Guide to choosing a tour

A guide to booking tours

There are more than 75 tours on our website.
That's a lot, and we understand you're not a specialist and may not want to dig into all of them.
Many tours are very similar and are run just a little differently, so we've tried to put together a guide to make the tours a bit clearer and to make sure you don't book similar tours ‘twice’.
Besides the tours below, we also arrange complete holidays, tailor-made and adapted tours, and group trips. You can always e-mail, chat, call or WhatsApp us for advice; you'll always get a reply within 24 hours.

The tours are grouped into the following categories:

Commewijne, plantations and history Upper Suriname area Sea-turtle tours Adrenaline tours Active tours Relaxation Cultural tours Nature and wildlife Mix of culture and nature Age Tours we don't directly recommend

The Commewijne area, plantations and history

There are several tours to the Commewijne area. They cover the same area, each with a slightly different focus, but they have a lot in common. Because of the old plantations in this area, these tours focus strongly on Suriname's history and its past of slavery. We advise choosing one of these:

Dolphins
Dolphins and caimans (recommended)
Commewijne day tour (bus or boat) (recommended)
Warappa Creek
Sugar Trail
Peperpot bike tour
Coffee and citrus plantation
Frederiksdorp bike tour
Frederiksdorp
Jodensavanne (also by boat)

The Upper Suriname area

The resorts in the Upper Suriname area lie on the Upper Suriname River. Although it's called ‘Upper’ Suriname, the area is in the south: ‘upper’ refers to the higher-lying land. The tours are all very similar; only the resorts and their level of luxury differ. The price is largely determined by the length of the boat trip (the most expensive factor): the longer and further south, the more expensive the tour. The programmes are very similar,
usually 3 to 4 days with a village walk, a forest walk and sometimes a traditional cultural evening and BBQ. We advise one 3- or 4-day tour to one of these resorts, listed in order of price:

Jaw Jaw / Isadou (recommended)
Jungle Resort Pingpe
Menimi Maroon tour
Brownsberg & Isadou combination
Tio Boto Eco Lodge
Apiapaati
Anaula Nature Resort (luxury, with pool) (recommended)
Knini Paati (pool) (recommended)
Dan Paati (luxury, with pool)
Palumeu (fly-in only)
Awarradam

Sea-turtle tours

If you visit Suriname between February and August, it's sea-turtle season.
The turtles come ashore at three locations: Braamspunt, Galibi and Matapica.
If you have the time, we definitely recommend Galibi and French Guiana (2 days).

Besides the turtles, you sleep in an indigenous village in the Galibi area. If you're short on time, we recommend the Braamspunt evening tour, where with a bit of luck you'll also spot dolphins. Matapica is a 2-day tour, but extremely basic: the accommodation was destroyed by the natural shifting of the beach, and only a few huts remain, built by locals from nearby Johanna en Margaretha. In order of recommendation:

Galibi, 2 days (recommended)
Braamspunt evening tour
Matapica, 2 days

Adrenaline tours

Adrenaline and excitement: Suriname has these tours too. They're very varied, although Busiwagi (you drive) and the Jeep Safari (you don't drive) are very similar.

Quad (ATV) riding and zipline (recommended)
Jeep Safari
Speedboat Safari
Busiwagi
White-water rafting
(Dolphins and) caiman tour (recommended)

Active tours

Do you enjoy long walks in nature? For hikes you usually have to go deep into nature, so these are mostly multi-day tours. The Brownsberg day tour is the exception: it's easy to reach in a day. Raleigh Falls and the Voltzberg offer very active nature in the heart of Suriname, and we recommend this tour as a must-do in Suriname. It hasn't won the ‘tour of the year’ award four years in a row for nothing.

Brownsberg day tour, 1 day
Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg, 3 days
Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg, 4 days (recommended)
Brownsberg and Ston Island, 2 days
Kasikasima Mountains

Relaxation

You're on holiday, and some people would rather do nothing and just enjoy themselves. This is a selection of very relaxed tours. We haven't included the bike tours here: because of the big difference in climate from Europe, people find them fairly strenuous.

Dolphin tour
Fishing tours: river mouth and reservoir
Sloth spotting
Ston Island day tour (a beach day)
French Guiana day tour
Dinner by the River
Nickerie and Bigi Pan (2 days)

Cultural tours

Suriname is a melting pot of cultures, which is why this is quite an extensive selection.
Culture shows itself in many forms, from food to the ways of life of the different population groups. We also highly recommend a cooking class as a lasting memory of Suriname.

Sunday markets tour
Surinamese cooking class
Food tasting and city tour
City tour (by bike, car or on foot)
Warappa Creek
Plantation tours
all Upper Suriname tours (see above)
Moengo Cultural Experience (rarely runs)
Districts tour
Brokopondo district tour
Jodensavanne
Para crafts tour
Palumeu, 4/5 days

Nature and wildlife

Coming to Suriname for nature and wildlife? If you want to spot animals in the wild, the nearest option is a day tour or 2-day tour to Brownsberg. In the Upper Suriname area, unfortunately, you won't see much wildlife at the various resorts, because locals hunt a lot there. If your budget allows, your best chance of wildlife is Kabalebo Resort, which lies very deep in the jungle and can only be reached by plane. Raleigh Falls and the Voltzberg are a very affordable alternative with a high chance of spotting wildlife. The newest up-and-comer is the Fredberg, a promising newly established location popular with birdwatchers. In order:

– Kabalebo Nature Resort
– Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg (3 or 4 days)
– Brownsberg (1 or 2 days)
– Fredberg / Zintete
– Coesewijne nature reserve
– Nickerie and Bigi Pan
– Sloth spotting (1 day, near the city)

Mix of culture, nature and adventure

Of course, combination tours that bring all these aspects together are also great. Only a handful of tours really stand out here, and the front-runner is definitely the Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg tour.

– Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg
– Brownsberg, Ston Island and Isadou combination
– Brownsberg and Ston Island
– all Upper Suriname tours
– Dolphins and caimans (1 day)
– Jeep Safari (1 day)
– Fredberg / Zintete
– Galibi & French Guiana

Age

We're often asked which tours are good for children, or for older travellers.
0–6 years: dolphin spotting; we're usually flexible and young children can often come along free once the minimum number of paying guests is reached. Beyond that, unfortunately, there aren't many tours for the youngest among us. Why not? The heat, the car journeys, the boat trips and sometimes no phone signal:
all reasons we'd rather advise against going on tour with very young children.
We suggest a day out on your own to Cola Creek, White Beach, the zoo, Fernandes playground or other activities.
6–12 years: dolphins / dolphins and caimans, Brownsberg – Ston Island, the Upper Suriname area, Raleigh Falls and Voltzberg. We often have families with children in this age group,
and they join all these tours without any problems.
12–17 years: as above (6–12 years), plus they may ride a quad (ATV) under supervision; SUP boarding, the speedboat safari and the jungle safari are also very popular.
18–65 years: all tours!
65+: you're the best judge of your own body. We've guided ‘young ladies’ of 90+ who walked up and down Brownsberg with ease, but also people in their 70s who said it was really too hard.
The Blanche Marie Falls, however, are not advisable for over-65s because of the long journey and the bad road. For Raleigh Falls and the Voltzberg you also need to be in good physical shape.

Tours we don't directly recommend

We understand this is a little unusual, but we always take people's experiences and suggestions on board. We offer the following tours, but with a warning:

Per tour:

Dan Paati: a very long boat trip (up to 5 hours in the dry season), and guests often tell us the price-quality ratio isn't right. Although it's the most luxurious resort in the Upper Suriname area, we'd still recommend one of the other tours.
Blanche Marie Falls: the accommodation often gets criticised for not being good enough, and the road there is extremely long and extremely bad. When the road is bad, the journey can take up to 8 hours (one way), which takes its toll on the vehicles and sometimes means breakdowns. Also, Apoera is not a traditional indigenous village but is more like a suburb of Paramaribo.
Jodensavanne: an informative tour, but there's not much more than ruins; it's more about the story. If your interest is specifically in Jewish history in Suriname, we don't directly recommend this tour.
Braamspunt sea turtles: an evening tour that's great fun if you only want to see sea turtles. But if you have time for the alternative, Galibi and French Guiana, we definitely recommend that instead, as it offers so much more.
Berg en Dal: we advise against this tour. It's run by Berg en Dal itself, it's the only tour without food and drink, and it often gets complaints; the way it's run often leaves something to be desired.
Moengo Cultural Experience: this tour is requested and run so rarely that parts of the programme often drop out.
Sugar Trail: this tour is almost the same as the cheaper Commewijne day tour, with a bit more travel over land. We recommend the Commewijne day tour instead.
Ston Island day tour: comparable to a beach day by the reservoir, with a short boat trip. If that matches your expectations it can be a really nice day, but if it rains on the day there isn't much to do apart from a game of cards in one of the huts.
Coesewijne nature reserve: extremely basic, too basic for some people. Coesewijne is neglected in places and you'll come across some litter. The chance of seeing animals is very high, though, because the area is rarely visited by tourists.
Wonotobo Falls: this tour basically no longer runs. Although it's a beautiful tour, good-quality boat transport is lacking.
French Guiana day tour: a fun day out, but nothing special. A road trip for a quick visit to French Guiana: a long drive for a short visit, with little substance to the programme.
Nickerie and Bigi Pan day tour: a beautiful tour, but long, very long: 500 kilometres in one day! We always recommend the 2-day tour, sleeping on Bigi Pan.