a tidal river, and a dugout ride upstream into villages the road was never built to.

634K

People

UNESCO sites

1975

Independence

Region

Best months

Sep · Oct · Mar

Ideal length

8–12 days

Budget / day

$50–130

Language

Dutch & Sranan Tongo

Getting around

Coast road

When to visit Suriname

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

Full month guide →

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Best: September and October in the long dry, February and March in the short one Peak: December for the holidays and Owru Yari, July for Keti Koti Good: January, April, August and November, wetter or drying but workable Wettest: May and June, when the interior gets hard to move around

Quick answer · where to go in Suriname

Two things shape every trip: the coast road and one river. Paramaribo is the anchor, a UNESCO-listed grid of white wooden houses with Fort Zeelandia on the waterfront. Commewijne is a half day by ferry and bicycle through old plantations. East, a boat from Albina reaches Galibi, where leatherbacks nest from roughly February to August. West, scarlet ibis roost at Bigi Pan at dusk. Inland, Brownsberg is a day by 4WD; deeper means a dugout from Atjoni. Five days covers the capital and a river trip.

Jump toMap Fun fact Stereotypes Famous faces Food FAQ

1 Suriname city guide

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

Paramaribo

South America · 10 picks

Fun fact

One number worth knowing

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve covers 1.6 million hectares of unbroken primary rainforest, roughly 11 percent of the country, and nobody lives in it. UNESCO listed it in 2000. Botanists have recorded more than 5,000 vascular plants there, plus jaguar, giant river otter, tapir and harpy eagle.

Stereotypes, sorted out

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

"Suriname is basically the Caribbean."

The realityIt reads Caribbean in the food, the music and the heat, and it is mainland South America, sharing a rainforest with Brazil. The coast is mangrove and mudflat, with no beach resorts to speak of. Suriname offers a river trip in place of a beach holiday, and travellers wanting sand leave disappointed.

"You need Dutch to travel there."

The realityDutch is official and everywhere in writing: menus, signs, forms. Spoken, the country runs on Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole every community shares, and English is common in the capital and standard in the tour trade. Visitors manage without Dutch. A phone helps with menus.

"The three Guianas are one trip and much the same country."

The realityThey string together on one overland route and they differ. Guyana is English-speaking, French Guiana is part of France with the euro and European prices, and Suriname is Dutch-speaking and the most layered of the three. Currency, visas and ferries change at each river, and no bridge links them.

"The interior is a day trip from Paramaribo."

The realityOne piece of it is. Brownsberg, above the Brokopondo reservoir, works as a long day. Past it, a river lodge is three to four hours by road to Atjoni and up to three by dugout, and the deep reserves need light aircraft that fly when the weather allows. Two nights is the minimum.

Everyone eats rotiThe one-litre ParboEveryone has family in HollandSuriname timeThe empty interiorOnly for birdwatchers

How to behave

Greet people before you ask them anything. A goedemorgen or a fa waka first, then the question, is the difference between a helpful answer and a short one.
Ask before photographing anyone, and take that seriously in Maroon and Indigenous villages, where a village has its own rules about cameras and a guide will tell you what they are.
A river village is somebody's home. Arrive through a lodge or a guide who has the village's agreement, and stay on the paths you are shown.
Dress modestly away from the pool. Shorts and a shirt are fine anywhere in daytime Paramaribo, but a temple, mosque or church expects shoulders and knees covered, and the country has plenty of all three.
Learn which holiday you have walked into. Keti Koti, Phagwa, Divali, Eid and Chinese New Year are all public occasions here, and each has its own etiquette about food, colour and what is open.
Do not treat the ethnic mix as a curiosity to be quizzed about. Surinamese talk about it easily and often with humour, but the opening move is theirs to make, not a visitor's.
Bargaining is not the norm. Prices in shops and at the market are what they are, and haggling reads as rude.

Famous Surinamese faces

The names behind Surinamese politics, writing, art, music and sport. Pick a field.

Anthony Nesty

Won Suriname's only Olympic gold, the 100m butterfly at Seoul 1988, by a hundredth

Johan Ferrier

First President of Suriname, from independence on 25 November 1975 until 1980

Jagernath Lachmon

Led the Progressive Reform Party from 1947 to 2001, building alliances across ethnic lines

Cynthia McLeod

Novelist of the plantation era, the country's best known, and Johan Ferrier's daughter

Astrid Roemer

Novelist and poet, winner of the P.C. Hooft Award in 2016. Died in January 2026

Erwin de Vries

Paramaribo-born artist who made the slavery monument in Amsterdam's Oosterpark (2002)

Jairzinho Rozenstruik

Paramaribo kickboxer turned UFC heavyweight

Anton de Kom

Anti-colonial author of Wij slaven van Suriname (1934). Died in a Nazi camp in 1945

Ruth Jacott

Paramaribo-born singer who sang Vrede for the Netherlands at Eurovision 1993

Clarence Seedorf

Paramaribo-born, the only player to win the Champions League with three clubs

Letitia Vriesde

World 800m silver in 1995 and the only Surinamese athlete at five Olympics

Must-try Surinamese food

India, Java, West Africa, China and the Netherlands, on one plate. Pick a category.

Pom

Grated pomtajer baked with chicken and citrus. At every birthday, wedding and funeral.

Roti

Flatbread with curried chicken, potato and long beans, brought from India in the 1870s.

Moksi alesi

Mixed rice cooked in one pot with beans and salted meat or fish. A Creole weeknight meal.

Heri heri

Cassava, sweet potato and plantain with salt fish and egg, eaten on Keti Koti.

Bami and nasi

Javanese noodles and fried rice. Eat them at the warungs on the road to Lelydorp.

Pastei

Chicken, pea and caper pie under pastry, at every party. Half Dutch, half Caribbean.

Bakabana

Battered, fried ripe plantain with peanut sauce, sold all over Paramaribo.

Telo met bakkeljauw

Fried cassava with salt cod and sambal. The cheap market plate, eaten standing.

Broodje pom

Pom in a soft roll. Bakeries sell it by mid-morning and run out by lunch.

Saoto

Javanese chicken broth with vermicelli, sprouts, egg, potato and shallots. Hangover cure.

Pindasoep met tom tom

Thick Creole peanut soup with pounded plantain dumplings. Usually the whole meal.

Bojo

Dense cassava and coconut cake with raisins and a little rum. The one to bring home.

Fiadu

Layered pastry filled with rum-soaked dried fruit, baked for Christmas.

Parbo

The national lager, ordered as a djogo, the one-litre bottle shared with small glasses.

Borgoe

Suriname's own rum, distilled in Paramaribo and behind every bar in the country.

Markusa

Sharp, barely sweetened passionfruit juice, sold everywhere. The hot-afternoon drink.

Know before you go

The essentials for planning a Suriname trip.

Currency

Surinamese dollar (SRD)

The SRD has moved a long way against the dollar, so check prices against the day rate. Hotels and tour firms take cards; markets, buses and the interior are cash. No bank operates past the road's end.

Language

Dutch, with Sranan Tongo everywhere

Dutch runs schools, government and newspapers. Sranan Tongo, an English-based creole, is the street language every community shares. English is common in Paramaribo and the tour trade.

Emergency

115 police, 113 ambulance, 110 fire

Serious hospitals are in Paramaribo and Nieuw Nickerie only, and the US State Department notes ambulances are unreliable or absent elsewhere. Insure for evacuation before any river or forest trip.

Visa

E-visa or e-tourist card, applied for online

Most visitors get an e-tourist card or e-visa on the government portal before flying, allowing several days. Since January 2025 everyone also files a digital Immigration and Customs Form.

Vaccination

Yellow fever certificate if you arrive from a risk country

Yellow fever certificate required from risk countries, and advised for the interior. Suriname was certified malaria-free on 30 June 2025, but dengue and chikungunya remain: cover up at dusk.

Getting around

One coast road, riverboats and light aircraft

The paved East-West Link is the spine, by rental car or minibus. Inland, dugouts leave Atjoni, boats leave Albina for Galibi, and flights leave Zorg en Hoop. Book interior transport with a lodge stay.

Tipping

Not obligatory, rounding up is normal

No service charge, so about ten percent in a Paramaribo restaurant is generous. Guides, boatmen and lodge staff on a multi-day trip expect a tip at the end, usually pooled.

Six peoples, one country

Hindustani, Maroon, Creole, Javanese, Indigenous, Chinese

The 2012 census: Hindustanis 27.4 percent, Maroons 21.7, Creoles 15.7, Javanese 13.7, then Indigenous, Chinese and mixed groups. Hence a mosque beside a synagogue, and Phagwa and Divali as holidays.

The interior is a commitment

Plan in days, not hours

A river lodge is three to four hours by road to Atjoni and one to three by dugout, and flights to the reserves wait on the weather. Allow two nights minimum, and a spare day in the itinerary.

Suriname travel FAQ

Do you need a visa for Suriname?+

Most visitors arrange something online before flying: either an e-tourist card, which covers a short holiday, or an e-visa. Both are applied for through the government's own portal, and the published guidance asks for the application several days before departure. Since January 2025 everyone also completes a digital Immigration and Customs Form on arrival and departure. Bring a passport with at least six months of validity, and check your own nationality against the portal's current list, because the eligible countries change.

Is Suriname safe to travel in?+

The United States currently rates Suriname at its lowest advisory level, exercise normal caution, which puts it in the same bracket as most of Western Europe. Paramaribo has ordinary urban street crime and the usual answers apply: nothing flashy after dark, a taxi late at night, and care around the market at closing. Medical care is the real planning point, because good hospitals are concentrated in the capital and Nieuw Nickerie and ambulance cover elsewhere is thin, so insurance that names evacuation matters more here than in most of the region.

Can you get by without speaking Dutch?+

Yes. Dutch is the official language and it is what you will see on every sign, menu and form, which makes Suriname the only Dutch-speaking country in the Americas. In practice English is common in Paramaribo, standard among guides, lodges and tour operators, and widely understood by younger Surinamese. Sranan Tongo is the shared street language between the country's communities and is the one worth picking up a few words of, starting with fa waka for how are you.

When is the best time to visit Suriname?+

There are two dry windows and they suit different trips. The long dry from late August into November is the strongest all-round choice: September is the driest month, forest tracks are firm and rivers are calm. The short dry of February to April is cooler, slightly greener, and it overlaps the start of the turtle nesting season at Galibi. May and June are the two wettest months and the ones to avoid if the interior is the point of the trip.

How do you get into the rainforest?+

Two ways, and they are different trips. The road south ends at Atjoni on the Upper Suriname River, and from that quay a korjaal, a hand-carved dugout, runs up to the Saramaccan Maroon villages and the lodges around them, which is three to four hours of driving plus one to three hours on the water. Deeper destinations, including the reserves and the Indigenous villages in the far south, are reached by light aircraft from Zorg en Hoop airfield in Paramaribo. Both are usually booked as a package with the lodge.

Can you combine Suriname with Guyana or French Guiana?+

Yes, and plenty of overland travellers do. Ferries cross the Corantijn to Guyana from South Drain in the west and the Marowijne to French Guiana from Albina in the east, so the three Guianas string together along one route. Both crossings need the receiving country's entry paperwork sorted in advance, and the schedules are limited and weather-dependent, so give each crossing a full day in the itinerary.

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