How to Get to Paramaribo: Johan Adolf Pengel (PBM) and Zorg en Hoop (ORG) Airports

Travellers reach Paramaribo either by air via its two complementary airports (one in the white-sand savanna at Zanderij 45 kilometres south, the other right inside the city residential grid) or overland along the coastal Guianas highway linking Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana.

1. Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (IATA: PBM) at Zanderij

Located 45 kilometres south of central Paramaribo in the district of Para, Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (IATA: PBM, ICAO: SMJP, universally called Zanderij) is Suriname's primary international gateway.

• Direct international connections: Year-round direct wide-body flights link Zanderij with Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) (operated by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Surinam Airways in roughly nine hours), while regional jets connect Paramaribo with Belém in northern Brazil, Curaçao, Aruba, Port of Spain (Trinidad), Georgetown (GEO), Cayenne, Panama City, and Miami.
• Airport transfers to Paramaribo: The 45-kilometre drive north along the Indira Gandhiweg or Martin Luther Kingweg takes 50 to 65 minutes depending on traffic entering the southern suburbs. Book a pre-arranged hotel shuttle or take an official airport taxi from the dispatcher desk outside arrivals to your Inner City or Kleine Waterstraat hotel.

2. Zorg en Hoop Airport (IATA: ORG) Inside Paramaribo

Situated right inside the southern residential neighbourhood of Zorg en Hoop just ten minutes by taxi from Onafhankelijkheidsplein, Zorg en Hoop Airport (ORG) handles two essential routes: daily twin-engine commuter flights operated by Trans Guyana Airways and Gum Air to Eugene F. Correia International Airport (OGL) in Georgetown, Guyana (a 75-minute hop along the Atlantic coast), and all domestic charter bush flights (Gum Air and Blue Wing Airlines) to interior rainforest airstrips in the Upper Suriname River, Palumeu, Kasikasima, and Kabalebo.

3. Overland River Ferries from Guyana and French Guiana

• East from French Guiana (Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni to Albina): Regular passenger pirogues and the car ferry cross the Maroni (Marowijne) River border between Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni and the Surinamese border town of Albina, connected to Paramaribo by a two-hour paved drive (140 kilometres) west along the East-West Link highway across the Commewijne and Jules Wijdenbosch bridges.
• West from Guyana (Moleson Creek to South Drain): The official MV Canawaima car and passenger ferry crosses the Courantyne River to South Drain near Nieuw Nickerie, followed by a 3.5-hour coastal drive (240 kilometres) east through Coronie and Boskamp into Paramaribo.