Self-Drive The Butterfly Island
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In the Caribbean, between Dominica, and Antigua is the beautiful island group of Guadeloupe. Rum is made in three out of its six islands; Basse-Terre, Grande Terre, and Marie-Galante. The two main tropical volcanic islands, Basse-Terre and Grande Terre create a butterfly shape (l’île Papillon). The islands are separated by a narrow channel the rivière Salée (the salty river) which you drive over.
Guadeloupe’s geography contrasts dramatically. On the east is the Grande-Terre, a limestone plateau with rolling hills, and more developed. However, on the west, Basse-Terre is defined by the active volcano Grande Soufrière at 1,467m, the highest in the Lesser Antilles. Its surrounding National Park is a haven of beautiful waterfalls, rivers, and ravines and is home to tropical plants and wildlife.
Upon arrival, whether by sea or air, a wild adventure awaits. If you’ve explored distilleries in Martinique, you’ll notice the contrast. While both share French influences, Guadeloupe exudes a rustic farmyard ambiance, like stepping back in time. In stark contrast to some state-of-the-art complexes in Martinique.
Some like to relax on arrival and acclimatise after a long-haul flight. Others might want to jump straight in, pick up their hire car, and get over to Marie Galante. With a dozen rum producers to explore, it could take a week to get around them all and include other local sites. And, like touring in Martinique, it’s probably best to group daily visits by location. Hiring a car is a must, and make sure to reserve it ahead to avoid delays on arrival.
The sugarcane harvest here is from February to June, which is the best time to see the cane juice rum distillers in action. We start the road trip on the island you will likely arrive at Grande Terre, where there are two rum producers to visit. On the Atlantic facing east coast is Le Moule, a picturesque beach town and surfer hang out. Kreol Bar is a good spot for lunch.
Distillerie Damoiseau
Home to the Damoiseau rum brand, Distillerie Bellevue-Hurel has been producing Rhum Agricole and aged blends of cane and molasses rum since 1942. It’s a self-guided free tour around the site with some maps, signs, and a collection of old machinery with a small museum displaying local artifacts.
The actual distilling takes place on modern large column stills. It has a shop for buying rum and gifts at a good price. This can often be a first or last visit before departure. About a 15-minute drive on the opposite side of Le Moule, heading towards beaches, boat trips, sipp a Planteur’s punch at Saint-François, or gazing out at Pointe des Chateaux awaits.
Rhum Gwadinina
Domaine de Letaye is the smallest producer you’ll visit in Guadeloupe. It’s a family-run artisanal distillery. A guide will explain the process in French, and possibly in English. It’s a small facility and hands-on. Tasting is in the shop where you can buy their rum and gifts.
Jumping over on the ferry now to Marie-Galante, it’s well worth staying over at least one night. Marie-Galante is a step back into another era, a slower pace of life. It’s not a big island, a 15-minute drive from Père Labat to Distillerie Bielle in the middle of the island, and similar to Distillerie Bellevue. So, the distilleries are manageable on the same day.
Distillerie Bellevue
Bellevue Distillery is the largest on the island and Guadeloupe’s largest exporter. A restored windmill refurbished, it’s a modern distilling setup, and with that, it’s one of the first green estates in the Caribbean. You can see the ruins of the old distillery and displays explain how rum is made in a free tour. There’s a shop and tasting balcony to try the rum and enjoy a rum punch. The Rums are often blends of molasses and Rhum Agricole.
Distillerie Bielle
Bielle Distillery has been producing rum since 1910. The distillery manually cuts fresh cane stems in harvest season to make fresh cane juice unaged white rums, aged rum, and rum liqueurs. They specialise in cask-strength rum and also make white rum from grey sugarcane. The free self-guided tour has a video presentation, you can taste the rum, and shop for souvenirs.
Distillerie Poisson
On the west coast, the Poisson distillery produces probably the island’s best-known rum, Rhum Père Labat. It’s the smallest distillery on Marie-Galante, and its history as a sugar estate goes back to 1860. They grow a portion of organic sugarcane and have two organically certified white rums. The tour is free and self-guided with info boards and a small tasting at a cabin shop to finish.
Rhum Rhum PMG is a collaboration between Italian independent bottler Velier, a grappa distiller, and Poisson distillery. It’s registered as an individual distiller but doesn’t have its own visitor experience as such, you could contact them directly for an appointment. They use a Muller pot still and work with local farmers for their cane to juice.
Before leaving Marie Galante, you should take in the beaches of Saint-Louis, enjoy a beautiful sunset with a Planteur punch or Ti Punch and savour this timeless part of the Caribbean.
Take the ferry back and you are not far from the island of Basse Terre. You’ll drive over the rivière Salée and the landscape changes. Here you’ll visit the highest concentration of distilleries, but it’s more rural. You can take either the N2 road north to Sainte-Rose, or south on the N1 towards Trois-Rivières. We’ll start our list of distilleries north to south. If you can drag yourself off the stunning beaches of Cluny, Plage de la Perle, or Grand Anse, there’s only one distillery you can visit in the north of Basse Terre.
On the outskirts of Sainte-Rose, the Reimonenq distillery has been producing rum since 1916. They have cane fields and also buy sugarcane from 70 independent growers. The tour is busy with visitors and coach tours, it’s self-guided (English and French), and there’s a tasting at the end upstairs.
They have Musée du Rhum, a rum museum to highlight the history and heritage of Guadeloupe which includes old artifacts, tools, machinery, a collection of sailboats, and hundreds of butterflies.
Distillerie Bonne Mère
About 10 minutes drive south of Sainte-Rose is Distillerie Bonne Mère. But the site doesn’t allow visitors, so you’ll need to try their rum at a bar elsewhere. As one of the largest rum distilleries in the West Indies, it makes rum using molasses from Marie-Galante which then goes into several blended rum brands and independent bottlings; Bonne Mère, Fajous, Rhum Negrita, Rhum Old Nick, Rhum Contrebande, and LMDW’s Transcontinental Rum Line Guadeloupe.
Travelling south now on the N1 the first distillery you’ll come to Distillerie Montebello, 30 minutes’ drive from Reimonenq. However, at this point, foodies and nature lovers could drive inland over to Bouillante and stay on the west coast for a night or two. On the way, you enter the national park with hiking trails and cascades. Or snorkel the Pigeon Islands, and enjoy the hot spring outlets on the West Coast.
There’s a chocolate museum nearby at La Maison du Cacao. Have traditional creole food at La Côte Oust, or sip a Planteur’s Punch or Ti Punch at Sunset B with fresh seafood as the sun goes down. Then, you could continue anticlockwise around the south of the Basse-Terre. Either way, you choose to do the loop, it’s best to check the opening times, and lunch breaks to help co-ordinate your visit, you’ll find time and sites on our handy Guadeloupe Map
Distillerie Montebello
At Petit Bourg, the Montebello distillery was founded in 1930. It’s one of the island’s smallest distilleries, family-owned and committed to traditional methods. Much of the sugarcane is cut by hand, and it’s the only distillery in Guadeloupe fuelled entirely by steam.
During the season you’ll get close to the whole production as working distillery made the old-fashioned way. The free 1-hour tour can have a guide that speaks English as well as French. And, you’ll get to taste several of their rums at the end.
Distillerie Papa Rouyo
Papa Rouyo at Goyave is the newest distillery in Guadeloupe, launched in 2021 – but, has links to the past. It’s a modern setup and artisanal farmer-first producer. It is also the only distillery in Guadeloupe that uses a pot still, rather than a traditional creole column still. Therefore, it produces a heavier pure sugarcane juice rum. It’s in a warehouse venue shared with an artisan brewery. You pay for a tour, but many say this is the highlight tour to visit.
Mabi Punch is a range of macerated soaking of fruit in rum, and sources rum from Papa Rouyo. It’s bottled based on a traditional Guadeloupean punch that was made island-wide.
Distillerie Longueteau
At Capesterre Belle Eau, the Longueteau family has been producing agricultural rum on this estate since 1895. It’s said to be Guadeloupe’s only 100% self-sufficient distillery, producing blue and red sugarcane from plantations at the foot of the Grande Soufrière range. The guided tour in French visits the main house, a short walk to the sugarcane plantation, into the distillery for production methods, and finishes at the shop for a tasting. They produce white rum, aged rum, limited editions, punches, and liqueurs under the Longueteau and Papillon brands.
Rhumerie Karukera
Next to Longueteau, and established in 2005, Karukera produces white rum and aged rum from other Guadeloupe distilleries. They mature and finish rum primarily in ex-cognac casks. Karukera’s unique microclimate can increase the ABV as the rum ages. Visitors comment on the cellar, the variety in their shop, and the good prices for their rum.
On the drive to the next distillery is a recommended stop at the House of Kassaverie, where you can enjoy savoury cassava dumplings.
Distillerie Bologne
In the southern seaside town and region’s capital city of Basse-Terre is Bologne distillery. It’s the oldest in Guadeloupe since 1887. On the slopes of the Grande Soufrière volcano, Bologne is the only distillery in Guadeloupe that farms black sugarcane. You might have seen the Bologne Black Cane bottling.
It was also the first distillery in Guadeloupe to release an organic rum and focus on organic farming practices and single cane varietal bottlings. You might get a tour guide that speaks both French and English. And, bottle prices are better here than duty-free or at a local supermarket.
Afterward, Basse-Terre has a few spots for lunch, dinner, or a Rhum punch – try Puncherie-JPJF Restaurant or Puncherie JPJF, both are near each other.
There are many other places to see on your road trip when in Pointe-à-Pitre we recommend The Memorial ACTe, also called MACTe, it’s a modern museum of historical exhibits on the Caribbean’s slave trade & indigenous people as told from a French perspective. It provides context to how these islands came to be.
As an epic adventure draws to a close, foodies can make sure they don’t miss some of the tasty delicacies found at roadside local vendor stands, stores, or restaurants. Try the local coconut sorbet, and kassav pancakes stuffed with coconut. There’s Tourment d’amour, a pastry filled with coconut, or guava jam. And, coconut doukoun cake or Le Pudding Antillais. Why not try them with a local Guadeloupe rum, pair them, and see which are the best?
Before leaving, perhaps if you haven’t filled up on rum from the distilleries (best prices), there are a couple of rum shops near Pointe-à-Pitre like Cave à rhum in Baie-Mahault if you’re looking for a special edition.
We recommend researching your trip dates for any seasonal highlights like:
- Caribbean Rum & Food Festival, Guadeloupe 24-25th February 2024
- Terre de Blues Festival in Marie-Galante 18-20th May, 2024
- The West Indies Green Festival, Le Moule, 22-23rd June, 2024
- Creole Jazz Festival in August
- Guadeloupe Carnival in January
For more practical information visit Guadeloupe tourism
Distilleries often have a lunch break, tours are best reserved, and check nearby facilities as locations are rural.
And, plan your trip using our Guadeloupe Map
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