Most sights lie in a strip between the Demerara River and the Botanical Gardens, along the Avenue of the Republic and Main Street. Start early, before the heat, break at midday, and finish on the seawall in the late afternoon.
1 St George’s Cathedral
The Anglican cathedral, designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield and consecrated in the 1890s, rises more than 40 metres and is regularly described as one of the tallest timber buildings in the world. It is built largely of local greenheart. The interior is airy and flooded with light, with a chandelier given by Queen Victoria.
Practical: Free; donations welcome. Usually open in the daytime, closed during services to visitors. Allow 30 minutes.
2 Stabroek Market
A cast-iron hall of 1881 with a four-faced clock tower, on the site where a market has stood since Dutch times. Inside and around it everything is sold, from gold jewellery to fish, and the river stelling behind it is where speedboats cross the Demerara. It is the busiest and most chaotic corner of the city.
Practical: Free. Go in the morning, with little on you and ideally with a guide; pickpocketing and snatch theft are a known problem here.
3 City Hall and the Avenue of the Republic
City Hall, completed in 1889, is a fantasy of Gothic towers and verandas in wood. It has been under long-term restoration. Along the same avenue stand the High Court of 1887, with a statue of Queen Victoria in front, St Andrew’s Kirk — one of the oldest buildings in the city — and the National Library.
Practical: Exteriors only for most buildings. A 20-minute walk end to end.
4 Parliament Building
A domed, colonnaded building of the 1830s facing the river end of the avenue, where the National Assembly meets. Two cannon from the Crimean War stand in the forecourt.
Practical: Exterior viewing; interior visits only by prior arrangement.
5 The seawall
The wall that keeps the Atlantic out of the city runs for many kilometres along the coast. In Georgetown it is promenade, playground and meeting place: joggers at dawn, families and food stalls on Sunday evenings, and thousands of kites at Easter. The sea itself is brown with river silt — this is not a swimming beach.
Practical: Free. Best in the late afternoon and on Sunday evening, when it is busy; avoid lonely stretches and after dark.
6 Botanical Gardens, manatees and the zoo
Laid out in the 1870s, the gardens have avenues of palms, ponds of Victoria amazonica lilies and a group of West Indian manatees that come to the bank to be fed handfuls of grass. The birding is excellent early in the day. The small zoo inside the gardens concentrates on Guyanese species.
Practical: Gardens free; the zoo charges a small fee. Go at opening time for birds. Allow 1½–2 hours.
7 Promenade Gardens and the 1763 Monument
The Promenade Gardens are a formal Victorian garden in the centre, good for a shady pause. In the Square of the Revolution stands the 1763 Monument, a bronze of Cuffy, leader of the Berbice uprising of enslaved people and a national hero.
Practical: Free. 20–30 minutes each.
8 The museums
The Guyana National Museum has natural history, a model of the extinct giant sloth and exhibits on gold and transport. The Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, in a fine wooden house on Main Street, covers the Indigenous peoples. Castellani House holds the National Art Gallery. Nearby is the Umana Yana, a tall conical thatched meeting house built by Wai-Wai craftsmen.
Practical: Free or a small charge. Typically open weekdays and Saturday mornings; hours change, so check locally. About 45 minutes each.
9 Demerara rum: the El Dorado distillery
Demerara Distillers at Diamond, on the East Bank about half an hour from the centre, is the last of the country’s sugar-estate distilleries and the home of El Dorado. Its heritage tour shows working wooden stills that are unique in the rum world, followed by a tasting.
Practical: By reservation, on set weekdays; a fee applies. Allow about 3 hours with travel. Closed shoes are required.
10 Short trips: Santa Mission and the hoatzin rivers
Santa Mission is an Arawak village reached by boat along the black-water Kamuni Creek, usually combined with the nearby Arrowpoint resort. In the other direction, dawn boat trips on the Mahaica River look for the hoatzin, the national bird.
Practical: Half-day or full-day trips arranged through local operators; not on GetYourGuide.
Guided tours: Georgetown
Flight & guided visit from €623 Kaieteur Falls: Scenic Flight and Guided Tour from Georgetown
The classic Guyana day out: a small-aircraft flight over unbroken rainforest to the airstrip beside the falls, a guided walk to several viewpoints and a light meal before the flight back. About four hours in all; flights depend on weather and on enough passengers.
Boat trip from €192 Essequibo River: 5-Island and Town Hopping Tour with Lunch
A long day by road and speedboat on one of South America’s great rivers: Fort Island and Fort Kyk-Over-Al, the mining town of Bartica, Sloth Island or Aruwai Resort, and a swim at Baracara Falls, with lunch included.
