Saul
©
Saul

Saul

Remote French Guiana rainforest village and trekking base inside Guiana Amazonian Park.

Saül is a small village of a few hundred people sitting in the heart of the Guiana Amazonian Park, accessible only by light aircraft from Cayenne (about 45 minutes). It serves as the main trekking base for the territory's interior and is the best place in French Guiana to experience pristine primary rainforest with some infrastructure around it.

The village has a handful of gîtes (simple guesthouses offering half-board), a small shop, the wooden Église Saint-Antoine de Padoue at its centre, and a network of well-marked trails maintained by the national park. Short walks like the Saut Léodate waterfall trail and the steep Sentier du Belvédère — which gives a rare canopy view — are accessible in half a day. Longer routes, like the Grand Boucle du Mont La Fumée, lead deeper into the park. Most visitors hire a guide from the village; trails can be disorienting without local knowledge, and wildlife sightings improve dramatically with an expert eye.

Tapirs, giant anteaters, armadillos, and multiple monkey species live in the surrounding forest. Birdwatching is exceptional — toucans, macaws, harpy eagles, and hundreds of other species. Insects are spectacular and sometimes formidable.

Saül is at its best during the long dry season (July–November). Rain in the wet season doesn't stop visits but makes trails muddy and some routes impassable. Book accommodation and flights well ahead in high season.

Guide

Getting There

Saul is accessible only by light aircraft from Cayenne. Air Guyane operates scheduled flights several times a week; the flight takes about 45 minutes over unbroken rainforest. Book well in advance, especially during the dry season (July–November), as the small planes fill up quickly.

There is no road access to Saul. The airstrip is the only way in and out.

Guide

Things to Do

The point of coming to Saül is the forest, not the village. A network of marked trails radiates from the airstrip into the surrounding Guiana Amazonian Park — the only primary rainforest in French territory you can hike independently. The village itself has a single church, two small shops, and a handful of guesthouses. Everything else means putting on boots and walking into the trees.

Guide

When to Go

Saül has two seasons: dry (roughly July to November) and wet (December to June, with the heaviest rain in May). The dry season is the standard window — flights are more reliable, the trails are walkable, and the canopy birds are at their most active. Even then, expect afternoon rain.

In the wet season the trails turn to mud, several streams become unfordable, and Air Guyane flights can be cancelled for days at a time when the airstrip is unusable. Visitors do still come — the forest is greener, the rivers are full, and the village is much quieter — but plan extra buffer days at both ends.

Daytime temperatures stay in the high 20s to mid-30s C year-round, and humidity rarely drops below 80%. Nights are warm.