Discover Suriname

63,250 square miles Highest point: Julianatop, 4,199 feet

Scattered across the remote interior, Suriname’s rainforest lodges — many of them accessible only by plane — take you right to the heart of the country’s wild, pristine beauty. Some are perched on mountaintops, others beside winding rivers of colabrown water, stained by fallen leaves. Birds and monkeys cry in the near distance, insects whir constantly, and oxygen pumped out by the rainforest fills your lungs. The biggest jewel in the crown is the Central Suriname Nature Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering nearly a tenth of the country, with habitats ranging from Amazonian rainforest to rocky savannahs and granite table mountains: the place to spot such eye-catching creatures as the vermilion cock-of-the-rock or the famous blue poison dart frog. If you can tear yourself away from the forest, Suriname’s coast also waits to be explored: like the nature reserve at Galibi and Matapica Beach, both sea turtle nesting sites on the Atlantic.

Suriname’s interior is an unspoiled landscape of mountains, savannahs, forests, and rivers.

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The blue poison dart frog is the most vivdly coloured inhabitant of Suriname's rainforests

Photo by ABDESIGN/iStockPhoto