How to cross the Saint Laurent du Maroni – Albina border between French Guyana and Suriname

Here you have another quick post concerning this time the seldom trodden land border crossing between French Guyana and Suriname, specifically between Saint Laurent du Maroni and Albina, actually the only available legal transfer at present (October 2022).

If you are coming from Cayenne, I would recommend you to have a look at this covoiturage (car pooling) website, called Blada. Buses indeed are hard to find, expensive and quite intermittent. No clear info detected online to be honest. There should be a bus company called BEST from the Gare routière (central bus station) serving the stretch Cayenne – Saint Laurent du Maroni, with probably one bus in the morning and one in the afternoon. Cannot confirm though, sorry. Just found this page (in French) about the topic.

• IN SAINT LAURENT DU MARONI

Head for the Débarcadère de la Glacière (700 meters from the main harbour towards the city centre), where small canoes are leaving all day long at short notice. Don’t worry, sailors will really hunt you down the moment they spot you from afar. They will propose you a 5 € ride, which can be lowered to 4 € or even 3 € according to your luck and skills. In the end I was charged 4 €. The ride across the Maroni river (majestic) is quite fast and takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes. You are eventually dropped at the Albina (Suriname) jetty, where you will be literally rushed at by dozens of money changers, taxi drivers and other middle men. Stand your ground.

• IN ALBINA

As mentioned above, you will be immediately attacked by a crowd of “wheeler-dealers”, telling you that everything is far away or not available (such as buses). My piece of advice is rejecting them all together and walking alone towards the Suriname immigration office, only a few blocks away (use GPS or ask around to regular people).

Just politely turn intruders down by saying you need some time to figure certain stuff out. At the police station the process should be quite rapid and straightforward (given the lack of regular tourists and the abundance of illegal immigrants), provided that you have already applied for and printed out the online Visa sheet from here. The entry fee is 25 USD + 8 USD service fee, for a maximum of 30 days I believe. In truth, I am not sure if you may request it on the spot and save the 8 USD. Other than that, I was not asked Covid or yellow fever certificates though (technically compulsory, be careful). You only need to fill out a migration form issued by them. Be aware that the migration office is not always open. Check out more info by contacting them at:

mail : cg-sme-cay@gov.sr

tel : +597594 28 21 60

After completing the process, again you will be troubled by a few more taxi drivers outside. Stand your ground and, if needed, head for the Exchange office placed in Wilhelmina Straat, close to everything. Please bear in mind there are no ATMs in town. Hence remember to bring enough Euros from French Guyana to exchange in Albina.

The third step is finding further transportation to Paramaribo. Although everybody (cops included) will tell you the opposite, in fact there are minivans leaving from the bus stop close to the jetty (in Martinstraat, near the Commissariaat Marowijne on Google). I am not sure about the timetable though, given the fact that nobody knew anything. The acceptable minivan (air conditioned) I managed to catch myself left at 12.50 h and took about 2 hours (with a couple of quick stops) to reach the capital, as far as the main bus station (near the central market and close to all amenities). It cost 150 SRD (about 5.50 €) whereas shared taxis might even extort you 300 or 400 SRD (roughly 15 €).

All in all it is quite an easy border crossing apart from the pushy sellers and the lack of information. Any further detail to complete this article is highly appreciated, of course.

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