1 July 2026 · By Daniel

Suriname as a travel destination

For travellers looking for more than sun and sand

Some countries you visit. Suriname you experience. No mass tourism. No queues at the entrance. No photogenic viewpoints where you wait half an hour for your turn. Suriname is raw, unspoilt and surprisingly easy to travel, if you know where to look. And that's exactly what Grietjebie is for.

Ninety percent jungle

Suriname is one of the greenest countries on earth. More than ninety percent of it is untouched tropical rainforest, virgin forest barely marked by human hands, with a biodiversity that still catches scientists off guard. Jaguars, giant anteaters, sloths, scarlet ibises, caimans and more than 700 bird species. This isn't a zoo. This is the real jungle.

And you can go into it. Multi-day jungle tours take you deep into the interior, by korjaal, a traditional dugout canoe, up the Upper Suriname River, sleeping in a hammock between the trees, waking to howler monkeys and the grietjebie arriving to call you personally. From rapids you swim in to night walks where your eyes don't quite believe what they're seeing.

This isn't for everyone. But for those willing, it stays with you.

A UNESCO city centre you walk through

Paramaribo is not a city of skyscrapers. It's a city of wood. The historic centre is on the UNESCO World Heritage list and is one of the best-preserved colonial cities in South America. Wooden buildings from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, built in a style you won't find anywhere else, Dutch colonial with Caribbean influences.

Het Presidentieel Paleis aan het Onafhankelijkheidsplein

Walk along the Waterkant, the oldest street in the city, right on the Suriname River. Visit Fort Zeelandia, where the history of Suriname began. Stop at the Keizerstraat, where a mosque and a synagogue stand literally side by side, and have done for centuries, in peace. And finish at the Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, the largest wooden church in the western hemisphere. Just wood. And magnificent.

Paramaribo is a city you discover on foot. At your own pace. Or with a local guide who knows every story.

Food that stops you talking

Suriname may be the only country in the world where you can eat Javanese, Hindustani, Creole, Chinese and Brazilian food in a single street, and all of it is the real thing. No fusion cooking, no trendy reinterpretations. Just recipes that have been passed down for generations.

On Sunday mornings the markets fill up. The Saoenah Market in Paramaribo North for Javanese-Surinamese dishes, saoto, satay, berkat and fresh dawet. The Chinese Sunday Market at Soeng Ngie for dim sum still warm in your hand and roast duck that is genuinely famous. Come early, because when it's gone, it's gone.

And then there are the restaurants. From roadside warungs to upscale places looking out over the river. Suriname is a food destination without ever calling itself one.

A culture you won't find anywhere else

Indigenous peoples, Creoles, Hindustanis, Javanese, Chinese and many other communities, all in one place, all Surinamese. Nowhere else in the world will you find a mix of cultures living so easily alongside and with one another. No tension, no separation. Just together.

You see that mix everywhere. In the food. In the languages. In the music. In the way people deal with each other. Suriname is a lesson in culture without a classroom.

History that reaches you

Behind the colourful facades and the lively markets sits a history that runs deeper than most travellers expect. Jodensavanne, the oldest Jewish settlement in the Americas, hidden in the jungle along the Suriname River. Mariënburg, once the largest sugar empire in the country, now an imposing ruin that says nothing and tells everything. Fort Nieuw-Amsterdam, from fortification to prison to open-air museum.

Suikerplantage Mariënburg in Commewijne

These aren't dusty pages from a history book. These are places you walk through and feel what happened.

And then: the language

Suriname is the only country outside Europe where Dutch is the official language, in a tropical setting. But you'll manage in English too. Sranantongo is the everyday language in the street, alongside Sarnami, Javanese and half a dozen others. Most people working in tourism speak English well, and menus and signs are easy enough to follow. A country where several languages sit in one conversation without anyone finding it strange.

Why Suriname now?

Suriname is at a turning point. The government has named tourism a priority sector. There is investment in infrastructure, a presidential working group is building a national tourism authority, and at the Vakantiebeurs travel fair in the Netherlands Suriname presented itself as a serious destination.

But the mass tourism hasn't arrived. And that's exactly why now is the moment. While it's still raw. While it's still real. While you can still say: I was there before everyone else was.

Ready to discover Suriname?

Grietjebie brings the best of Suriname together in one place: tours, places to stay, food, culture and history. From a walking tour through the UNESCO city centre to a multi-day jungle expedition. From a Sunday market tour to a night beside the rapids.

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