Not to miss

Marie-Galante

Marie-Galante is a rural island untouched by mass tourism. It offers visitors lovely uncrowded beaches and some great country scenery. Very few English-speaking tourists come this way, which is just as well, as few of the island's 13,000 residents speak any English at all.

Much of Guadeloupe's largest outer island is planted in sugar cane. The undistinguished commercial and administrative centre of Grand-Bourg, on the southwestern coast, has about half the population; most of the rest are evenly divided between its two smaller towns, Capesterre and Saint-Louis.

The latter is a fishing village that's the island's main anchorage for yachts and a secondary port for ferries from Guadeloupe. In the early 1800s, Marie-Galante boasted nearly 100 sugar mills, and the countryside is still dotted with the scattered ruins of most of them. Today sugar production is concentrated at a single mill, while cane is turned into rum at three distilleries, which are among the island's main attractions. The Distillerie Poisson, midway between Saint-Louis and Grand-Bourg, bottles the island's best-known rum under the Père Labat label. Distillerie Bielle, between Grand-Bourg and Capesterre, offers tours of its age-old operation.

La Désirade

La Désirade, about 10km (6mi) off the eastern tip of Grande-Terre, is the archipelago's least developed and least visited island. It has a long history of isolation, having been a leper colony for over 200 years (the leprosarium closed in the 1950s).

These days, islanders engage mainly in fishing, boatbuilding, agriculture and raising sheep, though there are some rustic tourist facilities available. The island looks somewhat like an overturned boat, at least when viewed from Guadeloupe.

La Désirade is 11km (7mi) long and 2km (1mi) wide, with desert-like terrain, coconut and sea grape trees along the coast and a large cactus garden at the eastern end. The uninhabited northern side of the island has a rocky coastline with rough open seas, while the southern side has sandy beaches and reef-protected waters. La Désirade's harbour and airport are on the southwestern side of the island in Grande Anse (also called Le Bourg), the main village. There are smaller settlements at Le Souffleur and Baie Mahault. All three villages have good beaches.

Chutes du Carbet

The drive up to the Chutes du Carbet lookout rewards you with a view of two magnificent waterfalls, the Eastern Caribbean's highest, plunging down a sheer mountain face. The walk through lush green rainforest to the first waterfall (110m/361ft) takes 30 minutes; it's about a two-hour hike to the second (115m/377ft).

Musée Du Rhum

Dedicated to the history of sugar and rum production, this museum is at the site of the former Reimonenq Distillery in the village of Bellevue. Exhibits include an old distillery, cane-extraction gears and a vapor machine dating from 1707. The collection also includes model ships and a fascinating display of giant insects from around the globe.

Musée St-John Perse

Musée St-John Perse occupies an attractive 19th-century colonial building with ornate wrought-iron balconies. The museum is dedicated to the renowned poet and Nobel laureate Alexis Léger (1887-1975), better known as St John Perse, who grew up just down the street at No 54. The house offers both a glimpse of a period Creole home and displays on Perse's life and work.