Trip report for Suriname

We were two guys travelling for 5 days over Christmas, which was a bit of a problem as the border to Guyana was closed over the holiday.

We flew in to Paramaribo so we could get visa (well, tourist card) on arrival and left overland to Guyana. First we considered to fly into French Guiana, get Surinamese visa at the consulate in Cayenne and then go overland, but as it was during the Christmas holiday we were afraid that the consulate would be closed.

As getting around with public transportation is very time consuming at best and simple impossible if you want to go around the countryside, we opted to rent a car from Budget. The office, which Budget and AVIS share, is located at the entrance to Torarica Hotel. We had booked online a car with unlimited kilometers, but the car rental lady had different prices and different contract than the one we booked over the web. A strange situation standing there with a valid contract from the web and then a lady claiming different terms. We choose to go with the new terms, so we could get a car.

Either a visa or a tourist cards are need for most nationalities, but the tourist card can be bought at the airport on arrival for 25 USD or 20 EUR. If you want to enter Suriname over land you will need to get a visa beforehand from one of its embassy or consulates. There are Surinamese consulates in both French Guiana and Guyana.

There is an ATM at the airport after the immigration but before the exit. But it only accepts MasterCard.

There are several ATM scattered around Paramaribo, but many of them didn't work and the ones that did only took MasterCard. There is often an ATM inside the shop at the gas stations.

From the airport
Shuttle bus from the airport into any hotel in Paramaribo costed 60 SD. They also run during the night.

Bus and ferry to Guyana
Firstly, we took a public bus from Paramaribo to the border town of Nieuw Nickerie (25 SRD). We stayed there one night and then in the morning took a shared taxi to the Canawaima ferry terminal (30 SRD), where we got the morning ferry to Guyana (ow 53 SRD). The whole procedure of buying ferry ticket and getting stamped out of Suriname went rather slow, but they have a smooth operation where everyone get handed a number. The taxi driver who took us to the ferry terminal also doubled as money changer, but his exchange rate was crap, so we waited wisely to change money until the Guyana side, where you can haggle over the bus ticket and exchange rate.

For trip report for the Guyana part click here.

Except for one night, we stayed the whole time in Paramaribo and made day trips from there. We stayed at a super cheap hotel called Perola (30 USD), which also double as a discotheque. We had booked it over the web, but we wouldn't recommend booking more than one night here. It lies a short taxi ride from downtown in an area popular with Brazilians. There is nothing nice to stay about the place, except that there was private parking and when we first moved away from the discotheque building, it was alright (but we are not that picky either).

In Nieuw Nickerie we stayed at Hotel River Breeze (80 SRD), another run down place, a short walk from downtown along the road G. G. Maynardstraat. There was a even cheaper place around the corner, Hotel de Vesting, on Tam Adamsonstraat.

We wished we had slept wherever we went instead of backtracking to Paramaribo every night. For there were cabins and hotels here and there. We wish we had slept in a village upriver from Atjoni and somewhere in the countryside, Colakreek had cabins.

There aren't a whole lot to see in Suriname, not even a decent beach, but that is part of the charm of visit so far flung places like Suriname.

Suriname is safe compared to other South American countries, just use taxis to get around Paramaribo at nighttime.