Cayenne Voyage Tips and guide

Cayenne is the largest city in and capital of French Guiana. Cayenne lies on the Atlantic coast, on marshland surrounded by hills. It is an important seaport in South America.

The city was founded in 1643 by the French and was part of the Dutch, English and Portuguese colonial empire during the following century. Today a third of the department's inhabitants live in Cayenne. Downtown is small and the houses are typically Caribbean.

Although it looks on some maps like the city is surrounded by open water and would have a waterfront promenade, in fact it's surrounded by a swamp of tall mangrove trees, and the ocean isn't visible from the downtown except from certain high points or long piers. The beaches are located outside of the town proper, in the suburbs.

On Sundays, almost everything is closed. If you arrive on a Sunday, the only thing to do on your first vacation day is walking around in an almost deserted city. However, there are still a few Chinese-owned grocery stores open in the downtown, and there may be food trucks open in the palm tree park (Place des Palmistes)

In 2019, the city was home to 66,000 people.

The climate is what you would expect this close to the Equator. The temperature is constant around +25-30°C while it's raining heavily for most of the year.

French Guiana's main international airport is 4.819722-52.3619441 Cayenne – Félix Eboué Airport (CAY  ^IATA). located in the commune of Matoury, a southern suburb of Cayenne. There are two flights a day to Paris Orly Airport (not CDG) served by Air France and Air Caraïbes. Moreover there are flights from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Paramaribo and Belém.  

There are no buses to the airport, so your alternatives are to rent a car or take a taxi (€35 to central Cayenne).

From Brazil, you can cross by bridge into Saint-Georges de l'Oyapock, from where you can travel by bus to Cayenne with a transfer in Régina. From Suriname you have to make a river crossing by boat, and you'll step off the ferry in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni, from where you can take a bus to Iracoubo and transfer to another going to Cayenne.

If you've brought a car, the road is paved from both borders towns to Cayenne, and it's quite a beautiful drive, largely through impressive rainforest, especially on the route from Brazil.

4°55′21″N 52°18′15″W

Map of Cayenne

• Cayenne has a public bus network of five lines. The fare is €1,10.
• Your other options are car, taxi, foot or bike.

• 4.9382-52.33371 Place des Palmistes. A park with high palm trees, lively in the nighttime.  
• 4.93763-52.3368432 Fort Cépérou. Remains of a historic fort on a hilltop right on the west side of downtown Cayenne. Great views, and probably the best (only?) place to see the ocean and Cayenne River from downtown, as well as an overview of the city itself. Well lit into the evening. Free.  (updated Dec 2025)
• Place des Amandiers. A square frequented by young couples in the evening. 
• Jardin botanique (The botanical garden). The well-kept botanical garden of Cayenne is worth a visit. 
• Cayenne city hall.  
• 4.939722-52.3316673 Cathédrale Saint-Sauveur de Cayenne (Cayenne cathedral). Cayenne's cathedral is a major landmark, the seat of the Diocese of Cayenne and a National Monument of France.  
• Musée Départemental Franconie, 1, avenue du général de Gaulle (in the same block as the library), ☏ +594 29 59 13. M Th 08:00-13:15, 15:00-17:45, W Fr 08:00-13:15. A museum of the animals of the region, Amerindian and Creole art, and exhibitions about the history of French Guiana, daily life in the penal colony and the colonial administrator and humanist Félix Éboué, perhaps the most significant person from the region. €3. (updated Feb 2024)
• Musée des Cultures Guyanaises, 78, rue Madame Payé, ☏ +594 31 41 72. M-F 8:00-13:00, 15:00-17:45 (W afternoon closed), Sa 8:00-11:45. Exhibitions of the daily life of the different populations in the region including traditional clothing and art, a reconstruction of a carbet (traditional shelter) as well as a documentation center. €2. 
• 4.92371-52.275414 Salines de Montjoly (in Rémire-Montjoly a few km east of Cayenne). A conservation area consisting of a sand beach, dunes and a mangrove forest.  
• 4.87036-52.24755 Fort Diamant (in Rémire-Montjoly). A 19th-century fort, nowadays a Monument Historique (French National Heritage Site).  

There are sand beaches in the eastern part of the Cayenne area, and the sea is good for surfing. The water is rarely, if ever, clear enough for snorkeling, but is often more green/blue than in the neighboring countries of Suriname and Guyana (the whole region tends to have brownish seawater due to the large amount of mud coming down through the many rivers).

• Hiking. There are some nice hikes right around Cayenne. One of the easiest to access is the Sentier de Montabo, which connects Cayenne proper with the nearest beach, and on the way gives you close-up views of both of French Guiana's two major native ecosystem types: the mangrove swamp and the Guianan tropical rainforest. (updated Dec 2025)

Guianese Carnival takes place between Epiphany in early January and Ash Wednesday in February or March. On the weekend people put on their carnival dresses and dance in the streets through the night. The most remarkable are the ladies' colorful touloulou dresses. The dancing groups show the ethnic diversity of French Guiana. In the main parade that is held on the last Sunday of the carnival dancing schools (similar to those in Rio de Janeiro) perform. The most famous of them are Chiré Band, Réno Band, Kassialata, Manaré and Piraye.

• Le Marché aux légumes (The vegetable market). W F Sa 5:00-13:00. A place to buy local agricultural products, or just to expericence a lively market in the tropics. 
• Marché d'Intérêt Régional (le M.I.R.). daily except Sunday. At the fish market you can buy fresh fish. 
• For souvenir shopping head for the Trois Fontaines shops and other shops in the downtown. Good souvenirs are objects carved out of wood and exotic objects of art.

The restaurants of Cayenne reflects the ethnic mosaic of the Guyanese society; you will find Creole, French, Chinese, Lebanese and Javanese restaurants here.

In general the Chinese restaurants are the most affordable places to have a meal with dishes for €15-20. On Place des Palmistes there are also carts selling hamburgers and Javanese dishes.

• Jin Le Yuan, 33 rue Lieutenant Brasse, ☏ +594 43 17 88. Chinese restaurant. 
• Le Vrai Régal, 60 bd Jubelin, ☏ +594 27 16 31. A sandwich joint. 

• Iceberg, rue Lalouette.  

• La Taverne de Cayenne, 26 rue Mole, ☏ +594 694 23 41 54. French restaurant. 
• Mille Pâtes, 52 rue Justin Catayée, ☏ +594 28 91 80. French restaurant. 
• Bar des Palmistes, 12 av du Gén de Gaulle (place des Palmistes), ☏ +594 300 050. Creole and French restaurant. 
• L'Entracte, 65 r Justin Catayée, ☏ +594 30 01 37. French restaurant. 
• La Petite Maison, 23 r Félix Eboué, ☏ +594 38 58 39. French restaurant. 

• Le Paris Cayenne, 59 rue Lallouette, ☏ +594 31 76 17. French cuisine, likely the finest restaurant in Cayenne. 

Except for the carnival weeks, the nightlife isn't as wild as in many other Latin American destinations. There are some nice bars in Cayenne downtown. Nightclubs are generally located in the periphery of the city.

• Le Moonlight Discothèque, route de Montabo chemin Grant.  
• Le Bar des Palmistes. A bit expensive, for instance a Ricard is €5. This is however one of the few places open on Sunday. 

Good hotels exist, but they can be relatively expensive.

• Hotel Ket Tai. Nothing fancy but clean and a few minutes walk from Place des Palmistes. Single room for €43, double for €50 and triple for €60. 

• Central Hôtel de Cayenne, rue Mole, ☏ +594 25 65 65. sgl €75, dbl €80. 
• Hotel Amazonia Cayenne, 28 Avenue du Général de Gaulle, ☏ +594 28 83 00. rates from €85. 

• 4.9429-52.29941 Grand Hotel Montabo, Chemin Hilaire Rue De Montabo, ☏ +594 303888.  

From Cayenne you can relatively easy get to other parts of the department or to the neighbouring countries overland. Kourou boasts a space centre and the Devil's Island archipelago. To get a taste of the rainforest of remote inner Guiana, you can take a domestic flight for instance to Saül (or if a flight isn't in your budget, you can see a lot of rainforest along the side of the highway on the drive to the Brazilian border). Cacao is an Asian village in the jungle populated by Hmong people transplanted from Laos.