Deshaies Botanic Garden and Beach

[CarlieInSF]

Anyone been to the botanic garden and beach?  We have a Dec itinerary with Guadalupe and it sounds like using the ship excursion is best. The gardens and beach sound nice but wondered if anyone has been recently?

[one.new.island.a.year]

This is too late for the OP, but for anyone else, we took this tour in Jan 2023. We had about an hour at the botanical gardens and 30 minutes at the beach. The water was chilly and waves a bit rough, so 30 minutes was ok. If the weather was different, we would have wanted more beach time. We spent a LOT of time on the bus. 
 

The gardens were nice. We followed a one-way path and saw colorful birds and flamingos along the way. Many of the plans and trees were labeled (in French). There was also a waterfall and koi pond. 
 

They offered a small snack, but I’d recommend bringing water and a small snack or granola bar if you need it. Remember to bring Euros if you plan to make any purchases or tip. 
 

It was a nice way to see the island. There is not much to see in the port area. If you don’t book this tour, I’d recommend booking another ship tour for this port. 

[CruiserTarheel]

This tour on HAL is listed for 4 1/2 hours.  How long is the bus trip to and from Deshaies?  30 minutes at the beach won't be enough for us.   Thanks!

[KYBOB]

We did a similar tour the first of January but it was to the gardens and to a rum distillery. It was also chilly and glad we did not go to the beach. We though just a little more time could have been spent at the gardens, the rum distillery also what looked like another garden with several very large sculptures. Our guide hearded us off to the distillery and then spent an inordinate amount of time expounding her knowledge of the rum distilling process. By the time she finished, there were also a lot of people there from several busses and the parking lot was full of cars so the gift shop was packed. We did not even get to do a tasting because now she was ready to go. We quickly bought some rum and ran to the bus. Our time here could also have been longer by an hour. The tour was only 4.5 hours long but with the driving time this tour needed to be more like 5.5 to 6 hours long. It could be I am just getting tired of at the non shopping stops where the drivers do not get any kick back the quick get off the bus and you have to do a 4 min. mile run to see anything but then the shopping stops we spend way to much time and do not leave until everyone has bought something.   

[Sasksilver]

On 2/5/2023 at 6:40 PM, KYBOB said:

We did a similar tour the first of January but it was to the gardens and to a rum distillery. It was also chilly and glad we did not go to the beach. We though just a little more time could have been spent at the gardens, the rum distillery also what looked like another garden with several very large sculptures. 

Thank you for this review. I'm looking at the same excursion for March 2024. I truly enjoy botanical gardens and try to visit when it's an option. The excursion indicates at the rum factory that one follows the guide through the estate. Was that your experience?

Also, was there anything worth seeing close to the port?