Georgetown Travel Guide: Wooden Heritage & Kaieteur Falls

Quick decisions

How many days? Three days allow you to walk Georgetown's Victorian wooden landmarks and markets, watch West Indian manatees and birds in the Botanical Gardens, and fly to Kaieteur Falls or cruise the Essequibo River to Fort Island.
Where should I stay? Base yourself in Kingston along the Atlantic Seawall for full-service waterfront hotels, or along tree-shaded Main Street in Cummingsburg for heritage wooden lodges.
Do I need a car? No. Registered hotel taxis move easily between Kingston, Cummingsburg, the Botanical Gardens, and nearby Eugene F. Correia (Ogle) Airport.
Best for: Nineteenth-century Demerara greenheart timber architecture, urban birdwatching and manatees, Afro- and Indo-Guyanese cuisine, Demerara rum, and day flights to Kaieteur Falls.
Before you go: Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America; the official currency is the Guyanese dollar (GYD), and Yellow Fever vaccination proof is required when arriving from endemic countries.
Getting around: Long-haul jets land at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (GEO) 41 kilometres south at Timehri, while regional flights and bush planes to Kaieteur depart from Eugene F. Correia Airport (OGL) 10 kilometres east at Ogle.
Continue your trip: Combine Georgetown with an interior eco-lodge trip to the Rupununi Savannah, a coastal trip to Paramaribo, or regional flights to Bogotá.

Overview

Founded by the British in 1781, laid out by the French as Longchamps in 1782, developed by the Dutch as Stabroek in 1784, and renamed Georgetown on 29 April 1812, the capital of Guyana occupies a flat coastal polder plain where the Demerara River meets the Atlantic Ocean. Because the city sits one to two metres below high-tide sea level behind the 1855 Georgetown Seawall, its wide avenues are bisected by historic Dutch drainage canals lined with royal palms, saman trees, and painted nineteenth-century wooden mansions built of native greenheart timber, earning it the enduring title of the Garden City of the Caribbean.

Getting there

International flights arrive at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (IATA: GEO) at Timehri, 41 kilometres south along the East Bank Demerara Highway, while regional Caribbean services and domestic flights to Kaieteur Falls and the Rupununi operate from Eugene F. Correia International Airport (IATA: OGL) at Ogle, just 15 minutes east of downtown.

Where to stay

Stay in Kingston near the Atlantic Seawall, the 1830 Lighthouse, and the Umana Yana for ocean breezes and modern hotels, along tree-shaded Main Street in Cummingsburg for restored nineteenth-century colonial lodges, or in Queenstown beside the Botanical Gardens.

Things to do

Admire the 43.5-metre wooden spire of Sir Arthur Blomfield's 1892 St. George's Cathedral and Father Ignatius Scoles's 1889 Gothic Revival City Hall, photograph the 1881 cast-iron clock tower of Stabroek Market, feed grass to West Indian manatees among giant Victoria amazonica lilies in the 1879 Botanical Gardens, tour the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology and Castellani House, and take a 50-minute bush flight to the 226-metre single drop of Kaieteur Falls.

Food and drink

Georgetown's kitchen blends Amerindian, African, East Indian, Portuguese, Chinese, and British traditions: taste Indigenous-inspired pepperpot slow-cooked in bitter cassava cassareep, coconut-milk cook-up rice, Indo-Guyanese dhal puri roti and Seven Curry served on a water-lily leaf, crisp egg balls with mango sour, flaky pineapple pine tarts, and aged El Dorado Demerara rums distilled in historic wooden stills.

Culture

Although geographically anchored on the northeastern shoulder of South America and bordered by the Amazonian rainforest of the Guiana Shield, Georgetown belongs culturally and linguistically to the English-speaking Caribbean, hosting the headquarters of CARICOM, test cricket at Bourda and Providence, Easter kite flying on the Seawall, and the colourful Republic Day parades of Mashramani every 23 February.

Weather by month

Georgetown is warmest in October, with average highs around 32°C, and coldest in January, when nights drop to about 23°C. June is the wettest month, with rain on about 23 days.

Warmest monthOctober · 32°C

Coolest nightsJanuary · 23°C

Wettest monthJune · 23 rain days

Average temperature and rainfall in Georgetown by month
Month	Low	High	Rain	Rainy days
Jan	23°C	29°C	112 mm	16 d
Feb	23°C	29°C	70 mm	10 d
Mar	24°C	30°C	70 mm	10 d
Apr	24°C	30°C	84 mm	12 d
May	25°C	30°C	133 mm	19 d
Jun	24°C	30°C	161 mm	23 d
Jul	24°C	30°C	147 mm	21 d
Aug	24°C	31°C	105 mm	15 d
Sep	25°C	32°C	63 mm	9 d
Oct	25°C	32°C	63 mm	9 d
Nov	25°C	31°C	84 mm	12 d
Dec	24°C	30°C	126 mm	18 d