This five-day Grenada route is for travelers who want the whole country in one trip: the capital’s harbor, the rainforest spine, the nutmeg and cocoa country of the northeast, and a night on Carriacou, the sister island two hours north by sea. The pace is relaxed but varied, with one hiking day, one long touring day and plenty of swimming in between. You’ll ride public minibuses for most legs, hire a taxi for a couple of hours in the northeast, and take the Osprey ferry to Carriacou.
Days 1-2: St. George’s and the Southwest Coast
Base yourself for two nights in
St. George’s, since the guesthouses on the hills above town cost less than the beachfront strip and every minibus route starts here. Spend the first morning on the
Carenage, the horseshoe inner harbor where fishing boats unload, schooners tie up and the Carriacou ferry docks, so you’ll already know where to go on day five. Walk up to the
Grenada National Museum on Young Street, housed in old French barracks that later served as a …
read more 👉This five-day Grenada route is for travelers who want the whole country in one trip: the capital’s harbor, the rainforest spine, the nutmeg and cocoa country of the northeast, and a night on Carriacou, the sister island two hours north by sea. The pace is relaxed but varied, with one hiking day, one long touring day and plenty of swimming in between. You’ll ride public minibuses for most legs, hire a taxi for a couple of hours in the northeast, and take the Osprey ferry to Carriacou.
Days 1-2: St. George’s and the Southwest Coast
Base yourself for two nights in St. George’s, since the guesthouses on the hills above town cost less than the beachfront strip and every minibus route starts here. Spend the first morning on the Carenage, the horseshoe inner harbor where fishing boats unload, schooners tie up and the Carriacou ferry docks, so you’ll already know where to go on day five. Walk up to the Grenada National Museum on Young Street, housed in old French barracks that later served as a prison; it is small, a little dusty and worth an hour for the Amerindian pottery and the frank displays on the 1979 revolution and the 1983 US intervention. A few doors along, House of Chocolate Grenada explains bean-to-bar production in a couple of rooms and serves a proper cup of cocoa tea, the spiced local breakfast drink.
Day two belongs to the water. Book a morning snorkel or dive trip to the Underwater Sculpture Park at Moliniere Bay; snorkel trips run EC$110 to 160 (US$40 to 60), and divers get the deeper figures that snorkelers only see from above. Spend the afternoon on Grand Anse Beach, then ride the short taxi out to Pink Gin Beach at Point Salines for sunset, where the sand ends at the airport fence and the evening flights come in low over the water.Day 3: Grand Etang, Seven Sisters and Grenville
Leave your big bag at your St. George’s guesthouse, since you’ll sleep there again tomorrow, and take a minibus over the mountains toward the east coast with just a daypack. Hop off at Grand Etang National Park to look at the crater lake and the mona monkeys that hang around the visitor center, then walk to Seven Sisters Waterfalls, a steep, muddy 45 to 60 minutes each way from the trailhead on the main road, where a small entry fee is collected. Shoes with grip matter more than fitness here. Ride the rest of the way down to Grenville, the east coast’s market town, and spend the night. In the late afternoon, take a short taxi or minibus south to Mount Carmel Falls near Marquis, the tallest waterfall on the island at roughly 20 meters, reached by a short walk from the road and usually empty of tour groups.Day 4: Belmont, River Antoine, Sauteurs and Gouyave
This is the long touring day, so start early. Hire a taxi in Grenville for the morning, because the two estates sit off the main bus road. Belmont Estate is a working cocoa plantation where beans dry on huge rolling wooden trays that get pushed under cover the moment rain arrives; the estate restaurant does a filling Creole lunch. Ten to fifteen minutes away, River Antoine Rum Distillery still crushes cane with a water-powered wheel and boils the juice in copper pots fired with the leftover cane fiber. Taste the rum in small sips. Continue to Sauteurs at the northern tip, where the fishing bay looks out toward the Grenadines, then pick up a minibus down the west coast. Get off in Gouyave to see the nutmeg processing station, and if it’s a Friday, stay for Fish Friday, the weekly street food night of grilled lobster, fish cakes and oil down; take a taxi back to St. George’s afterward, as late buses get thin.Day 5: Carriacou
Take the morning Osprey ferry from the Carenage to Hillsborough, about two hours and EC$80 to 90 (US$30 to 33) one way. Carriacou runs at half the speed of the main island: one main street, goats on the road, rum shops with plastic chairs. Drop your bag, then make your way to the north of the island for Anse La Roche Beach, a sheltered cove reached by a downhill forest track of 20 to 30 minutes. There’s nothing there, so carry water and snacks. Sleep in Hillsborough and catch the early boat back to St. George’s the next morning.
If you can spare one more night on Carriacou, ride the onward ferry to Petite Martinique, a tiny island of boatbuilders and fishermen where a single road circles the hill and visitors are rare enough to get waved at.v2.webp){kind=logo}
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