Caribbean Cruise on the Star Flyer Part 2

On the third day of our Caribbean Cruise on the tall ship, Star Flyer, Scott and I arrived in the port of Terre-de-Haut in Iles des Saintes. The Îles des Saintes, or Les Saintes, are dependency islands of Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory in the Caribbean. The main island, Terre-de-Haut, is known for Pain de Sucre Beach’s coral-rich waters and palm-lined Les Saintes Bay.

There were no excursions for this island, so most of the passengers took the tender to town to explore. It was a quick 5 minute trip to the dock, where we arrived to a quaint French town full of shops and restaurants. They only take the Euro, so we had to find an ATM to get cash for some items at the grocery store (water, beer).

Tour of the town

Terre-de-Haut consists of only a few streets. Lots of tourists were renting scooters to explore the island. It’s a fun little beach town, but very expensive. Scott and I stopped in a shop to buy a couple of nice shirts and our total was over $150 Euro ($180 US)!

If you want to have lunch, they have beautiful cafes, but they require reservations. Who uses Open Table when you’re out in the middle of the ocean? Sadly, some the restaurants were rude about it. We did sit down in one restaurant, that was literally along the shoreline and dinghy dock. But after 20 minutes, they never came to take our order, so we headed back to the ship.

The beaches of Terre-de-Haut

We grabbed a quick bite on the ship and then changed into our swimsuits to head over to the beach. The cruise line has a partnership with Hotel Bois Jolie. Simply buy a beverage from the bar and you should be able to get a beach chair. However, they don’t have a lot of chairs, so we ended up on a beach towel. You can snorkel right off of the beach, but they have tons of sea urchins, so make sure you wear your water socks!

Sun-downer in the Caribbean

Since we were in the Caribbean, we assumed we would have amazing sunsets each night, but it really depends on where the cruise ship is anchored. Isles des Saintes did not disappoint! The weather was warm, the breeze was light and the scenery was magical.

Day 4 – Guadeloupe

We arrived in Guadeloupe in the morning. This island is also a French colony. While we were waiting for customs to allow us off the ship, guests were allowed to climb up to the mast. Ben was ready, along with Fred – an 89 year old Coast Guard Veteran!

In case I didn’t mention it earlier, when you arrive on the ship, sign up for the excursions immediately or you will miss out. There were some for Guadeloupe we wanted to do, but we were too late. So we decided to head into town and visit the De Deshaies Botanical Gardens. The tender ride is about 10 minutes, as we were anchored pretty far out. Once you arrive at the dock, there are taxi drivers waiting for tourists to drive them to the gardens (which are up a steep hill-about 1 mile)

The Gardens

Guadeloupe is known for it’s lush and tropical scenery. The Botanical Gardens tour takes about an hour and they do have a restaurant inside. However, it was very buggy and Maria and I started to get eaten alive by “no see-ums”, so take bug spray!

The views from the gardens are stunning and definitely worth the trek. Plus they had a variety of birds AND goats! They were the highlight of the tour.

Though we made arrangements for our taxi driver to come back and get us, he never showed. So we had no choice, but to walk back down to the marina. It took about 20 minutes, but you walk on the road, so be cautious of cars.