Trip Planning
The TakeYourBackpack guidebooks are your all-in-one travel companion, featuring the best cities, national parks, hikes, beaches, and unique sites, along with essential tips on when to go, how to get around, exchanging money, and even local phrases to get you started — everything you need for a smooth, unforgettable backpacking adventure.
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Planning a backpacking route through French Guiana can be tricky — you need to balance must-see places, travel times, budget, and how long to stay in each destination. Our free personalized French Guiana itinerary planner creates a route based on your travel style, trip duration, and interests, so you can spend less time researching and more time exploring.
Personal tip: I normally search on good rating for atmosphere (for meeting people) and location (for easy exploring). Cleanliness as a bonus.
Travel Essentials
Yellow fever vaccination is mandatory for entry to French Guiana for all travelers aged one year and older, so carry your certificate. Hepatitis A and typhoid are recommended, along with up-to-date routine shots (measles, tetanus, diphtheria, polio). Rabies is worth considering for long stays in the forest. Malaria prevention is advised for the interior and along the Maroni and Oyapock rivers, while dengue, chikungunya and Zika mean strong mosquito protection is needed everywhere.
vaccination requirementsWhen I first started traveling, I often spent part of my first day in a new country hunting for a local SIM card. While this can still be slightly cheaper, it also takes time and planning.
These days, it's much simpler to install an eSIM before leaving home. Once you arrive in French Guiana, you can activate it immediately and have mobile data from the moment you land — which is especially useful for ordering transport or navigating away from busy airports.
There are many providers nowadays, and price differences are usually small. I personally go with
Holafly, as it offers excellent network coverage throughout the country and strong global coverage, so you can manage multiple countries from a single app.
HolaFly eSimCulture & Customs
French Guiana is a mix of Creole, Maroon (Bushinengue), Amerindian, Hmong, Brazilian, Haitian and metropolitan French communities, and respecting each one’s space matters. Always ask before photographing people, especially in Amerindian and Maroon villages, and ask a village leader before wandering around a community on the rivers. Dress modestly away from the beach, since swimwear and bare chests in shops or towns draw looks. During Carnival, the masked women known as “touloulous” choose their dance partners at the evening balls, and refusing one is considered rude. Avoid touching or buying protected wildlife and turtle products. Do not loudly compare the region to mainland France. Women may face more unwanted comments at night, and same-sex couples generally keep affection low-key in public.
Trying traditional food is always a great way to experience the culture. Here are some must-try dishes for French Guiana.
- Bouillon d’awara: the dish most closely tied to Guianese identity. It is a thick, orange stew built on a paste of awara palm fruit, slow-cooked for hours with smoked meat, smoked fish, crab and green vegetables, and traditionally eaten at Easter and Pentecost. The saying goes that whoever eats it will come back to Guiana.
- Colombo: a Creole curry of chicken, pork or fish simmered with colombo spice powder, garlic and local chiles. It comes from the Indian influence in the French Caribbean and appears on almost every Creole lunch menu.
- Blaff de poisson: fresh fish poached in a lime, garlic, chile and herb broth. It is light and sharp, and is often served with rice and red beans at seaside spots.
- Fricassée de gibier: a rich, dark stew of game meat such as peccary or agouti, with tomato, onion and spices. It reflects the forest hunting traditions of the interior and is often found at roadside Creole restaurants.
- Couac: toasted, coarse manioc flour with roots in Amerindian and Maroon cooking. It is sprinkled over stews and fish, or eaten softened with water and sugar, and has a nutty crunch that shows up at countless meals.
- Hmong market soups and nems: the Hmong farmers of Cacao and Javouhey brought noodle soups, spring rolls and fresh vegetables from Laos. The Sunday market at Cacao is the classic place to eat them.
Tap water in Cayenne, Kourou, Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and other coastal towns of French Guiana is treated to French standards and generally safe to drink, though many locals still buy bottled water out of habit or for the taste. Visitors can drink the tap water in the main towns. In remote villages, carbets and along the rivers, stick to bottled water or bring a filter or purification tablets.
The main language in French Guiana is
French. Backpacking is way more rewarding if you know a bit of the local language, so I'd suggest brushing up on the basics just in case your French skills have become a bit rusty.
Want to understand locals better?The complete Travel Guide for French Guiana includes 52 essential words and phrases — greetings, thank-yous, ordering food, transport, numbers, and common local expressions you'll actually hear.
Get your local basic phrases 👉
Get the Travel Guide - is not widely spoken in French Guiana. Even in Cayenne and Kourou, you will usually only find it at upscale hotels, the space center visitor area and among some younger people. In small towns and river villages, expect French, Guianese Creole, Maroon languages such as Nenge, or Portuguese near the Brazilian border. French helps most by far, so download an offline French translation pack and learn the basics: bonjour, merci, combien and “Je cherche…” (I’m looking for…).
Money & Payments
The local currency of French Guiana is EUR (€).
French Guiana uses the euro, and ATMs are easy to find in Cayenne, Matoury, Kourou and Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. They are scarce and sometimes empty in Saint-Georges, Maripasoula and the river villages, so withdraw enough before heading inland. Euro-zone cards withdraw without fees, while non-EU cards typically pay €2 to 5 per withdrawal plus 1 to 3 percent from the home bank. Visa and Mastercard work in supermarkets, hotels, car rental offices and most restaurants in the main towns, but taxis collectifs, markets, carbets and pirogue drivers usually want cash. Bring euros or a card rather than US dollars, which are hard to exchange. If you need to exchange money, use a bank or official exchange office in Cayenne rather than the informal changers at the Brazilian and Surinamese border crossings.
Tipping is not expected in French Guiana, because service is included in restaurant and bar prices by law, as in mainland France. Leaving small change or rounding up by €1 to 2 is appreciated for good service. For multi-day pirogue or forest guides, a tip of around 5 to 10 percent is a kind gesture.
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Over the years, I've learned the importance of packing minimally. It's so much easier to jump on the back of a truck or squeeze yourself into the last spot of a minibus without that supersized backpack. If you're headed to a warm destination, leave your winter jacket at home; for colder regions, opt for thin thermal underlayers. Instead of packing your entire wardrobe, bring just three sets of clothes, as laundry facilities are available everywhere.
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Hi, I’m Johan (Netherlands 🇳🇱), the creator of TakeYourBackpack. Over the past 3 decades, I’ve backpacked through 90+ countries across six continents, gaining extensive experience with independent travel, long-term trips, and overland routes.