When I told people I was going to the Guadeloupe Islands, the majority of them immediately asked, “Where?” The islands in the French Antilles in the Caribbean are not yet a popular destination for Americans, with most of the visitors from Europe and speaking much better French than I do, but all that could change soon. Guadeloupe was featured as #11 on the NY Times’ 52 Places to Go in 2016, Norwegian Air now offers (cheap!) direct flights from JFK, Baltimore, & Boston, and if that’s not enough to spark interest, the internet will also be reading my posts about the islands over the next few weeks.

For my family’s trip to Guadeloupe last month, we decided to split up our stay into two hotels in different areas to see more of the islands without too much driving each day. For our hotel on Basse-Terre, the larger, greener island, we chose Langley Resort Fort Royal near the town of Deshaies.

Because it’s relatively low on tourism compared to many other islands in the Caribbean, Guadeloupe is not scattered with all-inclusive resorts. Langley Resort Fort Royal is the only hotel on Basse-Terre with an all-inclusive option. We opted out of this, as we wanted to explore the nearby areas and local culture, but breakfast was included each morning.

My parents both gave the breakfast buffet a 10 out of 10 by the first morning. We had an à la carte lunch that first day as well and the burgers were fantastic. Instead of doing dinner one of the nights in the hotel restaurant, which would have been about a €40 a person buffet, we ordered sandwiches, pizza, salads, and snacks from the beach-side bar, where there was live entertainment some of the nights. We were given free Planteurs {rum & guava juice} when we checked in and ordered many more after the fact.

For the first night, as we arrived pretty late in the evening, the four of us stayed in a suite together with a balcony and a seaview. We moved to our beachfront bungalows for the rest of our stay early the next day. In addition to 133 seaview rooms in a main building, the property has 82 bungalows – 14 of them beachfront – and two of them were ours. We all loved staying there. The beach in front of the bungalows felt even more private than the hotel’s other beach right next door. Falling asleep to the ocean waves is one of my favorite things, and though I grew up at the beach, I’d never slept that close to the ocean at night.

The grounds are spacious and it did not feel crowded at all. It rained a little while we were there, as it’s the Caribbean, but there were plenty of covered outdoor seating areas to hang out in for a few moments. The rooms were small but if you’re spending your time in a hotel room while out of the country, you’re doing it all wrong.

Langley Resort offers plenty of watersports for those guests more athletic than me. I only spent a few minutes attempting the stand-up paddle board because I was failing miserably. My dad, on the other hand, did a “stand-up” job.

The staff at Langley Resort was fantastic. They were kind enough to listen to me try to speak in French and then asked me in French if I would prefer to speak in English. Their suggestions for what to do outside the resort made our trip as they recommended restaurants, waterfalls, and snorkling areas to explore. The open-air reception area was also one of the places where wifi worked perfectly, along with the restaurant.

We were all sad to leave Langley Resort, but we were thankful to have spent a wonderful three days there. If you go, please say “bonjour” to my goat and chicken friends around the parking lot and all of the shy crabs and lizards.

Learn more about Langley Resort Fort Royal and reserve on Booking.com here (affiliate).

xx

This post contains an affiliate link, which means that at no additional cost to you, I earn a tiny commission when you purchase something (in this case, a night at the hotel) so that I can continue to bring you great travel content for free!

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Merci beaucoup, Langley Resort Fort Royal, for hosting us one of the nights. Opinions are always my own.