Guadeloupe
- Jan 24, 2017
- 4 min read
At the risk of sounding redundant throughout this posting, let me just get a few key words out of the way right now: gorgeous! meticulous! friendly! hospitable! amazing! breathtaking! delicious! serene!
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I am here just 24hrs and feel compelled to post about Guadeloupe. Let me just say that I knew absolutely nothing about Guadeloupe when I agreed to go last year. Tasha and I had joined a “Black women travel” group on Facebook and someone had mentioned Guadeloupe and the fact that the roundtrip airfare was less than $200… yes, you read that correctly, round trip for less $200… so needless to say we were interested. We looked at the airline and confirmed the prices and agreed to add it to our 2017 travel itinerary and a few weeks later we purchased our tickets. In total, my airfare was $188. We figured we'd book our hotel later since we had other 2016 travel to plan and enjoy.
A few months later we decided to look for lodging and tried to go the really cheap route and try AirBnB, but decided we didn’t want to go to a new island and leave everything to chance so we agreed that we would pay a little more to stay at a hotel; I was tasked with the assignment to find the ideal location. It was challenging at first not knowing anything about the country to decide where to stay in terms of proximity from the airport, local attractions and, of course, the beach. However, after checking out a few hotel websites I decided on La Creole!
To skip to the trip, the flight was on Norwegian Airline. It was a regular sized aircraft that was less than 50% booked so there was plenty of room to stretch out and enjoy the flight. The service was good and the plane was like new...can't ask for more!
Upon arrival, the airport was small, clean and not heavily trafficked and there was absolutely no custom paperwork to complete, which we both thought strange, but we got our passports stamped and went on to meet our driver who was waiting for us exactly where the hotel said he’d be with my name on the sign. There was 3 other people who were also headed to the La Creole, so the “gang was all there” and off we went; 20 minutes later we were at the hotel.
Check-in was a breeze. We could hear the live jazz band and smell the aroma of the nearby restaurant as we took a quick look around the beautiful and very lively lobby. In the dark with the soft lighting, and the fact that I refused to put on my glasses to read the signage, we were a little challenged in trying to figure out where our room was located but I chalk that up to vanity…plus it gave us a chance to see the expanse of the property. Even in the dark, we were impressed and couldn’t wait for the next morning to see all of what this hotel had in store for us. Once in the room, our suitcases that were left curbside when we arrived were already waiting for us so we could get comfortable for our week’s stay.
That evening, we didn’t opt for the €45 dinner buffet, but instead, went just outside of the hotel’s gate to what appeared to be a food court with various restaurants and a nice bar. We decided on personal pizzas, salad, daiquiris and soda for a total of €60…we were a little taken aback by €12 daiquiris for a total of €24 for just the drinks, but we’re not heavy drinkers and decided we were okay to stick with water and soda for the remainder of our trip.
The next morning was a pleasant surprise. Our room had a patio that let out to a walking trail on the back side of the property, which overlooked the ocean. We walked along the trail and saw beautiful flora, cliffs, birds, multi-colored crabs on the rocks and the most fantastic views that I had seen in quite a long time. We took the trail around the property and ended up at the lobby, so we set up a day trip with the concierge and then enjoyed a bountiful breakfast buffet, which we included in our room price, and afterwards sat in the lobby to read and relax.
And now at 11:51am I’ve already decided that I’ll be back next January, I’ve typed up my review and next I’m going to take a nap…Day 1 has been perfect thus far!
Oh, I would be remiss if I didn’t note a few cons:
All printed materials are in French. Reason: it has only been a year since Norwegian Airlines announced flights from the US, so they hadn’t had a lot of English speaking US visitors, so English printed materials had not been necessary.
Internet - it cost €5 for unlimited use within the room, but the connection is very spotty.
Okay, it’s 11:55a…gonna take my nap!
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