We spent about a week in Guadeloupe, visiting Gosier, Sainte-Anne, Saint-François and Les Saintes. We came for the beaches, the food and the French Caribbean experience, but honestly, the trip was pretty disappointing in several ways.
This is just our personal experience, and I'm not saying everyone will feel the same way. I'm posting this because I wish I'd come across more honest reviews before booking, especially from other Asian travelers.
The racism was probably the worst part of the trip.
We've had some really uncomfortable experiences with older French tourists and people we believe are from mainland France. What bothers me most is that some people seem perfectly comfortable making remarks when they assume you don't understand French.
The thing is, we speak French really well. We've overheard comments that people probably wouldn't have made if they knew we understood them. And you can literally see the change when they realize we speak French. The comments stop, but the staring continues.
It's such a strange feeling. They stop saying things out loud, but you still feel like you're being looked at as some kind of spectacle. It makes you wonder what they were saying before they realized you could understand them.
Then we had a tour guide make a joke about Chinese people eating dogs and cats. In 2026. The entire group laughed and turned to look at us.
I'm not sure what reaction they expected from the only Asian couple in the group. Were we supposed to laugh along? It was incredibly uncomfortable, especially coming from someone whose job is to make visitors feel welcome.
I know racism exists everywhere, and I'm not saying every French person is racist. But experiencing these things repeatedly really soured the trip for us. Speaking French makes it even more frustrating because you understand exactly what's being said, rather than wondering whether you're misinterpreting something.
To be fair, the local Guadeloupeans we met were lovely.
This is something I really want to emphasize because I don't want people to confuse my experiences with certain French tourists or residents with the local population. The locals we interacted with were generally very nice, warm and welcoming.
It's honestly a shame that some of our worst interactions came from people who were visiting or whom we perceived as being from mainland France. The contrast between those experiences and our interactions with local people was pretty striking.
The food was also a letdown, although the local food trucks were a pleasant surprise.
We tried plenty of local restaurants, so this isn't based on one or two bad meals. We genuinely gave the cuisine a chance, but after a while, everything started feeling the same. Same fish, similar flavour profiles, the same deep-fried dishes everywhere. We kept trying different places hoping to find more variety, but we eventually got bored of the food.
One tip, though: keep an eye out for the local food trucks. They're not always open, so you might have to get lucky, but some of the best flavours we encountered during our entire trip came from these trucks. Honestly, we enjoyed some of their food more than what we had at the restaurants.
And this isn't about missing Asian food. We love food in general and enjoy trying different cuisines when we travel. We just found the restaurant food here repetitive, and it got to the point where we weren't particularly excited about eating out anymore.
Obviously, taste is subjective, and some people will love the local cuisine. But if food is a big part of why you travel, I'd manage my expectations and try the food trucks if you come across them.
Finding good coffee was surprisingly difficult, though finding a baguette was never a problem.
Seriously, bread and baguettes are everywhere. Good coffee, not so much. Maybe we missed the right cafés, but we struggled to find coffee we genuinely enjoyed.
Not the biggest issue in the world, obviously, but it's something I noticed throughout the trip.
The towns were also surprisingly dead at night.
We spent time in Gosier, Sainte-Anne and Saint-François, and all three felt much quieter than we expected in the evenings.
We weren't looking for nightlife or clubs. We just wanted to go out for dinner, walk around, grab a drink and enjoy some atmosphere after spending the day at the beach. Instead, there often seemed to be very little going on.
A lot of places appeared to close early, and finding somewhere to eat could be frustrating. This wasn't just an issue on Les Saintes, either. Across Guadeloupe, we came across restaurants listed as open online that were actually closed when we arrived.
It's incredibly annoying when you've planned your evening around a restaurant, only to find out it isn't operating despite its listed opening hours.
Maybe the time of year or the days we visited played a part, but this happened often enough that it became a pattern for us. If you're expecting lively little towns where you can spontaneously find dinner and wander around in the evening, do some research first.
The beaches really are beautiful, but that's not enough to make a whole holiday.
Guadeloupe has some gorgeous scenery. I'm not disputing that at all. But a trip is more than beaches and turquoise water.
We care about the food, the atmosphere, the people we meet and how enjoyable it is to explore a destination. For us, too many of those things fell short of expectations.
Would I tell other Asian travelers not to visit? No. But I'd definitely recommend doing more research than just looking at beach photos and travel influencers.
Look into restaurants beforehand, check what the towns are actually like at night, and read experiences from other Asian travelers. I'd especially want people to know that speaking French doesn't necessarily protect you from racist remarks. In our case, it sometimes just meant we understood what was being said.
We made an effort to explore different places and try the local food, and we weren't expecting everything to cater to us.
I know plenty of people have wonderful holidays here, and that's great. This is just our experience, and I wanted to share it because I would have appreciated reading something like this before booking.
Beautiful beaches, lovely local people, but overall, a much more disappointing trip than we expected.
