The only English-speaking country in South America, and one of the last with genuinely no tourist infrastructure: a 226-metre waterfall with no railing, community-owned lodges in the rainforest, and savanna where jaguars are seen from vehicles.
Georgetown
A wooden city on a Dutch grid, sitting about a metre below high-tide level behind a sea wall. St George’s Cathedral is among the tallest freestanding timber buildings in the world; Stabroek Market under its iron clock tower is the loudest room in the country.
The coast and the food
The sea wall, the botanical gardens with their manatees, and the demerara sugar and rum that named themselves after the river. Eat pepperpot and roti in the same day — the demography of this country is on the plate.
Kaieteur
A small plane over unbroken forest to a grass strip, then twenty minutes on foot to the lip. The falls drop 226 metres in a single plunge — five times Niagara — and there is no railing. Golden frogs live inside the tank bromeliads at the edge.
South to Iwokrama
By small plane or by the long road south. Iwokrama is a million-acre reserve run as an experiment in sustainable forest management, and its canopy walkway sits thirty metres up in the crowns.
Canopy and night drive
Dawn on the walkway for macaws and toucans; after dark, a drive on the forest road, which is one of the better chances anywhere of seeing a wild jaguar from a vehicle. No promises — that is the point of wild.
Surama
An Amerindian village that owns and runs its own lodge, with guiding by people who grew up hunting the same ground. Climb Surama mountain at dawn for the savanna opening out below, and spend the afternoon in the village on its terms.
The Rupununi river
By boat to Rewa or Karanambu: giant river otters, black caiman, and — with luck and a still evening — the Victoria amazonica lilies opening on the oxbow lakes. Arapaima, the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world, are managed here under a community programme.
Savanna
The Rupununi opens into grassland cut by gallery forest, with the Kanuku mountains rising behind. Giant anteaters are genuinely findable here in the early morning, which is not true of many places.
A ranch day
The Rupununi ranches are working cattle operations with vaqueros, and riding out is the way to see the country. Afternoon: the Kanuku foothills, or a swim in a creek that has caiman in it and is used anyway.
Lethem, or back north
Lethem sits on the Brazilian border and is the overland exit toward Boa Vista. Otherwise fly back to Georgetown over the forest you have spent a week inside.
Out
International flights leave from Cheddi Jagan, an hour south of Georgetown. Allow for it — the road is single-carriageway and busy.
Good to know
Kaieteur is weather-dependent and flights are cancelled without much notice. Build a spare day into the Georgetown end rather than stacking it against your international departure.
The interior lodges are community-owned and book directly, often by email with slow replies. Book well ahead; capacity is genuinely small.
Venezuela claims the Essequibo region, which covers much of western Guyana. The area is administered by Guyana and travel within it is normal, but the border with Venezuela is not a crossing to plan around.
Shorter or longer?
Georgetown and Kaieteur only, with a day trip to the Essequibo river.
Exit overland at Lethem to Boa Vista and continue into the Brazilian Amazon.
Cross east at the Corentyne ferry to Nieuw Nickerie and on to Paramaribo.