12 October 2026 · By Daniel

Sun, nature and Surinamese food while it’s cold at home

It’s autumn. It’s getting colder, darker, quieter. You put on a heavy coat to pop out for something and you’re back indoors by half past four. Somewhere at the back of your mind it starts: sun. Real sun. Not an afternoon of it, but weeks. There’s a place where the sun shines all year. Where you walk out of the door in a t-shirt, where the food takes you by surprise, and where you come home after a fortnight with stories nobody else has. Suriname.

30 degrees, all year round

Suriname has no winter. No autumn. No spring. Warm is all it does. During the day the temperature hovers around 30 degrees, with a breeze that keeps it bearable. The country has two dry seasons: February to April, and August to November. But outside those it’s still sunny enough to be outdoors every day.

In December and January there are short showers, but they rarely last more than half an hour. Half an hour later the sun is back out and life picks up where it left off.

Nature that leaves you quiet

93% of Suriname is covered in tropical rainforest. The rest is savannah, mangrove and rivers wider than you can take in at a glance. This isn’t nature you look at from a minibus. This is nature you travel through, sleep under and wake up in.

In the interior you travel by korjaal, a traditional dugout canoe, along the Upper Suriname River, past rocks and rapids that have held the same shape for centuries. You sleep on an island where the only sound is the jungle.

Ananasberg

Closer to Paramaribo it’s every bit as beautiful. At Peperpot Nature Park, half an hour from the city, you walk through former plantation land that’s now a nature reserve. Monkeys in the trees, more birds than you can count, and now and then a sloth in no particular hurry. In the evening you take a kayak into the creeks and spot caimans by torchlight.

In the west of Suriname lies Bigi Pan, a lake ringed by mangrove forest where flamingos and ibises turn the sky pink and red. Two days away from everything.

And then the dolphins. Late in the afternoon, as the sun starts to drop over the Suriname River, they appear. Dozens of them swimming around your boat while the sky turns orange.

Kayaking in Peperpot Nature Park

Morning or evening, both are worth it.

Bigi Pan Bird Paradise

Where the birds are in charge.

Dolphins on the Suriname River

The sun sets, the dolphins come.

Commewijne: green, quiet and close by

Half an hour from Paramaribo lies Commewijne. A district of former plantations, wide rivers and a quiet you don’t expect so close to the city.

At Sendang Redjo you spend a day beside a beautiful lake, surrounded by green and the sound of birds you’ve never heard before. Simply doing nothing.

Sendang Redjo Eco Retreat en Nature Park

Want a bit more structure? By boat you travel past plantations and mangrove forest, or you visit Museum Bakkie on the Warappakreek. By bus and boat from Paramaribo to a former coffee plantation holding the most remarkable private collection of plantation history in Suriname. A guided tour, the garden, and lunch made by Marsha. A day that stays with you.

Museum Bakkie aan de Warappakreek

And the best part: you can stay in Commewijne. On the river bank at Greenheart Resort De Plantage, or at Sutopia Resort close to Peperpot Nature Park. Both places serve local food and let you wake up in green surroundings that feel like another world.

Sutopia Resort

Ready to properly switch off?

Greenheart Resort De Plantage

The jungle starts at your door.

Culture that stays with you

Suriname is where a mosque and a synagogue stand side by side, where every corner turns up a different kitchen, and where cultures don’t live next to each other but with each other. That diversity isn’t something you read about in a guidebook. It’s something you taste, hear and feel the moment you arrive.

In Drepada, a Maroon village in the interior, you learn to stitch alongside the women of Talking Prints, you fish the traditional way, and you end the day at the river.

At Jodensavanne you walk through the ruins of the oldest Jewish settlement in the Americas. A brick synagogue from 1685, in the middle of the jungle. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2023.

Paramaribo: a city that isn’t what you expect

The centre of Paramaribo is itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Wooden buildings in colonial Surinamese style, with verandas, shutters and colours you won’t see anywhere else. But it isn’t an open-air museum. People live here, work here and eat here.

You explore the city on foot, by bike or by bus.

Bike tour Paramaribo

Ready to discover Paramaribo on two wheels?

Paramaribo on foot

Where every street has a story.

Paramaribo by bus

Three hours through the finest wooden city there is

At the Saoenah Market you walk past stalls of Javanese food, fresh fruit and handmade goods. On the Waterkant you sit in the evening with a Parbo beer and watch the river. The pace is different here. Slower. Better.

And if you want to sleep in the heart of the city: Prins Hendrik Suites is within walking distance of the Waterkant and Independence Square, in a restored wooden building. Or choose Greenheart Boutique Hotel, a hotel built entirely of wood with a pool, on the Costerstraat. Two places that breathe Paramaribo. Would you rather have a place of your own? In Paramaribo South, twenty minutes from the centre, you’ll find the apartments at Nosa’s Guesthouse — your own entrance, your own kitchen, and a neighbourhood where you see how Paramaribo actually lives.

Prins Hendrik Suites

Quiet in the middle of the city. Your suite is waiting.

Greenheart Boutique Hotel

Sleeping in the wooden heart of Paramaribo.

Nosa's Gastenverblijf

Your own place in Paramaribo South.

Food you’ll still be thinking about

In Suriname you don’t eat to live. You live to eat. The cooking is a fine mix of Javanese, Hindustani, Creole, Chinese and Indigenous. The whole world on one plate. Roti with masala chicken, nasi rames with ketjap chicken, pom from the oven, saoto soup with egg, rice with bang bang fish and local vegetables. And that’s barely the start.

Your plate is always full, the flavour always lands, and the bill always comes in lower than you expected. You eat at local places where the menu changes daily and where the owner remembers your name.

Eethuis LIV — Surinamese food the way it’s meant to be

Warm people, not just warm weather

Surinamese people are known for their hospitality. Strangers start conversations in the street. Your guide tells you stories that aren’t in any guidebook. The owner of the guesthouse asks how your day was. It’s a warmth that doesn’t come from the weather but from the people.

You feel it most strongly in the interior. On Kumalu Dream Island, where you stay three or four days on an island in the Upper Suriname River, your host is also your guide, your cook and your storyteller.

Tapawatra sula

Every country has its own charm

The Canary Islands have the certainty. Curaçao has the beaches. Suriname has something none of those destinations has: the combination of jungle, river, culture and a kitchen that comes together nowhere else in the world. It isn’t a country you visit for the resort or the cocktail bar. It’s a country that takes you into a story. And that story goes home with you.

Practical: 10 days in Suriname

“Suriname isn’t a weekend away. The flight from Amsterdam is nine hours and the country deserves more than a quick circuit. Ten days is the sweet spot.”

Days 1-5: Paramaribo and the surrounding area. Exploring the city on foot or by bike, Peperpot Nature Park, the dolphin tour at sunset, Museum Bakkie via the Commewijne river, and a day by the water at Sendang Redjo. Stay in Paramaribo or in green Commewijne.

Days 6-10: The interior. Three or four days on an island in the Upper Suriname River, a day with the Maroon community in Drepada, or west to Bigi Pan and the Maratakka river.

Giant otters in the Maratakka river

Or rather do it the other way round? Start in the interior and finish in Paramaribo. You set the pace. Staying longer is fine too. Resting, enjoying the food and the sun on your skin. Suriname is in no hurry.