Discover Suriname

Suriname is the smallest independent country in South America by area and population, 163,820 square kilometres on the north coast between Guyana and French Guiana with 541,638 people at the 2012 census, almost half of them in Paramaribo, and over 90 per cent of its territory rainforest, the second-highest proportion in the world. It lies two to five degrees north of the equator, hot and wet all year with humidity between 80 and 90 per cent; the coast is mud bank, mangrove and lagoon, the interior rolling hills of the Guiana Shield rising to Julianatop at 1,280 metres, and the Brokopondo reservoir behind the Afobaka dam of 1964 covers 1,560 square kilometres, nearly one per cent of the country. Sixteen per cent of the land is parks and lakes, the Central Suriname Nature Reserve of 16,000 square kilometres a World Heritage Site since 2000.

Indigenous peoples were here from 3000 BC; the Dutch traded at Parmurbo from 1613, the English planted from 1650, and in 1667 the Dutch took Fort Willoughby and, at Breda, kept Suriname while the English kept New Amsterdam, soon New York. Some 300,000 enslaved Africans worked the sugar until abolition on 1 July 1863, still kept as Ketikoti; indentured labourers followed from India from 1873 and Java from 1890, which is why no group is a majority today: 27.4 per cent Hindustani, 21.7 per cent Maroon, 13 to 15 per cent Javanese, Creoles, Chinese, Amerindians. Dutch is the official language, the only such state outside Europe; Sranan Tongo is the lingua franca. Independence came on 25 November 1975, a sergeants' coup on 25 February 1980, the December murders of fifteen critics at Fort Zeelandia in 1982, a civil war from 1986 to 1992, and a first woman president in July 2025.

For the visitor it is Paramaribo's wooden Dutch inner city, a World Heritage Site since 2002, with a synagogue of 1723 beside a mosque; the Upper Suriname River's Maroon villages by boat; Brownsberg above the reservoir; the rapids and cock-of-the-rock of Raleighvallen; leatherbacks at Galibi; and roti, pom and Javanese warungs. Traffic drives on the left, the currency is the Surinamese dollar, an online tourist card and an entry fee are needed before arrival, and both advisories rate the country as needing normal precautions.

Do I need a visa?

Not for tourism up to 90 days, but you need a single-entry tourist card or e-visa applied for online before arrival, the entry fee of about US$54 paid in advance with the voucher shown at check-in, and the ICF form filed within three days of travel.

Which airport?

Johan Adolf Pengel International at Zanderij, 45 kilometres south of Paramaribo; domestic flights to the interior use Zorg en Hoop in the city.

What currency?

The Surinamese dollar, floating since 2021; bring US dollars or euros, not pounds, and expect cards only in the major hotels.

Which side of the road?

The left, with your licence and an international driving permit together in the car.

How do I reach the interior?

By river boat or small aircraft with an established tour company; Galibi is an hour and a half by boat from Albina.

Is it safe?

Both advisories say normal precautions, with real cautions about Paramaribo after dark, the Palm Garden, minibuses, street taxis and unaccompanied interior trips.

What are the emergency numbers?

Police 115, ambulance 113, fire 110.