Getting there & Getting around

Getting there

There are twice-weekly flights from Amsterdam to Paramaribo. Miami and Atlanta are the main departure points for flights from the US, and there are also flights from various Caribbean islands and Brazil. Surinam Airways offers flights to/from Miami and Amsterdam, and other carriers flying into Suriname include KLM, Air France and Caribbean Airlines. There's a rickety passenger ferry from Nieuw Nickerie across the Corantijn River to Springlands, Guyana; and another across the Marowijne River between Albina and St Laurent du Maroni (French Guiana).

Getting around

Air services to the interior usually operate on a charter basis. Medium-sized buses on the coastal highway are frequent and exceptionally cheap, but crowded; taxis, which are faster though more expensive, travel along the same routes. To visit the interior and some coastal areas, river transport is the least expensive (and often only) option.

Visa information

Passports are obligatory, and those who don't need a visa are given a tourist card. Suriname is becoming somewhat liberal with its entry requirements; for example, Guyanese, Brazilian, Israeli, South Korean, Swiss and Japanese citizens don't require visas, but Australian, Canadian, French, German, Dutch, New Zealand, UK and US nationals still do. Suriname's overseas representation is very limited. There are embassies in the US, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the surrounding South American nations, but in few others. Contact the nearest embassy for an application form, but allow four weeks for a postal application. For a fee, consulates in Georgetown (Guyana) and Cayenne (French Guiana) issue two-month single-entry visitor visas within a couple of hours or days; prices rise for multiple-entry and longer-stay visas. Some travelers say that the process of obtaining a visa is easier in Cayenne than in Georgetown. Bring a passport-sized photo and your ticket out of South America.